This message is from: Lori Albrough <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Anna Rousseau wrote: > > I am not a Fjord Association member. I have just one Fjord, I bought him to > ride and do breed promos. I was told the other day that the Fjord > association does not allow cross breeding and will pull papers on a horse > that is cross bred. Well, I do not know if that is true or not, but I find > this ridiculous
Dear Anna: The Fjord is very prepotent genetically. This means that a Fjord-cross will look very Fjord-like. The reason for that is that the Norwegians, by virtue of their geographical isolation and the fact they realized they had a good thing in the Fjordhorse, carefully protected the purity of the breed and did not outcross (with the exception of the Rimfakse incident). The Europeans have spent a lot of time and effort to keep the Fjordhorse purebred and to improve the breed, by evaluating the quality of all their horses and breeding the best to the best. They judge their horses on conformation, conformance to breed standard, and performance in a wide variety of activities. For North Americans to come along and think "we can do better" by outcrossing, thereby destroying the purity of the breed, would be a violation of the years and years of protection and preservation that the Europeans have devoted to this most unique horse. It would be a violation of the sacred trust and stewardship we have in the Fjordhorse breed. I don't really care if it would improve another breed, or if most of the sporthorses out there are crosses, or whatever. The purebred Fjordhorse has what it takes to go to the top in many disciplines, and for those disciplines that he doesn't, well, I'm sure there are breeds that do. I hope that makes sense. Lori
