Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Heidi..........................That is soooooooo true. 

 

Not every horse is bred for the purposes of distance riding.  Not every person is into distance riding.  I guess it would be a very boring world if everyone liked the same things.  Glad to hear that there are Arabian breeders (in another life I showed a half-arab/quarter horse in Arabian shows. When the purebreds started resembling Saddlebreds, I decided I did not want to go that direction.)  Same with the Quarter Horse.  I am a die-hard Poco Bueno person.  There is a Foundation Quarter Horse Registry with about 2,000 horses registered. 

 

Merry

 

heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> Bear in mind that NOT ALL Appaloosas have these qualities. The ApHC has
> allowed so much outcrossing to the Quarter Horse that most of the
> original traits have been diluted.

> We breed Foundation Appaloosas, strictly Appaloosa
> to Appaloosa breeding. We are currently competing our 17 year old
> Foundation Stallion, Pratts Toby IV, in CTR. In 6 rides he has NEVER
> lost a point on p&r's.

Alas, this sort of scenario is true in just about every breed these days.
The Arabs that excel are the ones who are bred to the old standards, not
the current halter fads, whether they be CMK, old Polish, Edie's Sa'ud
horses, or whatever. It is easier to find such horses in programs that
have stuck to the old standards (CMK, Babson, the Sa'uds, etc.) but there
are pockets of them still in most major bloodline groups of Arabs if one
looks for them.

As you say, the Foundation Appy is a "whole nuther breed of cat" (as my
dad used to say) than the "spotted halter Quarter Horses" that are led
around the Appy halter ring. And likewise, the early Appy breeding
crossed back with old-style Arabs (as per Claude Thompson and other early
Appy breeders) produced some darn good using horses.

The modern QH has gone far astray from its roots as well--the sorts of QHs
that were brought together at the inception of their registry were horses
that could work cattle all day, and were plumb respectable riding horses
as well. They are hard to find anymore, but some folks still stick to
their guns and breed them, because they believe in horses that can be
ridden. It's been a few years, but you'd go a long ways to find a better
horse than Dot Wiggins' old QH stallion Scotch and Soda--a consistent
endurance competitor with good recoveries, and one of the first stallions
in the NW to hit 1000 and 2000 miles, back in the days when there just
weren't many rides to go to in order to rack up many miles.

Likewise, one sees Morgans of classic lines doing well on the trail as
opposed to modern show stock, and as Truman has stated, the old
traditional TWHs were more suited to covering terrain than are the modern
versions. Lee's cavalry likewise rode circles around northern armies for
5 years riding primarily Saddlebreds, back in a century when they likewise
were bred for riding qualities, rather than for some artificial showring
standard.

One of the things I love about endurance is that it highlights the horse
as he is supposed to be, without any artificiality or ostentation. Hence
the horses that are bred to BE what horses are supposed to be--riding
animals!--tend to do well, no matter what the breed.

Heidi

Be Happy, ride an Appy

www.hurricaneranch.net