. There’s good and bad in every breed and I never understand why people can’t accept the fact there are some negative traits in the WB breed that need our attention.
Definitely agree that there are some issues in WB breeding. Disagree that adding “baroque” blood is the answer.
I agree that there is way too high a concentration of certain lines here in the U.S.
I also think that mare standards are way too low now in AHS and GOV. Many of the other books accept anything with four legs. Big problem. Too many folks think a stallion can fix their low quality mare.
This has been true for awhile. I knew a mare inspected in…2002? Who went MMB for AHS with a pronounced and obvious club foot. Had a foal, by a nice stallion, who clubbed.
The latest trend of breeding to the youg horse champion means we have a whole bunch of offspring of stallions without performance proof. Then the popularity of the stallion ends with him being accepted even with a defect that wouldn’t normally be accepted, like OCD. It’s all just a farce at this point.
In Spain, they are developing the Spanish Sport Horse, which has a separate registry. I don’t know the particulars, but I looked at one that was by a Hanoverian stallion out of a PRE mare, and that is how she was registered. She wasn’t the prettiest thing in the world, but had very flashy gaits.
I think the only way to fix the problem is to add outside blood at this point. There’s only so much TB blood can do, and TB blood will never fix collection issues the way a Baroque or Iberian horse could.
There’s a massive overabundance of certain lines in the US, for sure. I can’t throw a stone without hitting a mare that has heavy linebreeding to a C-line stallion (jumpers), or G/W/D for dressage… there’s almost no diversity at this point.
I think stallion standards are guilty of being lax too – don’t forget the mare gets her conformation somewhere. Look at the stallions accepted that have crooked front knees (!) major flaws in the hind end, long/weak loins, short upright pasterns or too lax pasterns… Someone up thread mentioned a “clubbed foot” foal – Kannan is VERY in style right now and is as clubby as they come… doesn’t always come from the mare, I know a few Kannans that are also clubbed.
But now every horse is almost a relative of another, and we’re constantly breeding for what’s in style which means many available mares go to whatever popular stallion is en vogue that year, which means we get dozens of foals turn up for their inspections all by the same sire…
both look absolutely lovely. i love the first one’s trot and elasticity and the second one’s canter.
i also really liked that Historico horse that showed up, but he looks to be full Lusitano – but wow, could he turn on a dime.
the one thing i liked about both is they seem to have the WB elasticity but the compactness of frame of the lusitano - and i really like how uphill both are.
i liked hortela and haiti a lot, from a broodmare perspective – from what i could see, anyway.
not a single one of them looks like a horse that is not a good quality breeding horse. a few of them look like they might be in foal… i’d be curious to see who they bred them to.
I recently stumbled across a PRE x WB colt (2 yr old) for sale and he is sort of like a compact WB. I feel like he has nice extensions and not so much knee movement that can be typical of PRE’s. He seems to be a nice blend of the two breeds. I’ll have to look closer at his breeding. He’s not all “long and float” like some WB’s and I think he’ll do well with collection and extension. I have no idea about his temperament. Just seemed like an average 2 year old.
I do have one PRE that IS spooky as all get out (nothing hard-core, no bolting) and sensitive. He’s not so forgiving of rider error. He can be hot and opinionated. However, he is younger and I have come across a few young PRE’s that were like him/generally weird that went on to be even better mounts once they aged a bit (closer to 10 instead of 4-7). One of the best stallions I’ve ever worked with was a complete fruitbat as a youngster. The PRE can be a “mental ride” because they’re highly intelligent and they know it. Could be hell if crossed with a notoriously difficult tempered warmblood line.
