Area residents had the opportunity to get up close and personal with Arabian Horses and their owners Friday and Saturday with the Tails Tour coordinated by Joyce Maggio of Pleasant Hill.
The tour taking place at noon and 3 p.m., on Friday and Saturday, is part of the Arabian and Half-Arabian Horse Show hosted this weekend on the Missouri State Fairgrounds.
Maggio said this is the third year the show has been in Sedalia and each year it has included the free, behind-the-scenes tour.
“It’s a program that started with our Arabian Horse Association, which is based in Denver,” she added. “They are the governing body for the Arabian Horse in the United States. It’s a program that was developed to try and introduce people to the Arabian Horse. The ultimate goal would be to have more people become owners.”
On Friday Democrat, along with Sedalians Jill Fosnow, John Simmons and Rick and Jennifer Yeager took the free tour. There was also a tour at 3 p.m. Friday and two tours“ today at noon and one at 3 p.m. Participants met at the Dr. Taylor Woods Youth Center on the Missouri State Fairgrounds before touring the Silver Creek LTD Arabians from Glass Horse Farms, of the Belton/Raymore area.
Maggio told the Democrat that Friday’s tour was geared more toward adults, while the Saturday tour centers more on children.
“It’s a good way to expose kids that maybe have never been around a horse,” Maggio said. “We decided to do it when we moved the show back to Sedalia, because we got such wonderful response from the community. They genuinely seemed excited that we had come back from Kansas City. So we thought the Tails Tour would be a good way to for us to maybe give back a little bit to the community and offer an experience for kids.”
Maggio, who has owned and shown Arabians for 50 years, said the horses are different from other horses in several ways.
“Physically they do have one less vertebra then other horses,” she noted. “They tend to have a shorter back. It gives them greater endurance and they have a larger lung capacity, because they are desert bred. You have to go back to what the original purpose of the horse was, back in the Middle East, in the desert, where they were used for combat.
“One of the things that they’re really known for now, are endurance rides,” she added. “Our Arabs are just fabulous when it comes to endurance rides. They are a family horse, they are very personable. They have their own little personalities.”
During the tour this was evident as the group walked through the MSF stables as Vega, an Arabian owned by Theresa Barton, of Belton, made eye contact and showed interest in the visitors. Another Arabian, Popper, owned by Sharon Fant-True, also of Belton, licked visitors palms and was even brought out of the stall to interact.
Mary Dodson, a client of Glass Horse Farms, gave the tour through the stables. She explained to the group not only about the horses but about the tack used during shows.
“It’s a great family thing to do,” she said. “They love people, they love voices.”
Barton who was showing Vega during the show explained the breed types verses the disciplines.
“Breed is the type of horse, you have Arabians, you have saddle bred, Morgans, Friesians,” she said. “The discipline is the work that horse does. So a discipline, a western horse you think of as working with cattle. Usually its head-set is low with a soft movement, not a busy mouth. I think of it as the SUV, he’s a worker.
“A hunt animal is one who is going to cover a lot of ground,” she added. “He’s got a big stretchy movement, he’s going to be jumping hurdles … He’s got a little bit more activity, but his job is a little more high-spirited. A saddle seed horse, that’s like your Ferrari. He’s the show-off that you take to the park to impress your friends. He’s got a very high head-set … he’s got a lot of movement … he’s really flashy and really dynamic.”
Barton began working with Arabians after her children were grown and thoroughly enjoys the breed.
“You get them in your blood, it’s mental health,” added smiling.
Maggio told the group that the show brought in 160 horses this year. With each horse having four to five people working with it, the human total ranges from 640 to 800. Competitors come not only from Missouri but Texas, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Kansas with halter horses coming from Minnesota.
“It’s free to watch and we’d love to have people come through the barns,” Maggio said. “We love being here.”
The Arabian and Half-Arabian Horse Show will continue through Sunday at the Mathewson Exhibition Center on the Missouri State Fairgrounds. The Tails Tour scheduled for noon and 3 p.m. Saturday are free and open to the public. The event is sponsored by the Eastern Kansas Arabian Horse Association and the Greater Kansas City Arabian Horse Association.
