Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Me too, Dot.  I have owned and showed Arabs and barrel raced and team roped on Quarter Horses.  I love each for what they are (or...used to be).  When the Arabs started showing with curly tails (a Calif Professional at a show in Oregon) in the mid 1970's, and they started looking like Saddlebreds......I got out of it.  When the show ring QH started looking like a sherman tank and the Western Pleasure horses jogged with their noses on the ground (Peanut Rollers), and the 4 beat canter made them look like cripples......I got out of it.

 

Bill and I breed the real Foundation Appaloosas.  Which is App x App with no outcrosses.  Our horses are 3, 4, and 5 generations of Appaloosa blood with NO outcrosses to QH, Arabian or Thoroughbred.  Not to be confused with the ApHC, which is a color breed, Appaloosas.  Sadly, the show horses look and move just like the show QH.  There are some breeders that claim they are breeding "Foundation" Appaloosas on the basis that they have ApHC "F" numbered horses in their pedigrees.  If you look closely at these pedigrees you will see the influx of QH.  We breed for "blood". Our horses have color, bone, good feet, strength, stamina and great temperment.  Our bloodlines contain a preponderance of the "Indian Shuffle" gait.  We don't need to breed to Tenn Walkers to get a gaited Appaloosa.

But, as the saying goes.......To each his own. 

Interesting too, is that the Sporting Dog breeders are pretty much doing the same thing.  I owned and showed an English Springer Spaniel when I lived in Calif in the early 1980's.  I also did Obedience and Tracking with him.  He got his breed championship and his CD in obedience.  I was shocked to see the difference in appearance and temperment between the Breed Ring dog and the Field Trial dog!!! You would hardly recognize them as being the same breed. 

Hope to see y'all somewhere on the trail at an AERC or NATRC ride.  We won't be hard to spot. (sorry) 

Merry Wicklund

 

 

Dot Wiggins <dotwgns@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I've been biting my tongue to stay out of this thread but can't stand it any
longer.
So many are bashing the Arab show breeders for trashing the useful Arabs,
and then turn around and fail to see the same thing in QHs, and other
breeds.
The ranch QH that can go all day, as many days as needed, is becoming a
thing of the past. The QH that can walk fast, and actually, really, trot,
is hard to find.
They have been bred for low head carriage (it's easier to breed "'head down"
than train it) till they have no self carriage, always on the front end.
Even the fairly good ones are often unsound in front by the time they are 6.
The QH show breeders have been working longer to trash a fine breed than the
Arab folks, and they've about got it done.
QHs used be one of the most useful, versatile breeds in the country, hard to
find one now.
I like and enjoy the Arabs I know and ride, but I also have a tremendous
respect and affection for the good QHs I have had.

One last word, having worked with quite few of both, I think QHs are more
forgiving of rider./handler errors.
In other words, perhaps more suited for beginning riders. Many Arabs
don't suffer fools gladly, many QHs will put up with a lot of s**t and
still do a good job.

FWIW

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If you treat an Arab like a Thoroughbred, it will behave like a Quarter
horse.
~ Libby Llop

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