Carmelo Zaragoza Gimenez

Judging Arabian horses conformation takes practice, but anyone who has spent quality time around these beautiful creatures can learn to do it. Judges usually look for a combination of balance, structure, muscling, gait, and breed-specific features. For the 2021 Spring edition, I had the honour to interview Mr. Carmelo Zaragoza Gimenez from Lleida, Spain. He was very pleased to walk me through the main aspects of his own professional experience in judging Arabian horses. 1. Hello Mr. Zaragoza Gimenez. Thank you very much for accepting our invitation so kindly. Just to set the scene with our readers, give us some background to you, to your family and education please. 1. I was born in 1968 in a traditional family. One of the most valuable things my parents provided me with is the education, best school in the area and countless extra escolar activities to complement my formation. At my early teens, I had a school friend whose parents had a cow farm. One day, their parents purchased him a horse and he invited me to spend the weekend on the farm riding the horse and having some fun around. Just in the moment I sat on the horse, the 'seed' was planted, but many years should pass until it flourished. Going back to my schooling period, it came the time to choose which studies I wanted to perform at the university. I told my parents I wanted to be a vet, their immediate answer was that had nothing to do with the family business and would be useless so they 'proposed' to study something that would be useful for the business such as Accountancy, Law, Economics, etc… so I chose to study Law. While I was at the university, I had a girlfriend who also was studying Law, with whom I used to go in the mountains and some others destinations at weekends. During those trips, if I saw a horse in a field or a riding centre, I would stop the car and spend some time just watching the horses. Once in one of those stops, she told me why, if I liked the horses so much, didn't buy one? Sooner done than said, I was the owner of a horse. From there, I started to meet people related to the horse world until nowadays. 2. When did you start getting interested in the pure-bred Arabian horse? Which are your favourite bloodlines? Why? 2. Around 1998, I was involved with some Andalusian horse breeders, passing the reproductive test for the army to give the license and I was also preparing some of them to compete in the morphological shows of the breed. It was from the hands of the brigade of the delegation of the army in my town that I started becoming more interested in Arabian horses. It was in an event where there were Andalusians and Arabian horses that I first got trapped by them. My favourite bloodline is the straight Egyptian one, for me they got 'something' which I am short in words to describe, but that makes me feel they are special. At some point, I got many of them until I got divorced and life gave me some twists, all part of my growing process. 3. When did you become a Judge? What specific preparation did you get? 3. I think it was 2001 or around, cannot be precise about that, I passed the test for national judge and the 3 probations required for passing the test in Morocco for the ECAHO International list and also the 3 probations required. I got great memories of that time in Morocco, we received great attention from the organizer and some fun with the people we presented there, special mention deserves Mr. Conrad Detailleur, who made all that experience very enjoyable. 4. What do you feel has been your most rewarding experience as a judge? 4. Being able to see and judge some of the best Arabian horses in the world and not less important, meeting really great people involved with the Arabian horse at all levels. 5. What horse or horses have you judged that have left the greatest impression on you? 5. Many. Some stallions and mares just took my heart when they came in at the arena, so I am not going to name any of them as I don't want to make the mistake of missing one. 6. What are, in your opinion, the strengths of the breed and how do you tackle the concepts of 'beauty' and 'functional correctness'? 6. The intelligence, the movement and the elegance. First of all, an Arabian Horse must be a good horse and then he has to manifest, strongly, the specific characters of the breed, head and neck, tail carriage, movement, with a high and long suspension in the trot and elegance holding it all together. 7.Which particular skills are necessary to become an accountable judge? 7. Well, I don't think there is a receipt for that, it helps experience in judging and very important for me, being involved with horses in any way, riding, breeding, etc. 8. What advice would you give to a young person who wishes to pursue a career as a judge in this sector? 8. Patience, tones of it, will for learning, be humble and try always to be fair. 9. To what extent has the current global health crisis been affecting the industry? 9. I think hugely in a very negative way, less shows, less sales…Everything has become quite complicated. The worst is the uncertainty of what is to come. 10. If you were empowered to effect change in the Arabian World, how would you go about it? 10. This one it is hard to answer. There are many people with many interests, lots of business …Maybe I would put more ethical values requests to get certain positions in the Arabian horse world. 11. What else would you like to achieve at this stage of your professional career? 11. Nothing, I feel fulfilled enough for not having further ambitions than staying and enjoy my current position. I have been the Spanish delegate in ECAHO for many years, Vice-president of AECCA, the Spanish Arabian Horse Breeders Association, international judge, running the family business with my brother, I am a very happy husband with some hobbies to attend, I don't miss anything in my life to be honest. 12. Carmelo, do you feel like leaving a message to the readers of this interview? 12. I just thank everybody who has dedicated some time reading this interview about me. Mr. Zaragoza Gimenez, thank you very much for your contribution. It was an honour to interview you. Best wishes from all of us on the AHM team!