Horse prices & bloodlines

["David E. Carlson" <dcarlson@theriver.com>]

I think we will see a continual slow rise in the price of well-bred endurance
horses.  As people become more & more educated as to the value of proven
bloodlines & horses properly cared for & handled, we are going to see greater
demand for them.

Heidi is so right about those good ole bloodlines we saw in the showring of the
50's, 60's & early 70's.  They really are the same ones we find in the endurance
rides of today.  Many of those old lines were real "doing" horses.  In addition
to Abu Farwa, the Skowronek kids, Alla Amarward & *Witez II were the Egyptian
sires *Zarife & *Nasr.  I have used these lines (except for *Witez II,
unfortunately as I just never found the opportunity there) since the 60's &
found them really great whether out in the hills gathering cattle, on a pleasure
ride or in the show ring.  I had the opportunity to use & see lots of the
*Zarife & *Nasr horses, living in the foothills of central California, even went
to high school with a Van Vleet grandson. Anyway.... The *Nasr son Bandos, owned
by Wendell Robie & ridden to two Tevis wins, sired lots of good endurance horses
back in those days.  And *Zarife..., there would be no Razifa of course without
him, as he was her sire.  Who can deny the influence of Razifa & her most
illustrious sons, Witezarif & El Karbaj. Julie Suhr too had at least one good
endurance with *Zarife close up in the pedigree.  Looking at some of those old
pedigrees, it almost seemed like *Zarife with Crabbet breeding was a magic
combination for endurance.  And don't forget Bazy Tankersley's breeding.  Lots
of good Al-Marah horses out there.

Interesting to note also though, there are some earlier breeding programs &
bloodlines that we do not see represented very strongly.  Hmmmm.

And.... there are some modern imports that I think we could be seeing more of .
So, it's all very interesting.

I have been studying pedigrees & their correlation to performance for well over
30 years.  The computer & a fabulous database has facilitated this study
exponentially!  I am still adding data continually on an ongoing basis & would
love to receive any & all data any of you ridecampers would be so kind as to
send me.  For this, I would most sincerely like to thank you in advance. I also
will share whatever I do have with anyone seeking more information as to
pedigrees, performance records etc.

Karen