Re: RC: Re: Amblin/Racking/what ever

["Duncan Fletcher" <dfletche@gte.net>]

Interesting. I still suspect there is lot of missing information -
anthropologists and archeologists  have a tendency to make sweeping
judgements from too little information which cause constant discarding of
theories. Now the Clovis theory is in disrepute.

Assuming the Barb has a high degree of Arab. What about the Jennet (from
which the gait in Spanish horses is assume to come from - the Barb being
more of a trotting horse). What do we know about it?

Duncan Fletcher
dfletche@gte.net


----- Original Message -----
From: <CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com>

>
> There are actually four "root" breeds or subspecies, but only two have
> survived as "pure" entities to modern times--the Przewalski (sp?) and the
> Arabian.  The former has not had a great deal of impact on Western breeds,
> but has been used some in Asia.  The two that no longer exist but that
make
> up the non-Arab portions of all other modern horse breeds are the Tarpan
and
> the Great Forest Horse.  The latter shows up primarily in draft horses and
> ponies, and the former in saddle-type horses.  So no, the other breeds are
> not "pure" Arab in any way, shape or form, but they developed with
> considerable periodic infusion of Arab blood on the "native" horse, which
has
> gone on throughout history, either in the form of Arabs or of Barbs.
>
> Virtually every history I've read has indicated that the Arab was a
> predecessor of the Barb, with the exception of a small number of
works--and
> most historians consider those to be "histories" that were rewritten to
suit
> a particular author's agenda.  That, unfortunately, happens a lot--not
just
> in the field of horses.  For whatever reason, people have wanted to
> disassociate their breeds from their Arab ancestory, and the Barb was a
> convenient way to do so.  (I am reminded of a rather crazy woman who used
to
> write for Arab magazines--I made the mistake of saying that a particular
> fault came down through a particular horse, and she got all huffy and
wrote
> me a letter stating that no, it did NOT--it was from one of his ancestors!
> This sort of logic is similar to the denial of Arab blood but claiming of
> Barb ancestry...)
>
> I've not been as active with history of horses the past few years, which
is
> why I provided Pat Merkle's e-mail addy in a previous post--she can get
you
> scores of references on this subject, as this is one of her primary fields
of
> study.
>
> Heidi