Our endurance partners are comprised of many different breeds. In fact AERC keeps records on 52 different breed categories. These range from our familiar Arabians and related crosses to Morgans, Icelandics, Quarter Horses, Tennessee Walking Horses, and other breeds. There have been almost 24,000 equines registered in the AERC mileage program since we started keeping computer records in 1984. Of those more than 3400 competed in the 2003 ride season. As you would expect, most of these equines are Arabian or Arabian crosses.

The top 10 breeds by number of entries competing last year were:

Arab 68.2%

1/2 Arab 9.0%

Grade 4.6%

Arab Cross 3.2%

Anglo Arab 1.9%

Appaloosa 1.2%

Other 1.1%

Quarter Horse 1.1%

Mustang 1.0%

Morgan 1.0%

Arabians and related crosses comprised 82% of the total entries in the 2003 ride season. The percentage of Arabian and crosses has increased since 1984 from less than 60% of the total entries to the present value. A complete listing of all the entry breed statistics can be found at www.aerc.org/breeds.html.

In 2003, the average number of rides per ride season for each horse was about four. Since the average number of rides a member enters during a year is about five, this shows that many members ride several horses during the season.

It's also interesting to look at which breeds dominate BC, top ten, and first places. This isn't intended to show that Arab/Arab crosses are the horse a rider needs to have in order to do well. Many of our members have other goals such as horse lifetime mileage and keeping their horse in competition for a number of years.

In the regional standings, the Arabians and Arabian crosses dominate with about 91% of first places. Arabians do considerably better than Arabian crosses and other breeds in first places and BCs. For 68% of the entries, purebred Arabians take 83% of the first places and 76% of the best conditions. Arabians place in top ten just about equal to their proportion of entries.

In the top ten lifetime mileage horses, only 60% are Arabian/Arabian crosses and 40% are grade/other. In this category Arabians are underrepresented. In the Decade Teams where horse and rider have competed for the past 10 years together, about 80% are Arabians and another 10% are Arabian crosses.

Arabians and Arabian crosses are more than 80% of the equines in our sport today. They outperform their portion of the population for all but the top lifetime mileage horses. Arabians excel at first place but are only proportional to their population for top ten.

Equines of all breeds can do well in our sport and with 52 different breed categories, AERC members compete successfully on a very diverse equine population. When you are riding down the trail this coming 2004 season, look for the different breeds that are competing or just enjoying getting out there to ride.