This message is from: pedfjo...@aol.com
In a message dated 4/21/2009 10:41:38 PM Mountain Daylight Time,
owner-fjordhorse-dig...@angus.mystery.com writes:
> it makes me
> >wonder why one would buy young unproven stock from another country?
>
> Because the purchasers liked what they saw in the parents, or liked what
> they saw in the youngstock themselves and because they could.
Thank-you Beth.
It makes no sense to argue over buying " unproven " young stock from
other Countrys, when as breeders, we are BREEDING the same stock, one, two or
maybe 3 short generations away from those Fjords who have just been IMPORTED
by someone else. Especially, when I see people touting their cute fluffy
weaners as " herd stallion " prospects, or selling sucklings as stallion
quality.
Since THEIR sires and dams are from Fjords who walked around in Norway
.....how is it that one more container of babies now instead of 10 or 20 years
ago makes any difference ? THEY ARE ALL IMPORTED Fjords, right ? I have not
seen too many Fjords used in old John Wayne movies.....<g>
When I can sit and listen for hours to Phill Pritchard's storys about
bringing back many many mares from Norway.....and laugh my a$$ off at McWethys
" Big Lift " tale with the drunk Jamacian pilots, all the Fjords tied up
to the chain link fence on the tarmac and runways, OMG.
I love to convince Orville and Anita to share storys about their many
shopping trips to Norway and learn how 100's of quality Fjords, most with a bun
in the oven, and their stallions, Orjjo, Rudaren, Leidjo ect. came to be
here. 9 and the stallions that they PASSED on, now here many years, imported by
someone else, ooops. ; ) * give Orville 2 Marguaritas and
that one come up !
If people have any bloodlines of Grabb, Gjest, all of the Anvil's lines,
letters like OHF, MVF, BDF, ect. ect. someone else just went shopping for you.
They are IMPORTED lines....and not too long ago.
As someone who has been accused of " collecting " both Leidjo offspring,
and Fjords of " color " lately, I confess. It comes with a burden however.
Jeff and I used to raise horses of color and show in the Paint Horse world. We
stupidly lined up our halter horses in futuritys on weekends with 50 horses
and 3 judges placing them.
If we paid whoever was " thehottestthinggoinginthepaintworldtrainer "200
bucks to lead our horse for 15 min. we won alot of pretty Blue ribbons. Every
week. If we led her ourselves.....we got the gate. Every week. Jeff was
actually the bomb at standing a horse up, and looked awsome in his show stuff,
so no worries there. It just worked like that. After experiencing that for a
few years
( hard learners ) and along with the tragic genitic traites popping up (
lethal white foals who die in 2-3 days ) yet expected to follow the tradition
of BREEDING this crap for COLOR, it stopped working for us. That, and a
visit to the trophy shop and weighing those cheesy 2.00 ribbons and fake gold
plastic 5.00 trophys, compared to huge entry fees, stabeling, drug fees,
those 15 min. of trainer fees, junk food, gas to get there, well. We might be
HARD learners but we dont ride the short bus. ; /
Now.....we have a few Fjords of rare colors. We are very lucky and excited
to work with these young prospects daily and try to imagine how they will
turn out. What I have decided NOT to do, is fall into the BREEDING FOR COLOR
game like the Paint world taught us, that did nothing for bettering the
breed. Ruined their breed in fact. Like when you can attend the WORLD APPY show
and in the final line-up of Champion stallions, see NO color, not a spot,
freckle, roaning, frosting, NOTHING, just Impressive looking blubber fat
halter horses. The APPY's were bred for COLOR, and Chief Joseph must be rolling
over double time at the nonsense they have created.
It does alarm me to read about ponies under 6 months old being promoted as
herd sires with high price tags, because of their rare color. It alarms me
to hear about farms liquidating Fjords from their current breeding program,
BECAUSE they are brown duns, and investing in very young stock for replacment
breeding animals BECAUSE of their color. Cranking out 100's of Fjords with
conformation and random faults like blazes, white socks ect. , now looking
to breed for COLOR, ( their words ) is not going to help the breed standard.
Esp. in puppy mill breeding programs, mass produced, bred back every year,
Fjords. Small changes to improve quality does not begin and end with the
COLOR of a horse. I fear in a couple of years what I expect to start seeing.
Out of all 8 white, red and now yellow ( welcome SOLSKINN ! ) duns here, if
what they turn out like as proven adults, remains to be seen. I might end
up gelding the whole bunch of males, actually already started that trend when
I gelded PF Phantom, a white dun colt, our breeding. He had it all going on
with bloodlines I like, proven evaluated and show dam, imported grey
stallion who I have liked since first seeing him, blur ribbon stud.
But....what he was showing me at a year, did not scream STALLION QUALITY.
If he were standing there as a BROWN dun colt, I would not have him on my
stallion prospect line-up. So, he was gelded. Business wise smart ? Nope. I
could have sold him to someone else as an intact male because of his COLOR.
For way too much money BTW. ( sob ) Wouldnt improve the breed any....at least
what I saw then.
I can only hope that as breeders, we continue to look at ALL of the
qualitys in our breeding prospects. If an individual Fjord is in the line-up
for
consideration as a breeding animal, than do your homework. Have them evaluated
by trained evaluators. Take into consideration their TEMPORMENT and that of
their own sires and dams. Become COLOR BLIND.....then use these rare colors
as iceing on the cake. Dont make it the cake itself. Evaluate each prospect
as they are all brown duns. Start from there.
Otherwise we end up like the Paint world. What a fricken mess. So glad we
got out. Breeding everything to produce those color patterns, which also
exploded rates of many genitic and even lethal faults, not to mention lack of
conformation, nasty dispositions ( yearling fillys being handled with lip
shanks at the WORLD show in halter ) and overall inferior horses that cant find
homes and even with papers, training and that fancy COLOR, are seen at
livestock auctions by the 100's weekly.
Flame suit zipped up. Opinions ? Does this trend scare anyone
else ?
Lisa
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