Sunday, December 28, 2008

Not Breeding Quality 101...class is in session!

"Herd Reduction. Older Registered Half Arabian and Quarter Horse chestnut mare. Green broke, she was broke last year. Late breaking do to bad back on the mare, but she is sound and ready now. She is an excellent brood mare and has a great dispostion. Has had 4 foals with current owner, 3 of the 4 are loud in color and 1 is solid. One colored and 1 solid on site, can bring pictures of others. Recived shots late this year, but is UTD on shots. Stands for vet and farrier. She will make a good brood mare for a couple more years, but if training is kept up will be a good mount. Rides well with other horses, might be good at barrels if trained for it. She does great on trails, just needs more riding time. Sire is Bai Handy AHR # 0281696 and dam is April with AQHA. Sorry no number for dam. $500.00 OR BEST OFFER."

Wow. This one reminds me of that old Sam Savitt poster showing all of the conformation faults at once. It's also an example of crossing two breeds together and getting the worst characteristics of both. She got the nonexistant hip, narrow build and lack of muscle of a really low-end Arabian combined with an unattractive head, short neck, straight shoulder and post legs from her Quarter Horse side! It doesn't help that she's underweight and standing like she may be foundered.

This is one of the best examples I've ever seen of a mare who should never have reproduced once, much less four times. Anybody who even considers breeding her in the future should be tied to a chair and forced to watch videos on conformation for 48 hours straight! I'm glad they finally put some training on her (at age 17) - now let's hope she's sound enough for someone to ride so that she won't fall back into the "well, she's lame - let's breed her!" trap.