If you are visiting Scottsdale, Arizona in early January, you might want to check out the annual Scottsdale Arabian Horse Farm Tour.

Horses have long been a part of Arizona’s history, but with the rapid growth of the area in past years, and particularly with the wealthy migrating to North Scottsdale, the area has built an international reputation for its Arabian horse breeders, farms, and shows.

We visited the tour today, and found our hosts very friendly.  They greeted us at the gate with free Bloody Marys, the air was filled with the aroma of a mesquite bonfire,  there were free hors d’ oeuvres, and the crowd was consistently providing oohs and aahs as a constant parade of Arabian horses were paraded for the crowd to see.

Even if you don’t happen to be here in the winter, many of the Arabian horse farms keep visiting hours all year long.  The link above will help you find your way to the individual horse farms.

Here are a few photographs that shot from our visit today: