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RE: [RC] Breeding Hybrids (was: Spanish Mustangs) - heidiKat, your post raises valid points, and I agree that one can be a breeder and breed hybrids for performance. However, the skilled breeders who do that KNOW that they are not breeding breeding stock, and don't try to use the resulting offspring as breeding stock. I would submit that rather than too many people actually breeding breeding stock, there are too many who are breeding hybrids and THINK they are breeding breeding stock. When they turn around and breed those horses that are actually hybrids (and maybe here I should point out that there is "hybridization" within breeds--we are not just talking about crossbreeding here), then they wonder why their results are not consistent. That said, the process of producing top hybrids cannot continue unless there are people keeping alive consistent breeding lines that can in turn be used to cross back on each other to produce the hybrids. I agree that too many so-called "breeders" look upon their culls as the ones they sell to ride--and I agree that this is not right. Even those producing breeding stock (or maybe I should say PARTICULARLY those producing breeding stock!) need to be selecting for traits that make the horses useful at some kind of performance--and the only way to do that is to "quality test" one's breeding program through performance. That does NOT mean, though, that every individual must be ridden in order to be in the program--the knowledgeable breeder can (and should!) make judgment calls from time to time about individuals. I would reiterate that the preservation breeder only earns that moniker if he or she is preserving traits--not just names in pedigrees. That said, there are far more people out there producing hybrids than producing breeding stock--the problem is that they are not necessarily GOOD hybrids (because they don't START with GOOD breeding stock--and in fact, usually START with hybrids). Additionally, most of them don't even KNOW that they are producing hybrids if the mating is within a breed--they are just mating a mare and a stallion that caught their fancy for whatever reason, and making babies. It is really tough to find GOOD breeding stock, even if you set out to raise hybrids with performance being your only intention! Heidi Heidi said:Breeding the occasional foal for one's own use, having researched what it is that one wants, is no problem to anyone. I was talking more about people who label themselves as "breeders" over the long haul.Personally, I am of the opinion that one can also be a "breeder" of hybrids that you have no intention of ever breeding on. And it can be done "over the long haul" if breeding quality horses, even for other people to ride, is something that you enjoy. It is definitely a breeding skill to select the parents that would make good hybrids and raise them to an age where they are useful to other people and then sell them and do the same again. One does not have to be producing breeding stock to be considered a breeder. One can simply be producing working stock, and get one's breeding stock from somebody else who does have a program to produce breeding stock. In fact, I would be so bold as to say that the biggest mistake that most "breeders" make is that there are too many of them that are trying to produce breeding stock and not enough that are trying to produce working stock but rather just use their breeding stock "culls" as working stock. Whereas, one can get better working stock if one is NOT trying to produce breeding stock. Breeding stock culls do not make the best working stock. Generally because hybrids have a tendency to make better working stock but not particularly good breeding stock. And since there are more people who ride than breed, there is plenty of room in the breeding business for people who focus on producing working horses and just buy or rent their bloodstock from the handful of breeders who produce breeding stock. The long-term production of breeding stock is but a tiny niche of the horse production requirements. Long-term producers who focus on producing working stock are few and far between such that most people who all they want is working stock are stuck with breeding stock culls or raising it themselves. Neither of these options is particularly palatable to the average horse owner. I wish there were more "breeders" who focused on producing quality working stock, which probably means producing quite a few hybrids. You can trust me on this: a horse that was produced with the breeding decision, before it was made, to produce a good working horse is almost guaranteed to be a better working horse than one for whom the breeding decision was a plan to produce future breeding stock, and it didn't come out as good for breeding as hoped. There aren't enough breeders out there producing good hybrids. Which makes it so average horse owners, if they want one will have to produce it themselves in their back yard. kat Orange County, Calif. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. 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