On Sat, Jun 30, 2007 at 08:35:29PM -0400, Karen Thomas wrote: > But by golly, shouldn't we be > much more concerned with preserving these super-sensible, super-brave > individuals than for breeding refined heads, flashy knee-action, etc.? > [...] > Most people I know struggle to make their horses safe and > trustworthy. So why on earth do our breed people feel a need to train these > docile little creatures into fiery (read: nervous) steeds?
*applause* that's really well put, and very, very true. when my barn goes on group trail rides (we did one on the "full moon" on thursday, but being cloudy it was just plain DARK out, except for fireflies :) it's always stjarni who's the calm one, the trustworthy one, the one who goes first if stuff is scary, walks in front of freaky horses to calm them down, goes back to get the stragglers. he was gelded when he was two and his father was gelded at three, iirc. but you raise a fascinating question: if it were us, what would the breeding evaluations evaluate, exactly, and how? having no idea of the format, here are my suggestions in descending order of importance: . approaching rather than avoiding strange objects . calmness when poked and prodded by strange humans . comfortable gaits (whatever the gaits are) under saddle . soundness of build (b/c i figure a lot can be done to support horses in terms of soundness; otherwise i'd place this higher -- might be several different scores on different parts, depending on how they affect the horse's lifetime comfort and usability w/ current vet) . teh CUTE that is all. --vicka
