Re: RC: RE: Witez II bloodlines (long)

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

Well, there have been some good points made pro and con on this thread.  On one hand, yes, the *Witez II horses have proven themselves time and time again to be more apt than average to make good endurance horses.  On the other hand, as a few posters have pointed out, *Witez II is not the only horse in this stallion's pedigree, and one has to be familiar with ALL the horses, not just the one famous name.

As for whether a horse is "proven" or not--really, you have to take each horse on his own merits, and decide for yourself if the qualities you observe are sufficiently indicative of the qualities you want and are sufficient to override the circumstances that the horse is in.  A great many of the best endurance sires in the Arabian breed never saw an endurance trail themselves.  However, they have proven by the consistency of their get that they do, indeed, pass on the wanted traits.  By the same token, there are "proven" stallions out there whose close relatives are of such poor quality that I wouldn't risk breeding a good mare to them if someone GAVE me a breeding.  So "proven" is nice, but is only one aspect of selection.  Bottom line--the only one who can make the decision is YOU.

Yes, given knowledge and study of conformation and lineage, one can often choose unproven horses and come out a winner.  The verdict is not in yet in terms of endurance performance, as the babies aren't old enough yet, but we did, indeed, gamble a few years ago on a teenage stallion that had never been haltered and was living in a dark, dank stall, locked away in oblivion.  The horse is of small stature, being the survivor of twins.  I was familiar with both his sire and his dam--he is the LAST son of the Abu Farwa son Farlowa, who was the leading herd sire in the Cal-Poly program back in the days when they were still breeding on the original Kellogg horses.  His dam was the daughter of another Kellogg stallion, Zadir, and we had actually had her on lease in our herd.  The stallion is well-built, and despite his lack of handling, came around quite well to being handled by people (although he still has some idiosyncracies).  His first few foals have our mouths watering--and I t!
hink he will prove in the long r
un to be a GREAT addition to our stallion battery!  HOWEVER--I'd point out that this sort of Cinderella story is the exception rather than the rule.  But--having personally lived such a story, I would not discount an unfortunate stallion out of hand--one simply has to learn all one can, and then decide accordingly.

That said--I'd like to comment on the gelding idea.  I've gelded stallions as late as age 19 with NO ill effects.  Yes, some remain a bit studdy--but a great many do not.  It depends a lot on their innate personality.  The 19-year-old stallion that I gelded for a client went on to be an equitation horse for a very young boy--and was just as "gelding" as anyone could possibly want.  In any case, even if not all of the behavior changes, the horse very well would be happier as a gelding, since he is obviously living a rather miserable life as a stallion.

Heidi