Musings on Breeding and Training

["Kathy Mayeda" <Kathy_Mayeda@atce.com>]

Title: Musings on Breeding and Training

I agree with Heidi that the current halter scene is a little scary.  There was an article by Blake Brown in Endurance World re: tall horses and club feet.  And guess what – that’s what several of my ex’s halter horses have – and he’s about a half-mile away from Loomis Basin Vet Clinic where Blake shoes.  My Beau has nice bloodlines – but he’s bred to be tall – and guess what – club feet.  (In case someone is wondering – he has no Bey Shah breeding in him at all.)

But with managed care (and much teeth nashing on my part) he will probably be a good endurance horse because he has other components that make up for it.  This is probably true for many other horses as well.  But I have to admit if I were actually to buy a horse, Beau would not have been my choice knowing what I know now.

I will finally admit that I wanted to scream the last time I visited Loomis to see the horses.  They were “well fed” on alfalfa cubes – the colts were skinny and the broodmares were too fat.  And no hoof care or dental care for any of the gelded colts.  They are simply a by product of a breeding program geared towards the name “Bey Shah”.  Perfectly good horses that would be good endurance prospects, but they can’t really be marketed there in their current condition for the price that the breeder wants.  The good thing is that they haven’t been emotionally or physically abused because they aren’t handled too much except for petting.  Just products of benign neglect.  I just hope that they don’t finally go bankrupt because that’s where they’ve been heading for years.  It would be bad news for the horses – they may become the next “Big Red” to be rescued from the slaughterhouses. 

Drako is a product of this breeding program and I couldn’t ask for a sweeter, smarter, pretty and correct horse (good feet, no club!).  He just doesn’t have a halter butt – but has that nice slopey dressage butt.  But he’s been discarded from the gene pool.

Just got a newletter from Parelli Natural Horsemanship.  There was a chart that listed the levels required for competition in reining, dressage, jumping, eventing, etc – Level 4.  Endurance was Level 2.  It’s true that we just want to get down the trail – but somewhere I feel that we could raise our level of horsemanship.  Would be nice to be perceived as good horsepeople with well-trained mounts.  Yes, our world champions totally strive on improving their horsemanship, but it would be nice if the average endurance rider could think about it too.

K.