Scottsdale 2018
February 15-25 West World, Scottsdale, Arizona
THE GREATEST ARABIAN HORSE SHOW ON EARTH!
VISEL PHOTOS
Arabian Horse World
HALTER DIVISIONS by Cindy Reich
Champion Classic Junior Filly Giana Leah PCF (Polidoro FC x Aliyah Vision PCF), owned by Murray and Shirley Popplewell of Rae-Dawn Arabians, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and shown by Bruno Giardelli.
Scottsdale is like Beyoncé or Cher. So famous you don’t need to qualify it could compete amongst themselves while having with “Arizona.” The show is legendary. The largest Arabian horse show on the an opportunity to earn a significant paycheck at the planet. The one show EVERYONE wants to be a part of. One might think that same time. at the age of 63, that it might be getting a bit stodgy ... showing a bit of age. I have always maintained that Scottsdale is the But Scottsdale’s biggest asset is its ability to change and shift. Before the show best place on earth to see how everyone’s breeding even ends each year, the show committee is working on some new thing to program is doing. The chance to see many foals by Photos by April Visel, Morgan Moore, add — some different way of thinking to make the show even more successful the same stallion out of a variety of mares allows one Rick Osteen, and Howard Schatzberg the following year. And the following year it is — more successful. SoStuart rather Vesty, to condense years of traveling into a handful than trundling along on a proven formula, the Scottsdale show is up on its skateboard, soaring up the half pipe, doing flips and twists in order to provide the Arabian horse industry with its greatest show on earth! It can be a bit challenging trying to decipher what all of the different halter classes mean. To adapt to a constantly changing population, Scottsdale has responded by adding classes from time to time to reflect these changes. The “original” halter classes at Scottsdale were renamed “Classic.” They were followed by the International halter classes, so that those horses that didn’t fit the North American “look” had classes and a judging panel that favored the European style. A few years ago, straight Egyptian and Egyptian “Heritage” (Egyptian related, but not straight Egyptian bloodlines) classes were added to the show within the International division. (See the coverage of the Egyptian classes in our May Egyptian issue.) Futurity classes began with the Scottsdale Signature Stallion division, open to horses sired by a stallion in the program. You had to nominate the foal before it was born, and it had to be shown by an amateur. Those are the “SSS” classes. To that was added the “SSS Auction” class. This is the richest of the futurity classes. In order to qualify for the SSS Auction class, you had to purchase a stud fee at the annual auction held during the show. The resulting foal from that stud fee qualified for the auction class. Typically, the stud fees sold for above market prices, and the money earned was put back into the payback for the class, hence the higher payout for that class. Again, the yearlings shown in this class have to be shown by an amateur. All of the SSS classes were developed so that amateurs
of classes. There was one horse whose name kept jumping off of the results page each day and certainly made an impressive debut with his first foal crop. That horse was Exxalt (*Excalibur EA x Vesperra). Winning the SSS Champion Classic Colt/Gelding class was Psyaxxton (Exxalt x MC Psynammon) owned by Jeff Collins and shown to the win by Michaiah Carson, earning $18,379 in prize money. Reserve Champion was Elix Sir by the Australian stallion Sir Charmed FF and out of Ames Jasmine, owned and shown by Sandy Vaseleou. Michaiah also showed the third place colt/gelding in the class of 19 horses, another Exxalt son, Apexx (Exxalt x Serenitee CA) owned by Frances Butler who got $3,117 in prize money. In the SSS filly class of 23, Michaiah again was Champion with Elevea Exx Sayida (Exxalt x Exquisite Lady BFA) owned by Strike Zero Investments who also took home $18,379 for the win. In one of the richest classes of the show, the SSS Auction Championship for yearling fillies, Elise Peacemaker-Cox was third out of 28 fillies with 39 b ARABIAN HORSE WORLD b APRIL 2018