Why this blog exists

I am sure this blog will make a lot of people angry, but it exists for a very good reason:



You folks out there are breeding too many crappy horses and for too many bad reasons. I am tired of you keeping the kill buyers in business because you need money and think whoring out your horse is going to provide you with some, think your 1/2 mustang, 1/4 arabian, 1/4 tennessee walker is SO fantabulous it should breed on, or you think it'd be cuuuuute to have a baby horse. Yes, I know that we've pretty much stopped slaughter in the U.S. for now, but Mexico and Canada are still killing them at a horrifying rate, and yes, American double-deckers are still going to Mexico and Canada.

Now, how do you know if you're a responsible breeder or the kind of person I'm talking about? I'm willing to give some of you the benefit of the doubt and assume you simply don't know what a poor quality, shouldn't-ever-reproduce horse looks like. Maybe you grew up in a town that didn't have a library, so those Sam Savitt conformation drawings weren't available for review. Maybe some other bad breeder gave you bad information and you're relying on that. Maybe you've been living under a rock and you don't know about slaughter, or you're so blinded by love that you simply can't believe anyone would take a colt out of little Precious and cut it's throat? If any of these are the case, you just need some education and I'm going to provide it to you.

Pay attention folks, class is in session!



If you've ever looked at a mare who looks like this and thought "let's breed her!," YOU are part of the problem.

I just don't know quite where to begin here. My guess is someone thought she was a pretty color. This is often the reason for breeding palominos, buckskins, paints, appaloosas, grullas, cremellos, etc. regardless of quality. Lesson #1: Even something that is a pretty color can be conformationally hideous. This is the case here. The only nice thing I can say about this mare is she has a nice shoulder. Unfortunately the negatives far outweight the positives. She is long in the back, has a short, weak croup, a short neck, a huge fugly hammerhead and is post-legged behind. If she's not standing on a hill, she is also built downhill (croup higher than withers). Yes, the baby is cute but all babies are cute. This is a fact. It is not a reason to breed something that will grow up and look like Mom.

Another example of color over quality, this palomino paint mare has a front end that looks positively deformed, though I'm quite sure she was born that way. She is back at the knee and incredibly crooked. She appears to be a decent mare in other respects, although you can't see everything from this picture, but this is a good example of Lesson #2: Some conformational flaws are deal-breakers.
Much like a guy who french-kisses his mother or a car that starts on fire when you turn the ignition key, a front end like this screams "NO!" to anyone with a smidgen of knowledge about horse breeding.


Tune in tomorrow for more examples of the Fugly Horse of the Day!