I appreciate it is a free world and people can breed what they want but I can’t get my head around why one would put a Quarter Horse to a Trakehner (or vice versa)???
I can’t understand what the resulting foal would be suited for? They’re two completely differently built/muscle development/purpose breeds.
:eek:
I guess you saw the ad on FB for that lovely TrakxQh for an eventing home?
There’s tons of reasons. The biggest being QHs have cornered the market on being truly amateur friendly – and sound. Warmblood breeders like to say their lines are “ammy-friendly” but very few horses are as forgiving of handler error as a QH. QHs generally have clean but sit-able gaits, easy to work with, sound, and trainable. With most QHs you get the QH brain which is a major improvement over most WB brains… I love my WBs and TBs, but there is nothing like a good QH.
They tend to be smart and easy to train and they want to work with you. That is why people breed Appendixes and that’s why they’re still, today, in demand despite a mostly WB niche.
Quarter Horses have several different types. There’s stock type, cutting type, halter type, there’s racing type and appendix-type, and foundation type… all very different in terms of temperament, athletic ability, gaits, etc. There’s a huge difference between the halter QH and the racing QH - you really would be surprised as it’s like they’re two completely different breeds. The conformation of a halter QH is of course the antithesis of WB conformation – but a racebred QH is not dissimilar to a TB, and some stock/foundation line QHs are very nice movers and not the bulky/downhill outline that most people associate QHs with.
The cutting type, while generally not as uphill as racing types, has some tremendous sitting power. You’d be surprised.
There was actually a very nice QH in Area 1 in the early 2000s that moved better than most warmbloods. I met her when her owner worked at Denny Emerson’s. The mare was spotted and just a gorgeous mover and very athletic jumper. I would breed a mare like her in a heartbeat to a WB and consider her an improvement over most WBs I know.
I wouldn’t be breeding a halter-type QH to a WB and expecting major athleticism, but a race-type QH, or a QH like I mentioned above, for the right stallion, I’d do it. You’d get the whole package with that type of cross: consistently sound and ammy-friendly…which is the biggest market.
Does that mean a QH x Trak would set the world on fire? Maybe not at the Olympic level… but there is a big market out there for truly amateur friendly horses and the QH fits the bill for most of them.
No, but I did see a TrakxQH stallion standing at stud, and that triggered the query.
We don’t have the range of QH in NZ, or if we do, I haven’t seen them.
Thanks for the detailed reply 
Ah, you’re in NZ? That gives me perspective. Perhaps your QHs are more stock-type?
Here QHs run the gamut from tall and rangy to thick and unathletic.
Here’s a halterbred QH (not the type I’d breed to a WB)
Here’s a racebred QH (definitely more in line with what’d complement a WB pairing)
[IMG2=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“src”:"https://www.aqha.com/media/21012/biglew_con.jpg)
Here’s an AQHA Pleasure Horse:
[IMG2=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“src”:"https://i.pinimg.com/736x/15/33/1f/15331f605454c89d730b990bd63b731d--aqha-western-pleasure-zippo.jpg)
Unfortunately I do think that the halterbred QHs have colored the average horse person’s perspective on what a QH is. There are some very hardknocking, powerful, sound ranch-bred QH lines that are in cutting and a little bit in racing that produce very nice horses for the average amateur rider.
I personally think halterbred horses have very limited athleticism from what I’ve seen, but the racing, ranch & cutting lines are very handy.
Oh my, there is quite a range/difference eh?
When someone says Quarter Horse, I think rodeo/cutting/barrel horse. I have never heard of QH racing in NZ. Our Trakehners are quite rangy in comparison.
So yeah, a cross of the two - in my mind - is very much not what I would breed.
I had a FANTASTIC QH/TK Cross gelding that no one ever would have guessed was that cross. I had him till he was around 30 and he had babysat many young riders through eventing, hunters and dressage. He was also a great babysitter for my young stock and was 100% sound till the day his big old body gave out. All of that being said I’d never have bred that cross intentionally but man was I glad to have him. His dam was a mare that was very well bred and not “stock type”. Judy Yancy was his breeder. https://www.facebook.com/EATrakehners/posts/10150357599884524. Hopefully that will link to an album of his photos.
Google Indian Artifacts. He is, or i should say was, since he died, a very warmblood type compared to the horses posted. Produced some nice hunter types and I believe if memory serves, has some offspring showing dressage.
Keep in mind that a QH can be as high as 15/16ths TB in blood, at least for the AQHA books. The QH x TB is an Appendix QH, but through competition can earn points to get full QH papers. Breed that to a TB, repeat the process, and you get a nearly full TB with a drop of QH blood lol
I wouldn’t have a problem breeding a nice QH mare, of the sporthorse type with lots of blood, to a Trak stallion. I do not agree with having such a cross as a stallion though.
Who is the stallion?
I saw an appaloosa/Fresian cross recently. Not my cup of tea. Looked like a solid citizen but not a breeding I would risk doing.
Years ago My first dressage horse was a trak/qh cross. He took after his sire in looks and was truly a lovely talented horse. His disposition was very sensitive and would often get explosive when learning new movements, really had to go slow, once he got it, it was no longer a problem. Several times at clinics and horse shows had people ask if he was for sale. We were solid second level, training third and fourth when I had to retire him. Would definitely look at this cross again.
I use to ride/know a Trak/QH cross who was awesome and to look at him you’d never guess he wasn’t purebred. He was by Pralat and was a wonderful CDE horse for his amateur owner.
I think the biggest advantage of the QH, Paint, Appy crosses it the BRAIN! We have found that most riders really appreciate the quieter mind. The Appaloosa stallion we are using has no modern QH blood and his foals are super sensible and easy.
I think there are a lot of reasons someone might want to cross a QH with some type of warmblood, with work ethic, a “sense of humor” that works well for amateur riders, and a more compact size being at the top of the list. But soundness? I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone tout the soundness of the QH breed.My perspective might be different from the typical sport horse breeder/owner, though, because my preference is for Arabians - a VERY sound breed, especially in comparison to QHs.
Of all the warmblood breeds one could cross with a QH, the Trak actually makes the most sense to me. QHs are known to cross very well with both TBs and Arabs (a good QH/Arab cross is just about perfect, in my mind!), and Trak bloodlines have a relatively high percentage of blood from both those breeds.
I rode a QH x Holsteiner cross years ago. Wonderful brain and really fun to jump - was eventually sold to an HJ home. Horse had a nice head neck and shoulder from his mom, shortish back, and a big old quarterhorse rear end. He was the result of this neighbor who owned his own QH racing stud (probably 3/4 TB by pedigree) and who had bought some unpapered Holsteiner and Hanoverian mares from an estate sale auction. Not ideal backyard breeding… but when we saw the first weanling that resulted, we bought him and he was a super fun horse to start, and eventually sold for a great price. However, the neighbor repeated the breeding and the next foal was … yikes! She was VERY downhill with a low set neck and straight shoulder, long back, and Warmblood hind end. Nice brain though. Eventually sold to a local trail riding home. It was really interesting and educational to see two full siblings from the same cross side by side.
I actually rode quite a few of that neighbor’s off the track quarterhorses for a few years. One thing I will say is that most were VERY downhill with VERY low set short necks… even the ones that were 15/16 TB. QH racing is all about sprinting, and the conformation I saw was it’s own specific sort of extreme. Some of them were horribly abused and really challenging to rehab too… my impression was that the world of QH racing was very very rough on the horses… maybe it was just the ones I was exposed to though, who were mainly from Louisiana tracks.
I was reminded of this thread earlier today, a weanling (WB x QH) for sale popped up on my FB. Considering it’s on FB I assume it is public to share… Of course, it is not Trak x QH, but it is a WB x. The WB sire is pretty well known here. I’ve actually ridden 2 of his kids and I think this filly is nicer than most I’ve seen by him:
Here is a video of the weanling, but it shows the dam undersaddle too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHq-…ature=youtu.be
The weanling is a lovely little mover, very light and balanced. The mare is not a bad mover herself.
Goes to show you there is more variation within a breed than without. I did some sleuthing and this is a conformation picture of the dam, she appears to be Appendix:
https://scontent.fbos1-2.fna.fbcdn.n…fb&oe=5A3E8515
I’d consider that a good, complimentary pairing. I could see why someone would be attracted to that filly, without even factoring in the color.
When I saw that filly, and knowing she was by a WB stallion, I knew it has to be Sempatico :yes: Quite nice indeed, as is the dam, whose QH side I suspect is probably a little more QH-y than TB-y.
Not a Trak, but as a teenager I had a Hanoverian/QH mare. I believe she was by a Hanoverian stallion named Varius? I remember having VHS tapes of him but I tried googling and don’t see any info online about him so no clue what his lines/scores/show history (if any) were. She was a nice horse and a great jumper but she had been started way too young and pushed too hard. She had some training issues that I wasn’t capable to fixing as a teenager even though I was a pretty good little rider. I often wish I had her now and if I ran across a similar horse I’d definitely take a serious look.
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Back in the day, there were several pure QH and QHxTB crosses who made it quite big as show jumpers, at least according to Dr. Birdsall’s research.
The horse that made Mac Cone in the beginning was a pure QH.
I’ve always thought that roping bred QHs would be a good cross for jumping. If you got the QH power and catiness, how could you lose?
Trakehners, both the ATAs and the German ones, are pretty much line bred and closed book, I think. So why cross them with something else? They do have a bad rap in warmblood circles (I have one so I can say that) because of all the Arab blood. But they are smart and good jumpers. Just not as well rounded as the warmbloods with both arab and more TB blood than the traks have (I have those also.). So you won’t get all the dressage movements in a trak that you’ll get in a WB usually. There are exceptions. Yes, I know that the Holsteiners are mostly jumpers and not dressage horses.
I’m not a QH fan, even though I did like Go Man Go. Racing QHs were a lot different than the “beefy” ones as they call some of them now. Lots more TB blood mixed with the mustangs way back when.
“not a QH fan” is sort of like saying “not an Arab fan” or “not a WB fan” LOL The enormous variance in QH types as developed per discipline, runs the gamut from the Foundation QH, to the Reining/Cutting-bred horses (who, if started as a Dressage horse, would do really well), to the WP horse, to the HUS horse (which might as well be a TB LOL)
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