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RE: Re: [RC] [RC] unregistered pure-breds - heidiJessica, I've studied bloodlines in endurance horses for over 30
years, and I beg to differ. While there are certainly exceptions,
I've found bloodlines to be highly prognostic of expected
performance--but I also find that many people are clueless as to what
sorts of bloodlines tend to excel in the sport. Unfortunately, to
most people, the "names" in the pedigree are exactly that--they don't
actually know the horses as individuals. Horses (or any other
critters, for that matter) are in a large part what they inherited from
their ancestors--genetics account for roughly a third of the capability
of the finished product. (Environment is about a third as
well and training/management/riding is the other third.) So
while genetics isn't everything, it makes up a significant part of the
package. Sometimes when you ignore genetics you still get
lucky. But the big mistake I see people make is to prognosticate
based on the fame of the horses in the pedigree (NOT a very good
indicator) instead of on knowledge of what those horses might actually
contribute to a prospect.
Tell us more--what bloodlines did Rikki Tikki have that you claim
would not be considered for endurance? I looked him up on
DataSource, and he is listed, but with "data unavailable."
I sponsored a junior rider last year on a 25-year-old half-Arab
mare. When we started the year, we didn't know her breeding--but
were able to find it out as the season went on. She was
fantastic--and a preponderance of her Arab heritage absolutely screams
"endurance" if you know endurance pedigrees. No surprises
there. And I am rarely surprised by pedigrees of top endurance
horses. There are many good sources of endurance breeding--no one
"faction" has a lock on that. But indeed, those sources tend to be
pretty consistent, and the majority of top endurance horses descend at
least in large part from one or more of those sources. Even
your unregistered horses got their abilities from somewhere...
Heidi
It seems to me that too many people rely on "bloodlines" as being a good
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