Re: RC: Re: Arabian history

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated 6/22/00 8:43:38 AM Pacific Daylight Time, dfletche@gte.net 
writes:

<< Taking this back to where this thread started. Then for the most part the
 Arab was not gaited. Or if gait was common in Arabs of some years ago, it is
 not common today and the horse has been altered. You can't have it both
 ways. >>

The Arab has had a sporadic tendency to gait since the beginning.  Some 
individuals are far more prone to it than others. It is a trait that has been 
neither selected for nor selected against in classical breeding, hence it has 
neither been developed to its fullest nor eliminated.  It remains that way in 
modern Arabians that have continued to be bred true to classical type.  The 
only change has been in the percentage (Maria is correct that only about 10% 
are actually involved in the show world, although a higher percentage is bred 
that direction and culled) that have been deviated from the mainstream of 
classical breeding for current fads--and in those, the trot has been a 
primary selection trait to the extreme, which tends to go away from 
gaitedness.  This is a phenomenon of the last 30-40 years, and certainly does 
not affect the entire breed, as a great many of us keep our programs 
completely separate from that.

Heidi