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> Just a thought - seems to me that ranches producing 100 or 200 or even
> more  foals in a season are doing the breed no favors, in hopes of
> getting that one  halter champion - who as we all know will go on to do
> pretty much nothing else,  what with the requirements for BEING a
> national champ halter horse. Then they  dump or try to pawn off as
> "endurance prospects everything they can't stand  up and trot out. Sad.
Yes, that IS sad.  And while Bette is correct in her stats as far as what
individual breeders are producing (VERY few in those high numbers, and one
of those is Bazy, who isn't having a speck of trouble selling her foals,
given the fact that as a rule, her foals ARE eminently rideable), YOU are
absolutely correct if you look at it in terms of what specific individual
stallions are siring.  A few prominently-promoted halter sires still top
that list.

However, the fact that the other "leading breeders" tend to be the big
racing farms is equally alarming.  As Bette pointed out in a previous
post, THOSE are the farms that are currently flooding the market with the
cheap-cheap horses that don't make the grade on the track--very much the
same way the TB breeders populate the kill pens.  Something like 3% of TB
foals actually make it to the track, and there is frequently little use
for those that don't.  And our Arab "trackers" are beginning to get the
same reputation--horses that have been selected solely for running
ability, with disposition and trainability be damned.  While they may be
more athletic than their halter counterparts, they are frequently no more
suited for either endurance or for general riding horses either
temperamentally or metabolically.  But because they have athletic-looking
bodies, the uninitiated buyer will still often work through half a dozen
of them to find a good one, since "the price is right."  In the long run,
it is still cheaper to buy the good ones.

Heidi



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