Why this blog exists
May 30 2007
I am sure this blog will make a lot of people angry, but it exists for a very good reason:
You folks out there are breeding too many crappy horses and for too many bad reasons. I am tired of you keeping the kill buyers in business because you need money and think whoring out your horse is going to provide you with some, think your 1/2 mustang, 1/4 arabian, 1/4 tennessee walker is SO fantabulous it should breed on, or you think it’d be cuuuuute to have a baby horse. Yes, I know that we’ve pretty much stopped slaughter in the U.S. for now, but Mexico and Canada are still killing them at a horrifying rate, and yes, American double-deckers are still going to Mexico and Canada.
Now, how do you know if you’re a responsible breeder or the kind of person I’m talking about? I’m willing to give some of you the benefit of the doubt and assume you simply don’t know what a poor quality, shouldn’t-ever-reproduce horse looks like. Maybe you grew up in a town that didn’t have a library, so those Sam Savitt conformation drawings weren’t available for review. Maybe some other bad breeder gave you bad information and you’re relying on that. Maybe you’ve been living under a rock and you don’t know about slaughter, or you’re so blinded by love that you simply can’t believe anyone would take a colt out of little Precious and cut it’s throat? If any of these are the case, you just need some education and I’m going to provide it to you.
Pay attention folks, class is in session!
If you’ve ever looked at a mare who looks like this and thought “let’s breed her!,” YOU are part of the problem.
I just don’t know quite where to begin here. My guess is someone thought she was a pretty color. This is often the reason for breeding palominos, buckskins, paints, appaloosas, grullas, cremellos, etc. regardless of quality. Lesson #1: Even something that is a pretty color can be conformationally hideous. This is the case here. The only nice thing I can say about this mare is she has a nice shoulder. Unfortunately the negatives far outweight the positives. She is long in the back, has a short, weak croup, a short neck, a huge fugly hammerhead and is post-legged behind. If she’s not standing on a hill, she is also built downhill (croup higher than withers). Yes, the baby is cute but all babies are cute. This is a fact. It is not a reason to breed something that will grow up and look like Mom.
Another example of color over quality, this palomino paint mare has a front end that looks positively deformed, though I’m quite sure she was born that way. She is back at the knee and incredibly crooked. She appears to be a decent mare in other respects, although you can’t see everything from this picture, but this is a good example of Lesson #2: Some conformational flaws are deal-breakers.
Much like a guy who french-kisses his mother or a car that starts on fire when you turn the ignition key, a front end like this screams “NO!” to anyone with a smidgen of knowledge about horse breeding.
Tune in tomorrow for more examples of the Fugly Horse of the Day!
6 comments to “Why this blog exists”
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I’d personally like to see another pic of that palomino paint mare. Looks to me like it’s a terrible picture of her.
I’d say she’s leaning to the side to look at something. Not crooked at all.
Your blog is incisive, witty and sadly all too accurate.
Regrettably a lot of owners can’t see what is in front of them and think Flossy is the prettiest, sweetest and best horse in the world – even when she’s been unsound for 2 years and looks like sh** and excuses like “she doesn’t like being groomed because she’s ticklish or sensitive!!” are frequently bandied.
How many times have you gone to a yard and looked at a horse or looked at a photo on the internet and thought “good grief”, “poor devil”, “that’s scarey” -Or even just …. club footed, straight shoulders, cow hocked, bench knees, pigeon toes, calf-kneed, sickle hocked, etc etc. And others are genuinely saying “pretty pony, nice horse” . A lot of owners actually don’t know what conformation a horse is supposed to have to meet its breed standard, do its job, be healthy and a lot can’t look objectively at what they own.
Likewise folks say “its got fantastic blood lines” then when you enquire you discover its actually a cross breed and they only know the sire side or if its a pure bred and you know the breed very well, you think mmmm there’s a smattering of good stallions there but some way back and the dam side is poor and weak.
Folks often think a purebred that comes with its papers and pedigree means its good. Heck everything has parentage! And even if the great great grand sire won the grand national so what! It doesn’t mean its a good horse – heck there’s another 63 horses in that pedigree alone to dilute (or compliment) anything he might have done.
Then again you have the mare whose breeding is absolutely unknown and whilst she may be average she’s done nothing notable at all (not even as a pleasure horse) but the owner thinks it would be nice to have a baby and maybe even make some money. And even if owner is lucky and foal turns out o.k., sadly owner has never brought on a young horse and doesn’t appreciate that nowadays folks don’t buy green, unpapered horses for money so you make a profit and it takes a lot of money to get one trained to make it saleable.
The mare has considerably more influence on the foal than the stallion and rather than asking “what is this foal by?” they should be asking “what is this foal out of?”
You are absolutely, 100% right. It is opening the door to cruelty. I wish there were some of license required to own an animal, or at least breed one.
100% right Tom, apart from
“The mare has considerably more influence on the foal than the stallion”
It’s exactly 50/50.
Hey Sue! (It is Sue, right?) I’m a longtime reader working my way through the Navy until I’m financially stable (ha) enough to own horses without having to eat microwavable hotdogs every night or worry about needing to sell my valuables everytime the farrier shows up. Anyway I wanted to introduce myself and let you know how much I love reading this blog! You’ve voiced many concerns I’ve had over the years, and you’re pretty hilarious.
So hi! Wasn’t sure where to contact you, so I went back to the very start, and here is more fodder for your comedic needs. Can you believe this crap? (literally)
http://www.stablemaid.com.au/main.htm