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[RC] Boldness - k s swigart

Donna Coss said:


...I am totally convinced then, that my herd of Shagya
Arabians, have all inherited this self confidence. After all,
I guess when you breed for an ideal CALVARY HORSE,
for 200 years--this is one of the characteristics that would
be on your blue print! Plus some ruthless culling and
intelligent selection!


I gotta agree, selection as a cavlary horse would require a selection
for a certain degree of boldness.  Timid horses would have to have been
removed from the gene pool long ago.  And if the odd timid horse were to
show up, culling against it would maintain the trait.  However, to
ensure that the trait IS maintained, this would have to be continuous
culling...and don't let anybody start selecting for something else at
its expense as if you start selecting for something else, it won't take
TOO long before the trait is not so prevalent in the breed.

When looking at selectively bred horses, especially those that have been
selectively bred for many generations (hundreds of years), you are more
likely to find some consistency in traits across the gene pool.

In MY breed of choice (the Thoroughbred), it seems to me that the
predominant trait of choice that is selected for is determination
(because it is determination more than any other trait that wins medium
distance races).

In purebred arabian horses, recent selection criteria are quite
different from the selection criteria of the "war horse of the desert"
and, consequently, many modern arabians bear little resemblance to THAT
"cavalry horse" of the past.

That, and the fact that the requirements of a horse that is the horse of
a nomadic raider (descend, attack, run away) is somewhat different from
a mounted cavalry horse for 18th/19th century Europe.

kat
Orange County, Calif.
:)



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