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[RC] Stallion Quality - k s swigart

Tracey Lomax said:


Pretty much.  He's a lovely horse, but he does have
some conformational faults.  Not enough to make me
back off him as a competition prospect, but enough
to make me concerned about breeding him.  He's slightly
toe out, although that is improving as he gets bigger,


Which is not unusual, since many horses "grow out" of this as they put
on chest muscles.


and he is thick in the gullet


Which I don't consider to be all that much of a fault, and horses can
frequently be "worked" out of this (and many of them are inadvertently
worked into it).  It is frequently a neck muscle development issue.


and slightly short in the croup.


Which can also be grown out of at that age, since at the age of 3 his
lower legs have stopped growing, his entire leg has pretty much stopped
growing, but his top line still has 2 or 3 years to go.


One or two conformational flaws I can forgive, if put to the
right mare, but more than that concerns me.



They're good riders but know squat about breeding.
Their reasons for breeding him are colour and temperament:
he does have the most solid temperament around.


And a good solid temperament can compensate for a multitude of
conformational flaws, and the one thing that not enough breeders select
for (IMO) as I have found it to be VERY heritable.  The most perfectly
conformed horse in the world is of absolutely no use without a good
working disposition.  An easy to work with horse will ALWAYS be easier
to find a good home for no matter what its conformation than the most
conformationally perfect incredible athlete that requires expert
handling.

I am reminded of a comment that was made to me at the Silver State Point
to Point ride back in 1995 (by Cindy Collins I think).  When Dean and MJ
Jackson's horses had broken out of their corral and galloped off into
the desert the night before the ride, I threw the bridle on my stallion
and rode him bareback out into the desert after them as I knew he had a
very strong herding instinct and might be able to find them and call to
them (whenever horses got loose in camp, their owners would frequently
find them by MY trailer), and he had had plenty of practice rounding up
my own herd when I wanted to retrieve them off of the 100 acres at home
(that HE didn't get to live on...more on that below).

The next day, Cindy, who had been camped next to me came to me at the
vet check (while the horse was also impeccably behaved there), and said,
"I really like your stallion.  He is SO nice.  Don't get me wrong, he is
pretty and all that too, but the world is full of pretty stallions."

And the nice thing about his foals, every single one of them is still
with its first owner.  They wouldn't part with them for the world
(despite having had multiple offers).  And the biggest reason they
wouldn't part with them is that they have stellar dispositions that are
easy to work with.

Do NOT discount the value of a good temperament.  It is WAAAAAAAAY more
important than ANY conformational feature.


 And he is incredibly well-bred.


This helps when determing what he might throw that is not like himself.


Keeping him entire was never an option. I can't be bothered
with a stallion.


And if you ask me, this is the best reason for gelding a horse.  Saber
never did get to live out on the 100 acres with the rest of the horses.
Stallions are a management issue, and the only good reason for putting
up with it is because you LIKE working with stallions enough to put up
with it.

The "stallion quality ratio" has much more to do with the percentage of
horse owners who both have the interest and the expertise to "be
bothered with a stallion."  THAT number may be close to the 1 in 100,000
that was quoted.

kat
Orange County, Calif.
:)



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