SAAHA Arabian Horse Club Presents Shows For New, Skilled Riders

TUCSON, AZ – Tucson area horse lovers might just feel at home when they meet other novice and experienced horses and riders at Southern Arizona Arabian Horse Association’s (SAAHA’s) beginners’ schooling shows or at the club’s United States Equestrian Federation-sanctioned competitions. “Our club is specifically created to promote the Arabian horse,” said Marilou Balloun, a 20-plus-year SAAHA member and president of the organization. “We think (Arabians) are the best horse out there. We are a little prejudiced.” But she recognizes that not everyone feels the same way.

Accordingly, any horse breed is accepted at SAAHA'S new-horse/new-rider schooling shows. “Our schooling shows are open to all breeds, to include donkeys or mules and every breed that you can imagine,” said Balloun. “We have had halter classes when we had draft horses and miniature horses in the same class and then everything in between. So it’s a challenge.” (Balloun clarified that “classes” refers to horse or riding classification groups for show judging, rather than to instructional sessions.)

SAAHA’s schooling show prices are kept down intentionally, to enable more community horses and riders to enter the shows. SAAHA member and 4H member pricing is $10, while nonmembers pay $11. With most entrants from Tucson, Marana, Benson, Tubac and Amado, the schooling shows are monthly May-to-December unrated circuit shows, “so those points don’t go any farther than just our little group,” said Balloun.

And schooling show entrants might have differing goals. “For some of our riders, our schooling shows are as far as they ever go. That’s where they want to show. They don’t want to go any higher for other competitions. But some of them are there to practice for other horse shows,” Balloun explained.

September is a busy month for SAAHA, with another ABC (All Breed Circuit) schooling show on Sept. 21, and the rated Silver Buckle Arabian/Half Arabian Horse Show running Sept. 13-15, all at the Pima County Fairgrounds. SAAHA horse show events typically include an in-hand breeder’s class where a horse’s conformation and suitability to breeding are judged. The shows also include performance classes such as western pleasure, English pleasure and country English pleasure, in addition to reigning classes and trail classes with obstacle courses, among others. In the pleasure classes, the judge analyzes how a horse is presented and performs gaits. In equitation competitions, the rider’s performance over the horse is judged. Classes are further broken down by age and skill level.

Designated as Region 7 of the Arabian Horse Association (AHA), which covers the U.S. and Canada in 18 regions, SAAHA also draws people from Scottsdale and other parts of Arizona, California and Texas for its premier Silver Buckle Arabian Horse Show. Half of the organization’s 11 board members, all from Tucson and Marana, assist in putting on the horse shows, according to Balloun. “Then we hire people too for the big shows. The schooling shows are all volunteer,” she added. Balloun, who didn’t grow up with horses, is one of the staffers who helps put on the shows.

“I didn’t get my first horse until I was 21 and in the Air Force. I was stationed overseas in Turkey and they had a riding stable there. You could buy a horse, and I did,” Balloun, a former horse breeder, shared. That first horse was a retired Arabian horse, and the rest is history. “I’ve only owned Arabian horses, and I have a half-Arabian as well,” added Balloun, whose horses are for pleasure, not competition. Tucson area residents who are interested in competing, however, can find out more about the Sept. 13-15 Silver Buckle Arabian/Half Arabian Horse Show or the Sept. 21 All Breed Circuit schooling show by accessing the SAAHA website or Facebook page or emailing saahainfo@saaha.org.

And the general public is not left out of the SAAHA horse shows. “If people want to come and watch, there’s no charge. We’d love to have them,” Balloun concluded.