This message is from: Marsha Jo Hannah <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > "Teressa Kandianis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Also I see pedigrees with the dam listed as Purdy mare. From the > bloodline discussion, it seems evident that the Purdy's were breeders > at one time. Can anyone relate that story?
The short version is that circa 1965, Robert Purdy (28 Ranch, Buffalo, Wyoming) acquired several Fjords that had been imported from Norway in the late 50's and early 60's. He bred Fjords until about 1974. After his death, his herd was dispersed without adequate documentation. (No Fjord registries existed in the US until the late 70's.) In some cases, owners had hand-written pedigrees, or word-of-mouth ones; in other cases, there were conflicting stories, or reconstructed guess-timates of ages and pedigrees. So, there were lots of what everyone agreed were pure Fjords out there whose pedigrees were "well, Purdy bred her, and I'm pretty sure Solvfast was her father, but we're not sure which mare dropped that filly". Hence the notation, "dam unknown (Purdy mare)". My good gelding, Sleepy, has a pedigree that looks like swiss cheese---in 3 places, whole branches of his family tree disappear into "Purdy mare" holes. OTOH, my husband's gelding, "Squirrel Brain", has a perfectly-documented pedigree with several big-name Norwegian stallions in it. IMHO, this just proves that, in a using horse, the important piece of paper is the resume, not the pedigree.... Marsha Jo Hannah Murphy must have been a horseman-- [EMAIL PROTECTED] anything that can go wrong, will! 30 mi SSE of San Francisco, Calif. -------
