<P> While only a few Arabians were exported from behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War, those who did come to the west caught the eye of breeders worldwide . Improved international relations between eastern Europe and the west led to major imports of Polish and Russian - bred Arabian horses to western Europe and the United States in the 1970s and 1980s . The collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991, greater political stability in Egypt, and the rise of the European Union all increased international trade in Arabian horses . Organizations such as the World Arabian Horse Association (WAHO) created consistent standards for transferring the registration of Arabian horses between different nations . Today, Arabian horses are traded all over the world . </P> <P> The first horses on the American mainland since the end of the Ice Age arrived with the Spanish Conquistadors . Hernán Cortés brought 16 horses of Andalusian, Barb, and Arabian ancestry to Mexico in 1519 . Others followed, such as Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, who brought 250 horses of similar breeding to America in 1540 . More horses followed with each new arrival of Conquistadors, missionaries, and settlers . Many horses escaped or were stolen, becoming the foundation stock of the American Mustang . </P> <P> Colonists from England also brought horses of Arabian breeding to the eastern seaboard . One example was Nathaniel Harrison, who imported a horse of Arabian, Barb and Turkish ancestry to America in 1747 . </P> <P> One of George Washington's primary mounts during the American Revolutionary War was a gray half - Arabian horse named Blueskin, sired by the stallion "Ranger", also known as "Lindsay's Arabian", said to have been obtained from the Sultan of Morocco . Other Presidents are linked to ownership of Arabian horses; in 1840, President Martin Van Buren received two Arabians from the Sultan of Oman, and in 1877, President Ulysses S. Grant obtained an Arabian stallion, Leopard, and a Barb, Linden Tree, as gifts from Abdul Hamid II, the "Sultan of Turkey ." </P>

The arabian horse is an example of what type of breed