[QUOTE=tomneese;7227637]
I’m gonna start calling them Confederate Sport Horses or Kentucky Warmbloods so they’ll be more accepted :-)[/QUOTE]
Kentucky Warmbloods, hahaha, thatsa good one. Here you go, a couple of websites to show this is not a new idea, on the American Warmblood Sporthorse, the ASB.
http://www.longgreylinefarm.com/ASBsport.htm
http://www.americansaddlebredsporthorse.net/?page_id=320 click on the Hall of Fame, and under current events, “Once In A Lifetime”.
Oh my gosh! Thanks for all the links, pictures and videos! What fun to see saddlebreds jumping, running cross-country and in the hunt field!
[QUOTE=Calamber;7229527]
Kentucky Warmbloods, hahaha, thatsa good one. Here you go, a couple of websites to show this is not a new idea, on the American Warmblood Sporthorse, the ASB.
http://www.longgreylinefarm.com/ASBsport.htm
http://www.americansaddlebredsporthorse.net/?page_id=320 click on the Hall of Fame, and under current events, “Once In A Lifetime”.[/QUOTE]
great links!
You are all very welcome, I learned something new myself. Nice horses.
Okay, it took me awhile to getting around to making an album on FB book that has photos of my Saddlebred that I hunted. The link should be public, you shouldn’t have to have a FB account to see it. Let me know if you have issues.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.566632736697530.145968.100000524258440&type=1&l=4c3a93bc1e
[QUOTE=vineyridge;7227627]
Fashion. And when people look at show saddlebreds and how they move and react, the impression is very far from a hunt horse.
This is a video from the ASHA:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=I1I51sn9s3A[/QUOTE]
I have to say, I sure do appreciate Saddlebreds more from reading this short, informative thread and watching that vid. Seeing them being hunted has impressed me as well, I have to say I never thought about how they were as jumpers. I love their history. I will emphatically state here and now how much I despise saddlebred showing of “saddleseat” and the artificial gaits and horrid training that can be done on them, but I do love how they have been bred for intelligence and sport. This has been a nice thread.
…look at those knees! He looks like he was lots of fun.
[QUOTE=jawa;7240767]
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.566632736697530.145968.100000524258440&type=1&l=4c3a93bc1e[/QUOTE]
He NEVER wanted to touch a rail. He had a major allergy to them!!
He started life at a 3 gaited show horse, but wasn’t animated enough, didn’t maintain his FIRE BREATHING DRAGON attitude long enough in the show ring.
My riding instructor picked him up as a beginner school horse. When he first came to the barn, he still had his stacked shoes on. That’s the one time I had a chance to ride in them. After a few weeks he was deemed to be the right kind of beginner horse for his school. Stacked heels came off and it was my job to get Mystic to understand that he didn’t have to go around with so much knee action. That was 1987 and started my 20 year relationship with him.
When the riding school shut down, the owner gave him to me. He had been mostly ridden in the ring, but had gone out some on extremely manicured trails at that point. Once I owned him we did some major trail blazing and bush wacking. I decided I wanted to try fox hunting some day, so I started taking jumping lessons once a week. I did several hunter paces (one we finished in 30 minutes, and that was after getting lost and we NEVER broke out of a trot).
The first year hunting was hard, he was not very good at checks or field reversals. But once he got it, BOY was he was fun.
I had to retire him from hunting at 25 due to neck arthritis. I would ride him every now and then at home. I retired him from any riding at 27 ish due to the weakness and instability he had even unmounted. The arthritis was in his spine in his neck. The day he walked into the barn and almost fell down turning in his stall to get his feed was the day I made plans to have him put down.
In all the years I knew him he was only lame/ out of work 2 times. One for an abscess the other when he had an eye ulcer and jumped out of the stall into the 6 foot wide aisle and didn’t quite make it. He got hung up on the stall door and strained his stifle. After rehabbing, he was 100%.
Some might be interested in reading ‘The Horse in Virginia’ by Julie Campbell. Among much other interesting info- saddlebreds, standardbreds, quarter horses all descend from the imported TB Diomed. And way back in the development of TBs as a distinct breed (from those three Arabian foundation sires)- they were often gaited as a function of the early mares used. Back in the day, according to the book, they might ‘gait’ to the starting line on the race course, race at a gallop, then ‘gait’ on back.
So all those little mix n match genetic pools are present in all the breeds we hunt. Obviously genetic specialization has occurred but all the traits are in the woodpile! I had a friend who hunted a fabulous standardbred for years- he paced but by golly could jump anything at pace, canter or gallop.
Now I have lost track of the post- was the jumper with the Stonewall prefix related to Stonewall Premier? A 5 gaited stud I met in the 60s- my aunt knew the owner.
[QUOTE=cb06;7229471]
Yep, Saddlebreds are (ideally) NOT naturally gaited and are actually trained to do the two extra gaits (slow gait and rack). We want a BIG, booming trot and too much lateralness tends to ruin their ability to separate gaits and keep the big square trot. So, technically, calling them a ‘gaited’ horse is a bit of a mis-nomer…they come out of the mare doing W/T/C like most other horses.
Many are very athletic jumpers…but always look at the individual horse.
Stonewall’s Little General. Champion showjumber and Puissance horse. Here pictured jumping a wall over 6ft tall.
Beverley, here is the one you were thinking of, don’t know how to look this one up.
I went to the ASHA site and looked him up.
Stonewall’s Little General (1959) was by Haine’s Stonewall King (1934), by Stonewall King (1920) by My King (1916) out of Harshmont’s Flower Girl (1949) by Chief of Harshmont (1939).
Stonewall Premier (1949) is by Stonewall King (1920) by My King (1916) out of Our Birdie (1943) by King Barrymore (1921) by Bourbon King (1900).
[QUOTE=Beverley;7243488]
Some might be interested in reading ‘The Horse in Virginia’ by Julie Campbell. Among much other interesting info- saddlebreds, standardbreds, quarter horses all descend from the imported TB Diomed. And way back in the development of TBs as a distinct breed (from those three Arabian foundation sires)- they were often gaited as a function of the early mares used. Back in the day, according to the book, they might ‘gait’ to the starting line on the race course, race at a gallop, then ‘gait’ on back.
So all those little mix n match genetic pools are present in all the breeds we hunt. Obviously genetic specialization has occurred but all the traits are in the woodpile! I had a friend who hunted a fabulous standardbred for years- he paced but by golly could jump anything at pace, canter or gallop.
Now I have lost track of the post- was the jumper with the Stonewall prefix related to Stonewall Premier? A 5 gaited stud I met in the 60s- my aunt knew the owner.[/QUOTE]
Stonewall Premier was a son of Stonewall King, while Stonewall’s Little General ‘Petie’ was a grandson of Stonewall King. Both also have many crosses to Rex McDonald. Good horses appear time and again in the earlier pedigrees.
Interestingly, Stonewall King is so far the only horse to have 3 sons top the Sire rating list for Saddlebreds, as well as being there himself: in addition to Stonewall Premier, Stonewall Supreme and Starheart Stonewall also became #1.
While ‘Petie’ was from a less fashionable son, the great heart of the Stonewall line came through: I understand he was trained by his amateur owner; he didn’t look the part of a great jumper, but rose to every challenge his rider asked of him. There is something very personable about a Saddlebred.
Here is a lady in Australia who trains for dressage and eventing - fun blog
http://bloomsburystud.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2010-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2011-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=50
[QUOTE=Beverley;7243488]
Some might be interested in reading ‘The Horse in Virginia’ by Julie Campbell. Among much other interesting info- saddlebreds, standardbreds, quarter horses all descend from the imported TB Diomed. And way back in the development of TBs as a distinct breed (from those three Arabian foundation sires)- they were often gaited as a function of the early mares used. Back in the day, according to the book, they might ‘gait’ to the starting line on the race course, race at a gallop, then ‘gait’ on back.
So all those little mix n match genetic pools are present in all the breeds we hunt. Obviously genetic specialization has occurred but all the traits are in the woodpile! I had a friend who hunted a fabulous standardbred for years- he paced but by golly could jump anything at pace, canter or gallop.
Now I have lost track of the post- was the jumper with the Stonewall prefix related to Stonewall Premier? A 5 gaited stud I met in the 60s- my aunt knew the owner.[/QUOTE]
While Diomed was an important part of the Saddlebred, being tail male of Denmark’s dam Betsey Harrison, Denmark’s tail male traces to a different Herod/Byerly Turk line stallion besides Diomed.
The tail male line of the Saddlebred is much more widely represented by the Harrison Chief line nowadays, which traces through Messenger and back to Eclipse/Darley Arabian.
Thanks for all the info! They are indeed sweet horses. On the same visit where I met Stonewall Premier, aunt’s friend’s trainer also put Hillview Ensign through his paces, a 3 gaited horse who if I’m remembering correctly had been AHSA champion the year prior or the year before that (late 50s early 60s). And then, gasp, they offered this horse crazed little girl the opportunity to ride the Big Champion Show Horse, and I was over the moon. They gave me a leg up and then just set me free in the arena- and the elegant, high stepping show horse just transformed himself into a shuffle along packer. I was free to do what I wanted at any speed- and the horse just laughed at me as if to say ‘honey, I’ll do what you want but it ain’t gonna be in show mode.’ I will observe that’s a trait that has great value in the hunt field!
Highland Dale, better known as Black Beauty and Fury for those horse crazy tv kids in the 50s and 60s.
Don’t ask me why this is called the"Rock Hudson Project", it is a photo of the horse with Elizabeth Taylor aboard.
Beverley, my SB had that very same temperament. A friend wanted to foxhunt, but had not really ridden over open country at a gallop. I took him around a big field at a gallop to show her how he’d go and come back down. She then mounted up and took him through his paces of W,T,C and then “tried” with all her might to get him to gallop. He knew she didn’t really want to go that fast, so all he did was an extended canter. He gave her as much as she could handle and not one bit more.
[QUOTE=Calamber;7244673]
Highland Dale, better known as Black Beauty and Fury for those horse crazy tv kids in the 50s and 60s.
Don’t ask me why this is called the"Rock Hudson Project", it is a photo of the horse with Elizabeth Taylor aboard.
Ah, Fury, the story of a horse, and the boy who loved him, starring Bobby Diamond and Peter Graves (Saturday mornings after Roy Rogers and Sky King and before My Friend Flicka).
I perceived from the photo that it was likely on the set of Giant near Marfa TX and so a minor google turned up this footage of Highland Dale from the film (see around the 2 minute mark). He plays a dangerous buckin’ horse. I must watch the whole movie again some time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjp2EiGlZCE
Oh and it appears ‘Rock Hudson Project’ is basically a fan page. My Mom, having been his partner once at dinner, just never could believe he turned out to be gay but then that’s a whole 'nother thread…
My Saddlebred and I are finally learning to jump together. He loves it. I’ve always wanted to hunt him. Unfortunately, the three closest hunts are all 2.5 hours away and he trailers like a kook.
He has great legs and feet. People (including my farrier) often compliment him. And he has great endurance and a can do attitude which are both characteristic of the breed.
Somethinig interesting from last year:
[i]For Immediate Release
Monday, September 3, 2012
Contact: Michelle Krentz
Junior Programs Administrator
Saddlebred Hunt Weekend
Lexington, Kentucky - The Oak Ridge Fox Hunt Club is hosting a “Saddlebred Hunt Weekend” Saturday, October 13 in Afton, Virginia at Tea Time Farm and Sunday, October 14 in Buckingham County, Virginia at historic Chellowe.
Have you ever wanted to try foxhunting? Now is your chance! Oak Ridge Fox Hunt Club is excited to be extending an invitation to all Saddlebred owners and riders who would like to join. The event is designed to highlight the versatility of the Saddlebred, but all breeds are welcome.
Each hunt will be followed by a tailgate social, and an exciting event is in the works for Saturday. There will be no charge for any activities, and a videographer will be on hand to do a piece for the American Saddlebred Museum in Lexington, Kentucky. There is also planned to be coverage by the trade publications.
Please RSVP to Mark Catron, (redacted), or by email at (redacted) by Monday, October 1. If you require stabling or housing assistance, please contact Mr. Catron earlier. For more information, contact Mark Catron or Maria Johnson, by email at (redacted).[/i]
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
