Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I remember the story of how Ted Jeary got into breeding Arabs.  He had been
at one of Van Vleet's weekend ranch shows that they did 'way back when.
Someone was fishing at a lake or pond and cast the fly back over his head,
thus catching a mare on the underside of her tail with the fish hook.  No
big deal with the mare; they proceeded to remove the hook with a minimum of
fuss.  Ted decided then and there to breed Arabs.  There is a great photo of
Ted standing on Kosciusko's (his herd sire) saddle while fixing something
wrong with his windmill at his ranch.  The Hyannis Cattle Co.'s Kosciusko
sons and daughters were the best among the endurance horses of 20-30 years
ago.

Barbara

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bigcreekranch@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: <heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <lif@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>;
<ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2004 12:41 PM
Subject: Re: [RC] Letters to the World


> >  but until we had the
> > good fortune to come by a couple who are safe, sane, quiet, and
> > well-behaved, we never knew it could be so good.  I'm sure there are
> > some bloodlines and individuals within other bloodlines that are safe
> > and sane and these need to be encouraged and perpetuated.
> This is another good point, Barbara.  Not only has our public promotional
> arm promoted an insane image to the public, but too many breeders have
> bought into this tragic departure from the classical Arabian disposition
> and work ethic.  Those of us who continued all along to TRY to breed sane,
> safe individuals with athleticism have been fighting an uphill battle.
> But for those of us who ride, and who became breeders in self defense so
> that we would still HAVE classic, athletic, SANE horses available to us,
> the reward is there in being able to continue to ride and handle our stock
> into our old age.
>
> Heidi  (who just came in from infusing a young broodmare who had a foaling
> wreck, who hasn't been handled much, but who has such a terrific
> disposition that I can toddle out in the pasture by myself, catch her up,
> flop her halter rope over the pickup bed, proceed to wrap her tail, scrub
> up her hind end, and infuse large quantities of fluids into her
> reproductive tract standing behind her with no restraint, poke needles in
> her, syringe oral meds down her, and still go out next time and catch her
> up and do it all over again.  THIS is the sort of Arab that does not get
> onto the marquee--but this IS the old-time classic disposition, that the
> kids in the family could learn to ride on, and that could do anything from
> the local playday to the working cattle ranch to the endurance trail, and
> be a joy to do it with.  I could not maintain close to 50 horses by myself
> much of the time if they did NOT have this sort of cooperative
> attitude...)
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There are 2 ways to win at this sport. You take a horse and race him for a
short time and then find a new horse or you can take one horse , do the
homework and spend many miles and years enjoying that horse.
~  Paddi Sprecher

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