endurance prospect

[Heidi Sowards <ribbitttreefrog@yahoo.com>]

Jumping on the bandwagon here! (Hey, welcome back Tom!!!)
Anyway, wouldn't ALL arabs have the genetic potential to
begin with? The CHANCES of getting a BETTER potential may
be greater with some crosses or with linebreeding (is that
the right word?) but you still have to figure in training,
feed, health and hoof care, etc. (And don't forget the
horse's will and heart to do this.) So I guess in a
nutshell, my .02 worth is this. If you have a horse (arab
or arab-type) who likes to go, is healthy, not a ding-bat
and has an owner with the same, can't they do well without
worrying about who is where in their pedigree? And to look
into a horses pedigree, in all fairness, some truly amazing
horses were never exposed to this sport, so we don't know
what they COULD have done. For ex. did *Bask ever do
endurance? I have not heard that he did. Could he have
excelled? We can guess based on his confirmation and
pedigree, but we don't and won't know. (Although people who
own his get who are doing well would probably say he would
have excelled.) For fun, I am tracing our guys pedigrees
and finding pictures on the net. Their pedigrees are full
of truly awesome and famous lines. Some more popular for
endurance folk than others and because of who owns Classy,
he may never reach his TRUE potential. If he were a mare of
stallion, would people breed to him for an endurance
prospect? Probably not, as he is not exceptional right now
and with us. It may or may not be his fault, but we'll
never know. Now, take that same horse (good pedigree or not
and put him in the hands of a Valerie Kanavy and see what
happens.) IMHO, this is what draws alot of us to endurance.
We don't have to have the $10,000 bred up the butt horse to
ride and in alot of cases to do very well. If I sound like
I am walking a fence, its because I don't think any one
person has all the answers and no one line of horses has
all the potential.

(For fun, check out my photo pedigree for Classy at 
http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/Yard/8249/01.html





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