 |
Re: [RC] To bred or not to bred - sharp pennyok, I know I'm in a minority on this list and am not trying win anyone over on the merits of western pleasure bred horses...but, it's hard to stay quiet when everyone is saying how awful paint and QTR show horses are. sooooo....in answer to Karen.... . I will jump in here and say, in the QH and Paint world in my little corner of Calif. the adults are often washed up by age 10 with navicular, sidebone, etc. I agree..the halter influence promoted this cuz those horses never have to really move and those that are breeding them never look past the huge muscles...it's pretty sad. I feel alot also has to do with these horses are out of their stalls for no more than a few hours a day if that, starting from when they are born. The underlying structures never got a chance to get strong. Then what do alot of people do, they work them hard for an hour or so and back in the stall they go, al the while pumping mega protein feed and alfalfa in them. When they get to a show they ride the piss out of them for that 1 or 2 days and wonder why these horses break down so soon. Sure structually the horse might have not been really balanced, but the bones and tendons were never given a fighting chance to stay sound. At one time I was just as guilty of this but I've learned alot over the years. ;) Penny, where are you? Do you see ads in West Coast Horseman for QHand Paints? STILL that awful low headset with ears lower than withers, how the heck can these horses collect? I live in Texas and get only the paint horse journal. Yes, there are still some horses with the extremely low hesdsets out there...but the trend is slowly coming back to the standard set by APHA, AQHA, and NSBA (national snaffle bit association)which is the tip of the ears can't be lower than the withers and 4 beatinng at the lope is a major fault akin to the wrong lead. As for collection this is why the deep strong hocks are important...a horse with weak hocks can't travel collected in a true 3 beat lope with a level topline. They have to be able to reach deep with that hind leg and balance on that hock. There are bloodlines that are naturally low headed, flat kneed with good deep hocks. I had a baby born a few days ago that lopes every where she goes and its looks like she's floating, she always carries a very level top line no mater what gait she is doing and she was born very balanced with her withers just a tad higher than her croup. Her major fault is she was born with out color...sigh...this will be the difference between a $2000 horse and a $15,000 one cuz she has what it takes to "play with the big boys" at the world show level. One of the risks you take with paints unless you want to sacrifice quality and breed to a homozygous toby stud. My shoer just got an extremely good deal on a future ropiing horse. He said this gelding actually has UPHILL conformation, and can tuck his hind legs under him. This is what I look for when I buy a show prospect, uphill conformation, alot of the Investor and Big Step horses are higher at the withers than the croup. In my experience these horses can collect easier and tend to be very athletic. A horse that is higher in the croup will never be a real clean mover. They will have a dickens of a time getting off their front end. All the training in the world can't make a world class pleasure horse if it isn't built to be one. I have found people who whine about the good ole days when pleasure horses ran around the ring uncollected, head up in the air and hollowed backed are that ones that own a horse that wasn't built for pleasure and no matter what they try to do this horse will never be a pleasure horse. A good vet up here, who also breeds QH, said, when buying one, over age 7, you automatically do full X rays all round... absoultly...no matter what the breed, if I am going to be spending my time and money riding and competeing with it I always insist on full Xrays. It's well worth the money spent. I won't with a baby but, will on long yearlings and older, I will. Now..can we get back to endurance related stuff..I'm sure 90% in this list could care less about this thread :) Regards, Penny Karen =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|