Scottsdale’s Arabian Horse Show has been a much-anticipated signature event since 1956, celebrating the community’s long-time love affair of everything equestrian. The show has generated tourism and a significant economic impact for over 70 years, serving as a global gathering of Arabian owners and aficionados.
Scottsdale’s horse history dates back at least 12,000 years. During excavation of a lake for the McCormick Ranch master-planned community in 1971, the fossilized bones of prehistoric horses—as well as ground sloth, land tortoises, and giant mammoth—were unearthed. Coincidentally, that prehistoric grazing ground became the Scottsdale home of the year-old All Arabian Horse Show in 1956, when Arabian horse owner Anne McCormick hosted the show at her ranch near the northeast corner of Scottsdale and Indian Bend roads.
During and after World War II, the Scottsdale area became a center for raising and showing Arabian horses. Big names among early Arabian ranches included Wrigley, Tweed/BruSally, McCormick, Cheney, Aste, Chauncey, LaCroix/Lasma, Bardon’s, Sun Ray, El Mirage, Jen-Mar, Melde’s, Heaton’s, Gainey, Clay’s, Collin’s, Desert Arabian, and more. Scottsdale Arabian owners Ed and Ruth Tweed, along with Anne McCormick, Mrs. Wrigley, and others, chartered the Arabian Horse Association of Arizona in 1954, which led to the founding of the show and auction to showcase their stately breed.
Although the first Arabian Horse Show was held at the Wrigley’s near the Arizona Biltmore in 1955, it became a Scottsdale fixture the following year. After outgrowing Mrs. McCormick’s Arabian horse ring, she and husband Fowler (then chairman of the board of International Harvester) built Paradise Park on the northwest corner of Pima Road and Shea Boulevard to accommodate the expansion of the annual Arabian show and other equestrian events. When the McCormicks’ 4,200-acre horse and cattle ranch was sold for development in 1970, the Arabian Horse Show moved to a new Paradise Park near Bell and 60th Street. In 1989, it moved to WestWorld in Scottsdale, where it continues its annual run, including this year from Feb. 12 to 22.
Hosted by the Scottsdale-based Arabian Horse Association of Arizona, the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show is the highlight of the group’s annual calendar of events that celebrate Arabians. The show has a long tradition of donating proceeds to local charities. Producing the show involves an army of volunteers who stage the show and auction, as well as help accommodate the hundreds of out-of-town Arabian owners and trainers who bring their Arabians to show, sell, and breed. The show also includes competitions, family events, and a shopping expo of equestrian accoutrements and upscale merchandise.
Scottsdale’s horse history dates back at least 12,000 years.