We have a Gai Parada granddaughter as a brood mare
who is straight "Gainey". She has a wonderful temperament and always
a joy to handle. Pretty and correct is an understatement with this
mare. It is as close to watching a unicorn in our pasture when she plays
as you'll ever get. This line has also been develop with the objective of
repeating the traits through the generations. There is no mistaking that
this mare come from Ferzon. She is in foal to a old stallion who carries
the Garaff/Witez II bloodlines. We are hoping for a very pretty, very
strong endurance prospect.
You can go to the web site from Fountainhead
Arabians gaineyarabians.com to get the history of the farm and
breeding program. Also watch you pedigrees. Gainey breed horses tend
to have names starting with gay or gai. The Gainey's were very wise in
developing a very strong mare line.
Our mare is mostly Polish, with a touch of
Khemosabi and Gainey. I think adding some "Gainey" tends to pretty up
some lines of Arabs I have seen. My daugher's Arab got the long, arched
neck and pretty head from the Gainey side, we like to think. She also
got what we call the "collapsable Ferzon chin."
In strict sense, an Arabian either bred by the
Gainey breeding program or consisting entirely of lines descended from the
Gainey program. In looser discussion terms, an Arabian that is a high
percentage of Gainey blood.
I'm not as "up" on the Gainey program as some
others here may be, but Dan Gainey and family utilized a lot of Ferzon
breeding, and their program was well-known in the show ring a few decades
back. They tended to utilize really extreme-headed horses, and also in
seeking the rather stylized "level topline" look, somewhat started the trend
toward long, tubular bodies and flat pelvises. Despite that, they did
have some pretty decent stock that descended from some pretty tough horses,
so when one finds Gainey breeding without those particular traits, it can be
pretty respectable riding stock.
