Los Cedros

Earlier today, Rolande and I visited Los Cedros, an equestrian training centre and boarding facility for horses. It’s located in the desert about ten minutes from our place in North Scottsdale. Los Cedros strives to be one of the finest horse training facilities in the world. It boasts a strong cadre of trainers , with specialists in Arabian horses, and Hunter, Jumper, Dressage, and Western styles. It offers an on-site rehabilitation and exercise pool, and on-site veterinary services. The facilities are very impressive, a luxury resort for horses!

Horses generally make good photo subjects, so I took the opportunity to take a few pictures. My first model was a young female penned alone in a small corral. She didn’t appear very happy with her apparent isolation. Perhaps she was being kept away from amorous stallions. She made no effort to make my task easier, with very little animation and a forlorn demeanour. She was nonetheless a beautiful animal and worthy of my efforts to capture a good photo.

I moved along to where Rolande was watching two trainers exercising a pair of horses. Here, the energy was evident with both horses enjoying a stimulating workout. This mare, in particular was very animated, dashing and jumping about and, on a few occasions, seemingly challenging her trainer’s authority. She seemed to respond to my presence, displaying her showmanship with her flowing mane and raised tail. These are show horses, and they know it!

As the training session wound down to its conclusion, one of the trainers invited me to go with him to visit a very impressive stallion, housed in the stable. The trainer called him to the window of his stall, rewarding him with carrot. I began taking pictures and this big fellow rewarded me with some great poses. What a ham! Judging by the height of the window from the ground, I commented on his apparent stature. This earned me a visit back inside to visit him at his stall. This is one tall horse. According to the trainer, he’s large for an Arabian.

The Arabian horse  is a breed of horse that originated on the Arabian Pensinsula. With a distinctive head shape and high tail carriage, the Arabian is one of the most easily recognizable horse breeds in the world. It is also one of the oldest breeds, dating back 4,500 years. Throughout history, Arabian horses have spread around the world, used to improve other breeds by adding speed, refinement, endurance, and strong bone. Today, Arabian bloodlines are found in almost every modern breed of riding horse.