Each October, hundreds of Arabian and Half-Arabian horses make the trip to Expo Square in Tulsa, Okla., for the Arabian Horse Association’s U.S. National Championship Horse Show. While handlers showcase their breathtaking halter entries in the Pavilion and stunning show horses light up the main ring, the scene is slightly different in the venue’s Mustang Arena. There you’ll see Arabians kicking up some dirt in the reining classes, executing ranch patterns or trail courses, and even working cattle. The juxtaposition of these Western athletes next to their glamorous show-ring peers is an impressive display of the breed’s versatility and a showcase of how equestrians across disciplines are united by their love of the Arabian horse.

From Interscholastic Equitation to Cow Horse National Champion

Delaney Haight, of Littleton, Colo., was introduced to Arabians at a young age when she rode on an Interscholastic Equestrian Association (IEA) team with trainer Jessica Bein in Arizona. Haight has competed in a variety of disciplines over her career but says that the working Western classes are “absolutely my favorite thing in the entire world.” At the 2024 U.S. Nationals, she and her 2015 purebred gelding, WCF Mark Me Up (RA Monaco x WCF Olivia), took national championship titles in Limited Reined Cow Horse, Limited Ranch Cow Work, and Ranch Horse Riding.

“Since riding on the IEA team, I started doing the reining, the ranch riding, trail, working cow—basically any working Western discipline,” said Haight, who now lives in Colorado and rides with Jim Hitt, owner and trainer at Gambel Oaks Equestrian Center. “In my opinion, the working cow classes are the most fun.”

Haight describes “Mark” as her heart horse, and he’s been a keen partner for just about any class they’ve tried.

“I bought him back in 2020, mostly to be my reiner,” she said. “We introduced him to cows back in 2022, and he ended up just getting into it. He liked it a lot, and I really liked doing it with him. This year, he won the Limited Reined Cow Horse and the Box Drive Box, which is a new division in the Arabian breed.”

Boxing is where the horse and rider keep one cow contained at one end of the pen. “Your only goal is to not lose the cow, and you get 50 seconds to work,” Haight explained. “You get plussed [points added to your score] on your turn and how well you work the cow. You get plussed on courage and on your time working. Boxing is basically just keeping the cow at one end of the arena and showing that you have control to do that.”

Box-Drive-Box was created as a step up from the box-only classes and adds the component of driving the cow from one end of the arena to the other without the more advanced patterns required in the open cow classes.

“The Box-Drive-Box is where you box the cow at one end and then drive it down the fence and box it at the other end, and then drive it back up the fence,” Haight said. “It’s different from fence work in that you’re not actually making a fence turn and you’re not circling. It’s basically a class to demonstrate that you have control and you can showcase the right positions.”

Mark came to Haight with some reining and ranch riding experience, but working with cows was a new skill that he learned under Haight and Hitt’s direction. While Arabians may not have the innate cow sense that has been bred into certain stock horse bloodlines, Haight said that their good minds and work ethic make up for it.

“What we’ve found with Arabians, and Mark especially, is that once they learn that they can move the cows, they’re very accepting of it,” she said. “For Mark, it’s something that helps with his focus. He figured out, ‘This is my job. This is what I’m doing.’ He kind of clicked with it.

“When they’re first introduced, some horses will not like cattle, and that’s OK! They’re not all meant to do it,” Haight said. “But then others, once they see that they’re moving the cows and they get used to the smells, they’re usually more accepting. It’s not necessarily a cow sense, but a sense of, ‘I like my job. This is my job, and I’m going to do it.’”

Haight and Mark had success at U.S. Nationals in some bovine-free classes as well, including in the ranch horse classes. The ranch division includes rail, pattern, and trail classes and is designed “to measure the ability of the horse to be a pleasure to ride while being used as a means of conveyance from performing one ranch task to another,” according to the USEF Rulebook. Haight said that their journey to winning the Arabian Ranch Horse Riding Amateur Adult 19-54 National Championship was a highlight of the show.

“This year the pattern was a bit of a longer one. Going in, I was a bit nervous, but I trust that horse with my life,” she said. “I know he’ll do everything in his power to make me look good. It’s like he knows when he’s showing ... everything falls into place.”

The community of Western exhibitors within the Arabian horse show helped make the experience extra special, Haight said.

“In the [warm-up ring], everyone’s my friend back there, so getting ready to go into the class, it doesn’t feel like I’m going into a national show class,” she said. “It feels like I’m hanging out with my friends and we’re all just there supporting each other.”

A Supportive Community

Ashley Zitrin, of Benicia, Calif., is another amateur competitor in the working Western divisions who had an impressive ribbon haul from the 2024 U.S. Nationals riding her own 2016 Half-Arabian mare, Mercedes Girl (Cromed Out Mercedes x Prairie Fallon), and 2010 purebred Arabian gelding, SH Electric Gun (Nobles Top Gun x Khaarmin Electra).

Zitrin grew up riding Western recreationally and at local competitions, but paused in early adulthood to focus on college, career, and family. Like many former barn rats, she eventually found her way back to horses and has been a passionate amateur competitor ever since.

“I went back to my hometown for a few years and reconnected with horseback riding through Gretchen McDaniel at McDaniel Training Center. Gretchen and her late husband, Mike McDaniel, introduced me to the Arabian horse,” said Zitrin. “I started there about eight years ago with reining. Then I moved on to boxing, then to cow horse, and finally to herd work, which is similar to cutting.”

Zitrin said that Arabians have the mind and athleticism for working Western.

“Certainly, they look a little bit different from Quarter Horses when they’re working a cow. However, they have just as much drive to work the cattle and intuition about when the cow is going to move and in what direction,” she said. “They can be very powerful and fast. The purebred Arabian that I showed at U.S. Nationals, I don’t think he could get outrun by a cow. He’s very quick on his feet and very fun to ride.”

The Arabian breed is legendary for its endurance, and that trait is an asset in the working Western world, where horses often compete in multiple classes in a day.

“Arabians, especially those in the working Western disciplines, seem to have more resilience,” said Zitrin. “Physically, they don’t need much pampering. They’re capable of entering into multiple classes. Often, we show the cow horses in ranch riding disciplines as well as multiple fence runs and herd work all at one show. I showed my horses in all those disciplines at U.S. Nationals, and they held their own in ranch and did really well in the cow classes. From my understanding, that’s not always the case with [stock horses] where they’re very specific to one event rather than crossing disciplines.”

Zitrin has had Mercedes since she was a 3-year-old. The Half-Arabian mare has strong reining bloodlines on her sire’s side and a cow horse background on her dam’s side.

“I got her when she was 3, as she was probably not going to make it as a pure reiner,” said Zitrin. “One of the things that the McDaniels do is turn reiners into cow horses really well. She’s shown at Nationals I think three times now, and she’s done really well over her career. Her personality is demanding and particular, but she’s also extremely talented. When she can get to work, she does an excellent job.”

Zitrin’s purebred gelding, SH Electric Gun (nicknamed Gus), is a newer addition, and he’s been an exceptional performer since joining the string in August 2024.

“He’s been fantastic. He just jumped right into the ranch competitions, and he already had National Championships in herd work and reined cow with Maddie Larkin and her brother, Andy Camacho, who are well known in the working Western community of Arabian horses,” said Zitrin. “He’s really sweet. He’s in your pocket. He just goes out there and tries to do whatever you ask. When you put him in front of a cow, he’s just locked in. That’s his job, he loves it, and he’s excellent at it.”

Arabians do compete against other breeds in open competitions through Western sport organizations, but working Western divisions are offered at many of the national and regional Arabian shows, especially in the Western region of the country. This gives Arabian and Half-Arabian riders plenty of opportunities to compete in the sport they love.

As an amateur rider, Zitrin enjoys the experience of being part of the program with McDaniel.

“I much prefer having them in training,” she said. “It makes my ability to learn how to be a better rider much easier, and especially with these events that are high-octane, I feel much more confident knowing that my horses are ready to do their job so that I can focus on doing my job to help them as much as possible.”

There are plenty of opportunities for riders to test the waters of working cattle with their horse.

“I started out with boxing, which is really fun and not very risky. It’s achievable. I feel like people can go out there and work one cow against one wall, and it’s fun,” said Zitrin. “You get to start learning how cows move and how your horse can stop and turn and drive a cow. I think that’s a great place to start, and it’s much less intimidating than having a whole herd. I stayed with boxing for two years or so, then moved up to Box-Drive-Box, and that really built my confidence. Then I was able to take the step into going down the fence and being more comfortable with herd work.”

For newcomers, Zitrin recommends working with a good trainer or instructor to get familiar with the basics, but says that the community is welcoming and can be a great source of support.

“Just going to shows and engaging with the community is great, because we are all generally very supportive of each other,” she said. “I think having the added element of the cow in the arena with us takes away a lot of the competitiveness, because we all know that the cow can do whatever it wants. Anything can happen out there; we can draw a bad cow or we can draw a good cow. It’s really not up to us. That tends to create a much more supportive environment, because we know that we’re all out there just trying to do our best and have a lot of fun.”

Learn more about Arabian and Half-Arabian horses in the US Equestrian Learning Center and by visiting the Arabian Horse Association at arabianhorses.org.