I have not seen this movie or the history channel's documentary on it but I hear from other horse people that the film itself is rather unauthentic. Bad riding, especially, by a character that is supposed to be a great horseman is one of the complaints. Apparently, for a film that is supposed to be a true story, the researchers kept coming up with dead ends when tracing the facts. There is not record of a horse named Hidalgo for instance. However, at the time, I don't think mustangs had registered names, they arent' even a specific breed per say, just a maudlin mix of cast offs who formed their own bands which included calvary remounts. I don't know if a no name horse and bad acting make the story not true. I don't really care, It is too bad that the filmmakers were sloppy about what they were portraying. I think this is a film is about an inspiring and uplifting feel good story rather than a carefully researched and historically accurate production. We all know the film the Ten Commandments is based on a true story right? The reason's given as to why the Hidalgo story must be purely fiction doesn't convince me that it is totally a figment of Hopkins imagination, though it may well could be.
Anyway, on the topic of Arabians. gotta love 'em, and the endurance enthuasast's say there is nothing better for the sport. I have an arabian mare, and yes, I love the romantic stories, true or not, that are told of her ancestors. That her pedigree goes back to the desert bred horses, the ones the Bedoins bred and kept so pure is one of the things we arabian owners are always harping on about, that and the very strict breeding programs of these people in the desert. While generally the horses are pure, a lot of mythical stories of how they came to be in the hands of the bedoin culture are stated as fact. I'm not really sure if Allah personally breathed in to my horses ancestor's nostrils, however the story goes, as there are different versions, but I love my horse just the same. I guess because I don't intend to make piles of money off of her, but even if I was, common sense would dictate that not everything that is told of the breed can be counted on as fact.
I don't know who Basha and Cuchullaine are really, but they are very upset about the whole thing and they must have a lot at stake to protest a film that probably only we horse people and young girls will go see and forget about it in a month:
"Director Joe Johnston believes that attempts by the likes of Guild founders Basha and CuChullaine O'Reilly to discredit Hopkins are based on their offense to the notion that Hidalgo bred with pure Arabian mares."
That's right, Hopkins must be a fake because there is no way this could ever happen. Goodness, we arab owners all know the bedoins would never, ever, ever let the blood of the arab be tainted. Why that would be sacrilege! I guess CuChullaine or Basha have forgotten about Carl Raswan, and Lady Ann Blunt shipping purebred arabs over to England to breed in to other stock to make lighter horses. How in the world did they get away with it? Or are they fiction too? Then of course there are our throughbreds, the Godolphin arabian being an important foundation for the breed.
In the 80's, the arabs were The Designer Horse, the horse of the elite. God forbid any tainted blood be coursing through their veins because with the arabian horses, it is just not possible. But, alluring as it may be to think of these exotic desert horses so prized and revered by the different bedouin tribes, that they took extrodinary care of them & even slept with them in their tents-- I've seen evidence to the opposite, I've seen photogaphs of some pretty mangey and boney looking desert horses that were supposedly so prized, yet looked like they were about to become dogfood, and if they weren't, they probably wanted to be to end their misery.
I don't think it's that surprising that a horse like Hidalgo may have been bred to arabian mares. Who knows? The polish and spanish arabians also have there own controversy over purity. Accidents happen, especially during times of war. But if you're in the high end of the arab business and selling elite horses with their factual history now somewhat questionable, I suppose you'd be alarmed to find some rangey old mustang blood could have gotten in to your prized stallion somewhere down the line. For me,reading about this controversy, I think I will look at Khemosabi in a different light, as he carries a color gene. He's thrown pinto babies, and one is even advertized as a stallion of color. This doesn't mean that Hidalgo's genes are in his pedigree, but, hmm. Wouldn't that be almost poetic justice if it turned out to be so?
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