Leading on from Pedigree dogs, what horse breeds are at risk?

[Wally]

The one breed that springs straight to my mind is the fashion for Mini horses and the fact that some breeders are deliberately breeding from stock suffering (and I do use the term "suffering" in its purest sense) from dwarfism.

Surely horses should only be bred for performance and not beauty alone, granted that only physically sound horses with good conformation will be up to work, therefore a certain beauty is to be gained from ease of gait etc.

Sadly a great deal of Shetland breeders are pony owners, not horsemen and a lot of Shetlands never see a days work, so it's hard to breed from good working stock, because you hardly see them work in the UK.

IN other European countries stallions must be judged under saddle or in harness, or sometimes both as well as breed standards.

 

[Clava]

Those weird American Quarter horses - there was a thread on here called "Is this real..." a while back, but I can't remember the name.....will look it up. Not a breed at risk as such, but a breed that appears deformed and probably should be stopped.

 

[Rokx]

Those weird American Quarter horses - there was a thread on here a while back, but I can't remember the name.....will look it up.

Halter horses... suffering from HYPP.

 

[scottishterrier]

i find the arabs are getting much finer than i remember them to be, same with welsh a's. shetlands are bred with anything and everything and if the desired pony isnt achieved what happens?

 

[BIrish]

IMO - TB's. They are getting faster and lasting less. Breeding for speed is breeding rubbish other attributes.. but thats how it goes..

 

[Clava]

IMO - TB's. They are getting faster and lasting less. Breeding for speed is breeding rubbish other attributes.. but thats how it goes..

Yes, getting so fine that their feltocks break when running. Just wrong! and I agree that Arabs and Welsh A's are getting finer, tiny dished heads and big eyes.

 

[~*sugarlump*~]

tbh i think arabs you see in the show ring are very different (and sorry but abit uglier ) than the arabs you see actually doing endurance or something that takes abit of stamina and strength

 

[Keket]

Paints and Quarter Horses. Paints because people will breed anything with good markings regardless of health and Quarter Horses because of HERDA and HYPP. I also feel that Arabian breeders go too far with the heads sometimes. What should be a nice slightly concave profile seems to be turning into a horrendously dished face. That must have effects on things like mouth shape, dental arcade and nasal passages.

Fortunately, there seems to be enough people breeding these horse breeds that there's still plenty that fit the correct breed standard and don't have major defects. If only we could give a swift kick up the arse to the ones that do.

 

[Keket]

Surely horses should only be bred for performance and not beauty alone, granted that only physically sound horses with good conformation will be up to work, therefore a certain beauty is to be gained from ease of gait etc.

Sadly a great deal of Shetland breeders are pony owners, not horsemen and a lot of Shetlands never see a days work, so it's hard to breed from good working tock, because you hardly see them work in the UK.

And that's the problem with all the breeds that are suffering from irresponsible breeding. Because most horses don't work in the sense that they used to (cattle work, hunting, hauling loads, etc), less emphasis is being put on producing good performance horses and more is put on producing things that are pretty* for the show ring. Now if we could get show ring judges to start picking up on good working conformation instead of show ring conformation, we might be taking a step in the right direction.

*Or just producing things in general; if you've never read fuglyhorseoftheday.blogspot.com, I encourage you too. The people that breed some of those horses ought to be shot.

 

[chev]

Sec As, believe it or not. They're being bred more and more for dished faces and bug eyes, and I've had more than one dentist say they're buggers for having hooks (jaw is curved so teeth no longer meet, so wear is uneven). Doesn't sound like much but does illustrate what happens when we breed for certain characteristics rather than a healthy, well conformed animal as a whole. I've also seen more with twisted faces over recent years.

What the USA is doing with minatures beggars belief too.

 

[xloopylozzax]

i hate the way shetlands and miniture horses are going!

its ridiculous there is a field near us full of the little buggers, no use for anything, too fine and too small to be able to do anything- atleast proper shetlands are capable of work (like wallys/frances for example)
they arent even nice to look at.

they are left in this field to inbreed (father covering daughter inbred, even siblings with same parents or half parents!) with no consideration of the end product.

bloody stupid
atleast the gypsy breeders (well the proper ones) take note of what they are breeding and breed with some thought and consideration.