Long backs

["Kathy Mayeda" <Kathy_Mayeda@atce.com>]

Title: Long backs

Interesting discussion from Heidi about long backs.  I had downloaded a picture of Salon, born in 1959 at the Tersk stud.  He is an ancestor of my horse Beau Joust and I tell you, he must be prepotent because Beau is a spittin’ image of him.  And Salon had a “dippy” back that Beau has also.   Salon was not bred for halter, he was bred for racing.  Beau was bred for halter, but the long dippy back issue goes back to that to the Tersk breeding program that produced Salon.  Total pain in the but to deal with saddle fit.

There are certain lines that may not do as well in endurance, but possibly those certain lines never get to do endurance, either.   And if you characterize lines by the sire line, one may be dismissing the fact that the dam line contributes much to the genetic makeup of the horses.  Like Drako, my next endurance horse, is out of a Bey Oro daughter, by a Bey Shah son.  He looks like a Bey Shah bred horse.  But he has a good, strong endurance hip with a sloping croup, not a flat croup.  He also has a short strong back, and is a lot more balanced than Beau.  Bey Shah is not known for producing endurance horses, but there are a few that have done well, like Chris Knox’s horse.

K.