Re: bloodlines

["C.M.Newell" <reshan@deyr.ultranet.com>]

At 12:52 PM 5/8/98 -0500, you wrote:
>> Mention was made of the Otts and the BlueList-Blue Star business from way
>back 
>> in the 70's. Those people were BIZARRE to say the least, eccentric 
>> breeders with a fanatical view of purity-- one could call them the Jihad 
>

	I was going to stay out of this, but...
as a small scale preservation breeder, I have several comments.
	Firstly, whatever one may think about some of the more strident opinions
of the Otts, we owe them a great deal. "Asil",  "pure", or whatever handle
you want to use Arabs were in dwindling supply until the Otts catalogued
them and made other people aware of what we were in danger of losing.
	Secondly, Miss Ott did not, in my understanding of her writings, hate
Skowronek. I quote her on the subject of this horse:
	"The Skowronek Type has the most popular appeal of any Arabian Type in
this sountry, and Skowronek-bred animals include the lion's share of the
most successful Arabian show-horses here. Their breeders would have to be
out of theri minds to give them up, whether the founder was mutant, or
mongel, or both...No amount of impurity in Skowronek himself would matter.
It is not even important to know what it was...What is important is to
preserve the Skowronek influence now that we have it."
	She often compared Skowronek to Justin Morgan, in terms both of prepotency
and influence.

	What appears to me to be the main issue is the sensitivity of some folks
regarding the ideas of preservation breeders. If you are not a
preservationist, it shouldn't matter to you what we may think (and there is
little uniformity even in preservationist circles). Sp long as your horse
has registration papers, it is considered a purebred. What we are doing is
akin to what the growers of antique strains of apple trees do. We are
preserving source stock. Sometimes to cross with more modern varieties,
sometimes just to preserve what was. The days of being able to easily
return to the original source of Bedouin stock for an infusion of the
original blood are past. What we have is what we've got, by and large. If
we don't keep some of it unmixed, we will lose it. 
	I'm not saying it is "better", just that it is different. It may not be
your cup of tea, but lots of us like it just fine. Clearly, we are the
minority.
	FWIW, the closest thing to perfect in my barn is a CMK gelding who is by a
Davenport sire out of a linebred Skowronek mare.

	Anyone who doubts the wisdom of preservation breeding should take a trip
to Illinois and visit Craver Farms. (And buy a couple horses--Charles and
Jeanne are trying to reduce their numbers--they aren't getting any
younger.)It is one of the oldest preservation breeding programs anywhere,
and the animals this program has produced are graceful, beautiful, and
athletic. 
			Rant off.
				--CMNewell, DVM