There are many horses in the TB population who look and act very much like WBs. Maybe not the Darco type, but the modern type. I was looking at dressage horse photos in The Chronicle last week, and the differences between the types competing now are so significant that you’d never believe they were the same “breed” as you define it. Take a look at the photo of the Willemoes son, Willano, who is with Lars Petersen, and the photo of Favourit with Tinne Wilhelmson-Silfven.
[QUOTE=vandenbrink;6213308]
I think many people keep getting confused about what a breed really is. A Hanoverian is not really a breed…nor is an Oldenburg, a Swedish Warmblood etc etc.
“A breed is a group of organisms having common ancestors and certain distinguishable characteristics”
This is a fairly common definition. I can tell a German Shepherd from a Doberman easily. Even some of the more similar styles of dogs when seperate breeds are easily distiguishable…a King Charles Spaniel has different type characteristics then say a Cavalier King Charles spaniel and they are different bloodlines.
When you sit ringside at a big show and see all the Euro type warmbloods go around you cannot accurately pick out with which studbook they are registered. They all have common ancesters and have essentially the same or very similar type characteristics, and movement. As a group they are very recognizable, and have certain distiguishable characteristics from other non warmblood breeds. They are as a whole A BREED. Which studbook they happened to be registered with is the choice of the breeder an typically in Europe at least the regional studbook.
This is not unlike other species where there are regional studbooks of mayor breeds. Holstein cows are one of the most preferred breeds for milk production in the world. There are a number of studbooks that register Holstein cows. There are regional preferences and different local bulls that are used to give some variation to local demands, but they all have common ancestors and commonly exchange genetics from country to country to use in their regional breeding program.[/QUOTE]
