I watched a race from Gulfstream today in which a horse named Jaguar Poz ran. From the brief image of him on screen he appeared to have tremendous amount of bone. I checked his pedigree just now and do not know from where it would come. Can anyone enlighten me about his pedigree, etc. and perhaps even let me know if my impression is accurate about bone?
I expected to see European bloodlines in the pedigree or South American. Maybe the Storm Cat blood contributed to substance? Would appreciate any opinions from the experts.
All four of my tb’s had good bone, big stout legs down to the hooves, and only one had soft feet, soft black feet. Their bloodlines weren’t the same either. Nijinsky, Kaled - not sure I spelled that right, Stage door Johnny, Blushing Groom, Bull Lea, Blue Larkspur…
Looking at his pedigree, I don’t see any horses that are particularly known for producing light bone, so it’s not surprising to me that he had a decent amount. Like Gestalt, my experience with TBs (I’ve had about 50 over the years) is that light bone is usually not a problem, and I’ve owned a number of TBs that were downright sturdy.
really not surprising… most TBs have much more bone than you’d think - give them a few years, by the time they’re 5 & 6 most of them fill out too.
storm cat had many sons with a lot of bone, and this one is linebred to him. he also seemed to beget some very tall horses. majestic light was another horse i would not use “fine boned” on, same with carson city.
my ArchArchArch-Toy Indian boy is built like a brick outhouse. That’s the second thing I looked at after the overall impression when I went to see him. He’s got a lot of bone without looking drafty. He’s bred for long distance grass, and looks like it.
This! People gripe about our “modern TBs” with no bone, but in reality, a lot of today’s popular lines put out horses who become tanks once done maturing.
I agree with others; while none of those lines are known for being HUGE on their own, they also aren’t known for refined horses. They all tend to produce substantial horses.
Ironically, my lightest boned mare is the one with the stellar sport horse pedigree and a lot of unconventional breeding. I call her my china doll. :lol:
My track vet always says big horses don’t stay sound. I usually end up with “older” tbs, around 6-10 years old, and they always have a medium amount of bone - what I consider “good” bone without being drafty. They are usually right around 16-16.2 hands.
It makes sense to me that it would unusual for a horse to be able to have both the bone density needed to withstand the rigors of racing while visually having “a lot of bone.”
Which may be why there appears to be an increased risk of catastrophic injuries with some of these lines that end up maturing into thick horses. Radiographically, the young horses may appear to have sufficient bone maturity, while in reality, they are experiencing more active remodeling than their lighter bone counterparts.
But that’s nothing but my pet theory that I cannot support with actual science. However, I know I’m not the first to come up with this idea-- many have kicked it around, but I’m not sure if anyone has studied it.
Yup… My Private Account horse has as the irish say, “a fistful of limb”. He came off of the track wasp-waisted and slender legged as a 4 y/o and I think he honestly doubled in dimensions since I’ve had him. People look at him and go “THAT’S a thoroughbred?”
I say “yup, this is what they look like when they’re 10.” :lol:
Although, now that there is so much Mr P, ND, Nasrullah, Bold Ruler et all linebreeding (none of which I would say are “fine boned”) I think it’s going to be more common to see horses with bigger frames and limbs. Some of the more common grandsires now like AP Indy, Kris S, Roberto, Dixieland Band, Storm Cat, Private Account, etc, are not little legged. DLB I don’t think has the same tendency to make big horses, but AP Indy and SC definitely sire some very big framed animals.
By the way, re: bone density - there is no correlation between “big boned” and bone density, this was done on a study years ago finding arabians, which are particularly “fine boned”, to have more bone density than most other breeds.
Yeah, the Injury Database tracks data in such a broad manner… I’m not sure it would pick up on something so specific as “big boned.”
They do track “soundness” of bloodlines (I’m not sure if part of the injury database specifically or a separate function of the Grayson-Jockey Club). But they only ever publish average lifetime starts and % of starters per runners, and only for the sires… which makes me think that’s all they track.
It’s so hard to track this stuff because there is about a million things that can play into injuries.
