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Re: [RC] To breed or not to Breed - heidiThe bloodlines I am talking about ( many old Polish and Crabbet) are some of the very same ones that crop up in a number of extremely athletic endurance Arabs.....so just becuase a horse won at Halter, does not preclude it from going on to have an athletic career. As I stated in my post, some good horses do get pinned at halter. But they are the exception, not the rule. I really do think we agree that it comes more down to the individual....rather than the bloodlines; although some folks have great success knowing how traits are passed down (and I willl never claim to be a breeder, or expert on Arab bloodlines)...i am only speaking from what I observe.... Sure, it is the individual to a degree--but my point is that if the pedigree has few skeletons in it, the odds of GETTING a successful outcome are quite high, whereas if the pedigree is a mixed bag, the results will be all over the map. So it is both. I will happily RIDE a good individual with a mixed-bag pedigree--but I will not BREED same! For every bloodline someone just raves about...I have seen extremely badly conformed individuals.....bad temprements, other problems. A lot of people seem to be blind to their horses faults, or the faults in a breeding program. Sure. But it is a matter of percentages, and also a matter of which ones breeders use to go on with. Gosh, I don;t have the books in front of me, but sure remember some photos of early imports (even CMK horses), that have just awful conformation faults.....and some extremely lovely horses. Coffee has not kicked in and the names escape me at the monent......but I would like to do this sometime.....(go through old photos of examples of revered stallions and mares and point out what I think are the conformation faults, and get your feedback......it all helps me understand this all.) (And I am quite willing to admit when I am wrong! <g> Yes, there ARE conformation faults there--where else did the modern horses get them? But when one puts them side by side with modern photos, one wants to go back and embrace the old ones, faults and all, because their faults were far less glaring. Also understand that the old photos were often "snapshots by Mom" whereas the new ones are almost exclusively carefully posed professional shots. You have to look at photographic angles as well. I have several hundred shots of the "old" horses in my files, and some of them indeed had their issues. But as a group, they were eminently rideable--not something I can say of today's "fad" breeding. My point is that now horses are being selected and bred on BECAUSE of glaring faults that are being prized in the show ring, whereas back then, folks largely tended to be much more honest about good conformation (at least to themselves, if they didn't admit it to others) and tried to breed away from faults. I am talking about long, weak backs, extremely high croups, etc.....(horses not falling into that ideal, balanced 3 circle diagram). I can find a few long backs on the old horses, for sure--but nowhere NEAR what I find in today's horses. And many of them had loins that could support the length. VERY few horses of any era meet the "perfect three-circle" standard. But we are going farther from it in today's show horses, whereas the older horses were less extreme, as a group. HOWEVER, another thought came to me in the night......as far as actually breeding 3 year old Arabs.....isn't the current thinking that Arabs don't mature until age 5 or older....and that the bones in the back are the last to mature? So wouldn't it follow that breeding a horse that is not finished growing, a bad idea? Again, you have to look at the individual. I certainly have some that I would not consider breeding until they are 4. But I've also had quite a few that I've bred at 3, with no problems. They are not heavy in foal until they are 4, at an age where others are being subjected to weight on their backs and concussion. Although a foal is there 24/7, it is also well-balanced and does not pound on the back like a rider does. It has a "suspension system" that distributes the weight well. So while I agree that in some cases one should wait, I don't agree with your blanket statement that it is a bad idea. Heidi ============================================================ One would think that logic would prevail. But then, if logic did prevail, men would ride sidesaddle. ~ Bob Morris ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================
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