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On Tue, 3 Aug 1999 Steve McIlree also wrote:
>In addition, the limited number of horses brought to this country must
further limit >access to some lines available in Europe. I'm not
advocating line-breeding, simply >pointing out that our available stock
is the product of line-breeding or inbreeding.
>I suppose that might be a good argument for strict out-crossing of
lines.
As I showed in Part I, although I believe there was little or no
inbreeding or line breeding despite the fact that Njal is in every
Fjord's background, I thoroughly agree that strict outcrossing is good
for the breed.
And although there is no doubt that there was some inbreeding and
linebreeding of Fjords in the early days in Canada and the US, I thought
it would interest everyone to know what two very forward-thinking
individuals in particular did back then to reduce or eliminate that as
much as possible. Their efforts helped keep the Norwegian Fjords in this
country the smart, beautiful, and vigorous animals that we know and love
today. This will also reveal the mystery-shrouded reason that the NFHR
was ever started.
My grandfather was one of the men, so I'll be bragging just a little bit.
He also did something, though, that some of you will disagree with, so
I'm telling the good as well as the (possible) bad. Gene Bauer was the
other man. By the late 70's I believe it was, Gene was not allowing any
inbred or I believe even what he considered line bred horses to be
registered in his registry, The Norwegian Fjord Horse Association of
North America (NFHANA). He also would not register any Fjords that could
not be traced directly back to Norway. The second Fjord that my
grandfather Harold purchased could not be traced back. In fact, she is
Sonja, who is currently the oldest NFHR registered horse. Sonja's dam
was Oslo Miss, whose papers were lost in a fire, and it's never been able
to be determined who her parents were. Sonja had had a few offspring
whom Harold had sold, and Gene would not allow these owners to register
their horses either. Harold and Gene could both be very hard-headed
about certain things, and they butted heads big time over this. I was
very young at the time, and was not involved with things such as
registering, but I believe this is what caused Harold to start, along
with a few other men, another registry, the NFHR. Harold knew Sonja was
a purebred Fjord, and it was very likely that her dam was imported as was
her sire, but it could not be proven. Gene, I believe, was doing his
best to ensure that no horses that possibly could have been crossbred or
inbred would be given any official recognition.
In Gene's efforts to promote outcrossing, he even went so far as to draw
a map of the US and Canada and indicate where stallions of certain
bloodlines were, so mare owners could choose unrelated stallions. Harold
chose to approach the issue in a different manner, namely importing new
blood. He imported 19 Fjords over the years, 17 of which were three and
four-year-old mares, all third prize or better, and all in foal to
different Norwegian approved stallions. He also imported the third-prize
stallion Dragtind, and the famous stallion Grabb who had first prize
himself and first prize for the quality of his offspring. Now here's the
other thing Harold did to ensure diversity of bloodlines, and this is
going to be the controversial part. He never gelded a single colt! If
it arrived on our farm with two testicles, it left with two testicles!
(Let's all pause now while several of the readers have their fit of
apoplexy) : )
Yep, I'm serious. The sound of an emasculator was never heard on our
ranch in Colorado from 1974 to 1990. Harold's strategy was to get the
genetic diversity out there ASAP to stop the inbreeding and linebreeding
that was going on, and the quality could be improved as time went on by
further importations. Not to say the quality of those horses wasn't
good; It was. It's just that a prizewinning pedigree doesn't mean that
every colt should be a breeding stallion. So some would argue that some
of those colts shouldn't have been breeding. The alternative, though,
was that there would be alot of inbred Fjords around to start with, and
then as more people imported, the inbreeding would try to be combatted by
new imported quality. The problem with that is, as I wrote in a recent
post, inbreeding results in horses of diminished size, vitality, mental
capacity, and immune status, along with musculoskeletal defects, and
those things are very hard to combat. If, on the other hand, the
vitality, etc. is in place, the quality can still be improved on. So I
still believe that Harold chose the best way he could have to help
protect the future of the breed in this country.
I do want to reassure folks that now that there are plenty of stallions
around, we are doing our share of gelding. Since 1994, the only colt
that has left here ungelded (or at least with an agreement that the colt
is to be gelded by the new owner) was purchased in utero along with the
mare. In the last two years we have had two excellent colts born whom we
will allow to grow to two years old before we decide whether or not to
geld them. One of them is a red dun, and, although he's very promising,
I'm just not sure how much call there would be for a red dun stallion.
Thoughts anyone? Would you breed your mare to a red dun stallion?
Brian Jacobsen, DVM
Norwegian Fjordhest Ranch
Salisbury, North Carolina
