Wednesday, December 7, 2011

cranky in the cold - a grade horse rant

Since I haven't been on a horse in a week I have been getting my horse fix on some of the forums, chat rooms and blogs. 
I keep running into something that I think is a symptom of our extremely shallow, learn what's on the surface, everybody needs to be 'special' society.

When people are chatting about their horses, and yes, I do understand that everyone loves their own horse, the descriptions go something like.... my warmblood who is a Percheron, TB, QH cross; my warmblood who is Friesen, QH, Oldenberg and I'm not sure what else; my warmblood who is part TB and we think part draft.

These are not Warmbloods.  I suppose you could call them warmbloods in the dictionary definition of the roots of the modern Warmblood. 
These are GRADE horses.  GRADE horse is not a dirty word.  It is, or was, the accepted descriptive term for a horse that was not a purebred, eligible for registration with a breed registry.
Now all of these grade horses have a registry, if you can't find one then you make one up, breed a bunch of foals and voila!  create a breed!

Here is my problem with this - it encourages people to breed grade horses (who now have a breed name and a breed registry) and if you don't think that these horses are the stars of the FUGLY blog, you just aren't paying attention. 

In the dog world, legitimate breeders are very quick to point out to gullible buyers that there is no consistency in Peek-a-Poos, Labradoodles or any other made up cross breed because they are not being carefully bred by people with a vision of the future and a GOOD education in genetics, they are being bred by idiots trying to make a buck off of people who want to be 'special' and will pay a small fortune for a mix breed that they could get for nearly free from a rescue or dog pound.  

We are condoning the same 'get rich quick with your newly created horse breed' AND filling up the kill pens with pathetic, ugly horses who did not ask for their sad fate.

3 comments:

  1. *shrug* I do sometimes call my horse an American Warmblood - and clarify that it is a fancy term for a mutt (which he is). I just find it easier to say rather than "Oh he's 3/4 TB, part hannovarian and part clydesdale." But yes I agree there is a difference between a warmblood and a Warmblood.

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  2. I have ridden lots of grade horses. I just don't think they need a title that encourages the ignorant to breed them. The reason the USEF does not require a breed registry for participation in the 7 international sports is for just this reason.

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  3. That makes me batty. I don't run across it much in person, but when I'm perusing sale ads (probably not a good habit), I hate searching for warmbloods and coming up with fugly draft crosses. Ew.

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