I agree.
> I happen to ride a Saddlebred. And he is certainly capable of more than
> "only Park Pleasure". I know this comment wasn't anything personal, but I
> feel a bit personal about it. The registered American Saddlebred that I
> ride has just finished 195 miles in his first
> endurance season. I showed him in the Texas Hunter/Jumper championship
> show in August where he competed over jumps from 3' to 3'9'', (and had
> all CLEAR rounds). He won 2nd
> place at his first combined test where he did an excellent DRESSAGE test
> and stadium JUMPING round.
That's great!
> This particular horse came from a Saddlebred farm where they have several
> other horses that are currently jumping, in hunter/jumper, doing combined
> training, showing in Western events such as pleasure and barrels, and of
> course they also show harness and 5-gaited.
My 2 cents (i wonder if it'll actually nip anything in the bud...):
It's a common human thing to oversimplify.
A man is asked what he does for a living, and is forever after known
as that profession w/ that name. Ignore his family, ignore his kids,
ignore his hobbies, ignore his sense of humor, ignore the very person
that he is and concentrate on his professional title only. It's like
judging a book by its cover.
Just because a dog is an X doesn't mean that it still doesn't love,
wag, bark, cuddle, obey, have an independent streak, use its nose,
alert you to the movements of the neighbors in one way or another, etc.
An X dog doesn't just "X".
Just because a horse is a "carriage" horse doesn't mean you don't ride
it, that it can't do trails, that it can't this or that or most of
anything else. A "best of breed" does best what that breed can do, but
that doesn't mean that all of that breed is best at that one thing any
mroe than all tall people are good basketball players.
That's not to say that there is no such thing as common characteristics
i.e., "Engineers - immune to both humor and romance" - Scott Adams through
Dilbert; this doesn't mean that no engineer has any sense of humor.
Some days this type of thing really sets me off.
> Saddlebreds are not "one-job only horses". They are VERY versatile. And
> of course so are Arabians and Morgans (both of which I have owned or
> currently own). Ok, off my soapbox, I just think they need to get credit
> for doing more than "Park Pleasure".
In other words, i agree.