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[RC] Paso/Arab or Arab Mule - k s swigartMel said: First of all I just found out that I won a free breeding to a nice Paso Fino stallion. They only mare I have that is breedable is an Arab. My paso friends frown on crossbreeding with the exception of one who knows my mare and my endurance interests and wonders why I would lease a Paso mare when crossing my Arab with the Paso could make a really nice endurance horse. She thinks it is a nice cross and could care less about what others think. The stallion is a son of a famous fino horse and is himself a performance type show horse. (you paso folks know what I am talking about). Though I am not a "paso folk" never having owned one myself; I do have quite a bit of experience with them (my endurance/RAT pony is currently the lone trotting horse among a barnful of Paso Finos, and I have ridden them all for their owners, and taken a couple of them to shows for them as well). That being said, if _I_ were going to breed and Arab/Paso cross (which I seriously considered a few years back when one of the mares at this barn was available to lease), _I_ wouldn't be looking for a famous fino horse, and I would probably steer clear of the son of a famous fino horse as well (since "fino-ness" is very heritable). The mare I was considering using is a largo horse not a fino horse. The fino gait of a Paso Fino can best be described as "the horse's legs are going 100 miles an hour and the horse is going nowhere." Lots of quick, high stepping knee action and very little forward movement. Generally speaking, the more and faster upward movement of the legs and less forward movement the better. This would NOT be the way I would describe a good endurance horse. I think there could be plenty to like about a Paso/Arab cross for endurance, but only if you were to avoid the "fino" aspect of Paso Fino. So if this stallion was bred to be fino and/or has shown successfully as a fino horse, it isn't one that I would choose for such an experiment (and it would be an experiment, since very few people have done it). This free breeding I won has rendered my plans for breeding my mare to my "dream" stallion since I would either be breeding her to the stallion, or using my "dream" stud fee money to pay for a lease on a paso fino mare. If this stallion is a fino horse....unless you are interested in producing a show Paso Fino and want to get into that, I wouldn't even bother leasing a Paso mare just so I could use my "free" breeding....I would give it away to somebody else who was really in to that. Because what is most likely to come out of such a breeding is a show Paso Fino foal (the raising and training etc of which is going to cost you waaaaaaaay more than the amount of any stud fee that you might have been saving up, the stud fee is peanuts compared the the rest of the cost of producing a riding horse by breeding it yourself). If crossing an Arab with a Spanish horse is a good idea then would an Andy be a better cross than the Paso Fino? Depends on whether you want the horse to be gaited. On another cross breeding note, I noticed that the people across the street have leased their pasture to a family of mammoth jacks. They are gorgeous creatures and that made me start thinking about Arabian mules. My "cowboy" friends said someone would have to be crazy to breed that...you can imagine their reasons...but wouldn't an Arab mule be perfect for the mule riding endurance people? This cross has been done successfully by some of the mule riding endurance people, but it also isn't something that I would recommend unless you know that you like mules. Because, to quote a cowboy friend of mine, "Mules is diffrnt." It would be unwise to make the mistake of thinking that a mule is a horse; it isn't. So it isn't reasonable to assume that you will like mules just because you like horses. Some people do and some people don't. Although, if you were to do this cross, and later discovered that you really aren't a mule person, you probably wouldn't have too much trouble finding a new owner for such a mule with somebody who does like mules as it is likely to be a pretty good mule. The market for a Paso/Arab cross would be virtually non-existent if it didn't turn out to be the endurance horse that you were hoping for. You guys set me straight on this one! Think about the reasons that you want to breed a horse at all (i.e. ask yourself, "what are my plans for the horse--or mule?--that the foal is going to grow up to be.") and then you can make a better decision on a) what to do with your "free" breeding (the most economically prudent thing would be to throw it away:)) and b) what stallion--or jack--to breed your mare to, if any (the most economically prudent thing would be to spend your saved up money on a saddle :)). The questions you have asked so far suggest that you really haven't determined your reasons for breeding other than "I have a mare" and now "I have a free breeding to a stallion." Neither of these is good reasons to breed a foal that is going to grow up to be a horse that will need to be taken care of for a lifetime. If your reason is, "I have always wanted to raise a baby horse." That is a perfectly good reason (and it's gonna cost you, since raising a horse from a baby is the most expensive horse you could ever own); however, in raising a baby horse, you need to be aware that it is only going to be a baby for a little while after which it will be a horse that needs a home, so make sure that the baby you raise grows up to be a horse that SOMEBODY is going to be willing to take care of. If your attitude is, "I am prepared to love it and care for it no matter how it turns out." So much the better, and you can breed whatever you feel like. Judging from most of the Paso Finos I have ridden, I think the right arab crossed with the right Paso Fino would make a fine endurance horse. However, of all these, only one of them was a show performance/fino horse, and not only would he not have made a good endurance horse; he didn't even make a good trail horse. kat Orange County, Calif. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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