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> Hummmm, do you have something solid to base that statement on? I bet if
> you talked to a few of the long time endurance riders, who have been at
> this since the early days (and longer than you have) , you would find
> that PUREBRED REGISTERED ARABIANS were used (and have always dominated
> the sport) well before the market crashed on them.  The first that comes
> to mind, which is THE horse (a purebred Arabian I might add)  that
> started the sport of endurance riding was Wendell Robies horse BANDOS.
> Or how about this one...can you say BEZATAL???? How about the
> Fitzgerald's horse WITEZARIF. Those are just a few of the well known
> Purebred Arabians that were being used in the sport in the 1950's, 60's
> and 70's.   I'm sorry, but your statement has nothing to back it up.
> Horses were being bought by people interested in the sport of endurance
> riding, and they were often buying Purebred Arabians WITH their
> registration papers.
Jonni, you're right on target.  Those purebreds being ridden in that era
without papers were usually paperless due to similar life circumstances
that still happen today--the Lanigan herd comes to mind, where in the last
years of a very reputable and outstanding breeding program, the elderly
Lanigans could no longer keep track of their horses, and the hired help
didn't know who had been bred to whom to produce the last few foal crops. 
The Registry sadly had to pull papers on some of their younger horses, and
these wonderfully-bred horses were snapped up by endurance riders who did
very well on them.

Prior to the "boom" in the 60s, Arabian geldings could be had quite
reasonably from even the most prestigious breeders in the country.  I
started riding CTRs here in the backwater of central Idaho in 1971, and I
had been a "go-fer" for the local ride managers since they had started the
local event in the mid-to-late 60s--and indeed, the vast majority of the
purebreds ridden had their papers.  Same scenario when I started endurance
riding in 1973.  As most were owned by everyday people, I can't imagine
that they were expensive.  The local ride managers were also breeders--I
rode a half-Arab by their stallion my first year.  Their stud fee to grade
mares at the time was $50, and we raised half a dozen or so half-Arabs out
of our ranch mares.  They bent over backward to help anyone who wanted to
get a purebred to ride--reasonable prices, time payments, etc.  In 1971, I
paid $1000 for my foundation stallion, $2500 for my foundation mare, and
$1000 for another filly that I raised a few foals from, but whose
offspring I didn't keep on in my breeding program.  That was a lot of
money for a kid back then--but I bought the stallion and the less
expensive filly on contracts and spent my saved-up calf money for the
other mare.  I worked as a church janitor part-time to make the payments
on the filly, and I paid off the stallion whe I sold his first purebred
foal.  Money was worth more then--but figure similar horses would likely
be available today for 2-3 times the same dollar figure, which is about on
par with how much everything else has gone up.

Even during the "boom" when there were all sorts of 6-figure price tags
bantied about, the non-show breeders still maintained reasonable prices
for their geldings.  I was one of those breeders during the 70s and
80s--most of our stock went for $1000-$2500 during that time--green
horses, ready to start, for the most part.

The market that "crashed" was the show market.  Good riding geldings
stayed priced about the same--prices drifting up a bit as inflation
drifted up.

During that era, some of the best traditional breeding stock imaginable
was also for sale cheap--I sure wish I'd had some $$$ back then.  They
were being sold off so that people could pay the huge price tags for the
fad stuff.  Being in my late teens when this was going on, I can still
remember some of the fabulous stallions that used to be shown in southern
Idaho--and now we scramble to try to find shards of those programs left. 
<sigh>  One of them was Las-Trad--his descendants are really tough to
find, but one finds them in breeding programs of the folks who stayed true
to the classic horses and bred on anyway.  Astute endurance riders know
those programs--the most prominent name likely being Belesemo, and riders
in Idaho also snap up horses from the defunct Ohadi program any time they
can find them.  We've gotten hold of a few such horses ourselves, and
other modern "using horse" programs have incorporated such horses to a
lesser extent as well, such as New Albion Stud (Michael Bowling).

This sort of microcosm of old breeding occurred all around the country
with similar sorts of horses--but the pattern has been the same.  The
using-style horses were not inflated during the "boom" and in fact,
suffered from underbreeding during that time.  A handful of ranching
programs in particular stayed pretty stable, and in fact, were
"discovered" by endurance riders, since they continued to breed
using-style horses and at the time did not follow the fads.  (Ever hear of
Rushcreek and Hyannis??)  The prices of those that remained stayed pretty
stable.  And those same horses are not the most expensive horses on the
market today, either--although they probably should be, for what one gets
for the money.

Heidi



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