Yes he was.
https://www.aqha.com/-/three-bars
Rugged Lark was bred to a lot of different types of mares, the hot could have come from anywhere.
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I honestly think he wants to show off a bit which is fine. They have very nice horses but THIS thread has nothing to do with that. This thread is and has always been about HBK and her horrible breeding practices and care for her poor horses and about 1000 ridiculous things regarding HBK.
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This thread has not always been about Kate Shearer/Kathryn Shearer/Genie Dormady. There is another thread that fits that description, but it went quiet after this one morphed into a KS thread.
This thread started as a simple question about DHH for jumping.
A person who breeds nice horses has every right to be proud of their horses.
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I agree. I did not read the whole thread from the beginning.
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Absolutely.
And Neese’s stock is exemplary.
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Since this thread goes everywhere and I said I would update “Note to Self” my experience buying from Bowie Livestock
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It’s kind of gone from funny to pathetic to just sad.
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I can see why you find this thread discouraging, but it’s lovely to see the horses you breed and their accomplishments.
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Off to read!
I mean it beat mine that year, (who was a year older because covid cancelled prior year) who was top scoring KWPN at the young horse finals in Tryon last year. It’s one person’s opinion of the horses in front of them on that day. There were certainly a lot of lovely animals presented that year.
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I think it’s interesting that Kate understands the necessity for multiple judges to weigh in on the quality of her dogs (it takes at least three outs to put a champion on one, although finishing on 3 5 point majors is rare) but totally misses that concept for her horses. Her entire breeding program hangs on this reserve jumper foal?
If multiple foals had multiple wins in hand, it would mean something. A single foal having a single good day means so little regarding the program as a whole.
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In general I find the scoring at Keurings and YHS shows to be a little more random than hunter breeding shows.
I know of a couple foals that went to the KWPN at Iron Springs last year. I found the scoring… a little head scratchy overall. Not that any of the foals were not nice, but there were some small flaws that got really DINGED in the scores and other flaws that I would say are worse for a sport horse that didn’t seem to bother the judges as much. They definately had a type that they were looking for and horses I thought were actually nicer but less that type scored lower than I would have expected.
YHS is all over the map. I went to Tryon for the finals. They had a qualifier a couple of DAYS prior. DAYS. So not much is going to change in a matter of days, right? The number #1 horse in the qualifier got a GREAT score and then a few days later a very middling, middle of the pack score. Same venue. Same horse. Doing the same things. HUGE swing in scoring. The scores in YHS in general seem kind of random… some judges score much higher than others. The judging seems very skewed to certain types and being older generally seems to be better than being younger, even though horses are only judged against others of the same age. It just feels…kind of random.
HB seems MUCH less random. Yes, sometimes there’s a little shuffling in the order between the top 2 and ocassional you have shows where everything is wonky and you’re like “what?” But generally the best horses come out on top again and again no matter who the judge and no matter the competition. And they stay competitive from year to year to year.
So… I don’t really know how to explain that except as a data point that, at least to me, someone who is fairly into the hunter breeding world, who is doing YHS, and who knows some horses being inspected for KWPN-- YHS and the inspections seem a lot more like “you could just have a lucky day” as compared to HB.
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Didn’t KS mention in some reply that her foals/young horses were going to do the YHS this year? I don’t think there is one in FL so I assume she means she will aim for the one at TIEC in Sept.
Also, the KWPN keuring schedule was recently amended to include a site in Ocala. Isn’t that where KS is now? The original schedule didn’t have any locations in FL - I think the closest site was in North Georgia.
WB inspections are real “head scratchers” to me with same horses being eligible for multiple registries. We took our Hanovarian bred stallion to the North American stallion test at Hilltop Farm and he was lifetime approved and licensed for breeding by not only Hanovarian but also the Oldenburg and Westfalen verbands. Our Tuigpaard mare and her daughter by Flexible are both also approved broodmares for Holsteiners. We have two TB mares also approved broodmares for Holsteiner. All four mares have foals rated premium by the Holsteiner registry. When we took our Tuigpaard mare and her flexible baby to a KWPN inspection years ago, the Dutch judges looked at her like she was a three eyed squid !! They asked why we were at the riding inspection instead of the harness inspection, place our foal last out of nine. Afew years later the baby now grown was approved and rated premium by the Holsteiner registry, so……
IMG_0832
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this is the Cornet Obolensky daughter a couple of months ago just the day before I backed her for the first time. Prefer to start them early during their 3yr old yr but got buried with too many horses to ride and got a late start
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Yes, I think it’s a little less consistent and that was kind of my point- to say there were no nice KWPN foals that year because Kate’s was reserve champion is unfair. It’s one opinion on one day for baby horses that are changing rapidly from someone who may be looking for something very different than what you or I look for.
As far as the qualifier vs finals, I know mine jumped significantly better in the qualifier because he was a little impressed and by the finals he had fallen in love with Klaus and the grain bucket and felt the goal was to get to him as fast as possible 
I was surprised he scored as well as he did in the jump chute part but just because he acted like a goober then doesn’t mean he’s a bad horse. The winner of his class was one who I personally wouldn’t have considered for myself based off what I look for. Those types of shows are an activity to get them out and get another set of eyes- that opinion is one piece of information on what you have, but not the end all be all either way. Certainly not enough to justify an entire breeding program with.
I think hunter breeding has less variation in what’s presented and less overall information for the judges to evaluate, too. They aren’t loose and cantering which is something they get judged on at keurings and the YHS shows. I don’t personally place a lot of stock in future success by a baby horse’s ability to change leads cleanly when getting chased around a small ring, and I can’t determine how important that is to the judges. I know it’s not super important to me but I don’t profess to know more than the European young horse judges. Same with hunter breeding, I don’t really care about a splint but that’s a big deal in that venue from what I’m told. Everyone is reading tea leaves trying to pick the next superstar to a certain extent.
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I’m in agreement with you! What makes Hunter breeding a lot more consistent is that it’s Hunter judges evaluating only for that type. YHS and inspections are judges from a European background trying to judge against type eventers, jumper, dressage, and hunters— and it ends up being inconsistent because the judges are not from all of those disciplines but rather prefer a specific type even if the horse is aimed at a different discipline than that type is generally aimed at.
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I personally think foal inspections, and our babies have been premium in five out of six we’ve attended (the exception being dead last at the KWPN !), have about as much validity as lining up a bunch of TB babies to piuck the one who is gonna win the Kentucky Derby
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Honestly I stay in the hunter ring, along with some light trail riding so I haven’t exposed him to much he can object to. He crosses water and rides out with other horses nicely. He can be a bit spooky at times, but really, get him in a ring full of jumps and he’s laser focused. He’s also sweet.
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