More Dr. Deb

The February 2010 Equus brings an article in the conformation insights series by Dr. Deb Bennett. “Seeing excellence” is another sensible, clearly written article. “A judge should be knowledgeable concerning bone structure, yet I have seen champions made of horses with a massive silhouette but insubstantial or badly articulated limbs.” And I say: yeah, tell me about it!
In discussing halter classes, Dr. Deb notes that often the horse is given less than two minutes’ total evaluation. “This leads to what I consider a cardinal sin in livestock judging: picking faults (because they can be enumerated quickly) rather than picking horses”. She is also concerned that people new to the horse world and looking for a family or all around mount, often mistake champion halter horses as the best in the show. Again I quote Dr. Deb: “When the top prize is given to such a horse, we know nothing certain about his temperament, trainability, aptitude for a particular type of work or potential for ongoing soundness”.
Personally, I am a wee bit worried about any changes in inspections of Irish Draughts. The current inspection process is less than ideal but it is far better than judging them as if they were just livestock. Livestock are not asked nor are they expected to do even a fraction of what horses are.
I was speaking to a long time friend of mine about the series and I found out that Dr. Deb Bennett was at Upmier’s Stables in the ‘80s. (It was at a time before I made the fateful decision to buy a pregnant thoroughbred mare and plunged back into the horse world). Dr. Deb used the TB stallion Weather Ruler as the equine model for her talk. I sure wish I had been there for that session. I had the honor of meeting Weather Ruler at one of our Beaver Dam Riding School reunions at Upmier’s. He was one heck of a nice thoroughbred. Those who are used to European TBs can’t appreciate just how difficult it is to find a good riding TB horse here – particularly in Iowa. Weather Ruler had a leg at each corner, good bone, balanced conformation, fabulous rear engine and a decent temperament. I have one very mediocre photo of him and that’s all unfortunately.
I just have to add this little bit from Dr. Deb’s November 2009 Equus article. “The expected useful life span of racehorses, especially stayers, has declined greatly in recent years. In the last quarter of the 19th century it was not unusual to find stayers who were still winning not only races but championships past the age of 12. Today according to Jockey Club statistics, the average number of lifetime starts for Thoroughbreds is between 6 and 10 races. Obviously, durability is not an important factor in racehorse selection.”

It is reassuring to have your thoughts and ideas validated by respected experts.

Inspections -- pearls of wisdom

I’ve been thinking about posting something new while not actually sitting down to entering the data. So here I go.

A friend passed something from the Irish Draught Horse Society of Canada on to me. She knew I would love to see the write up that included the inspection of our spectacular gelding Padi’s Granite Summit aka Liam. She was right about that and he does indeed have a “ nice step”. (You'll need to read the report to understand that). I was also interested in the report of inspections because it included some wise words.

“Over the week the inspectors found they were repeating a few comments. I too found I was saying a few things over and over again, so here is some food for thought for members, particularly for those planning to present horses for inspection in the future:
1) Inspections are about suitability for breeding Irish, and not necessarily about suitability for competition.

2) Inspections are about what is seen on that day

3) Breeding is about matching the best to the best and hoping for the best.”

Here’s the link:
http://content.breederoo.com/users/IDHS/files/Inspection-Tour-2009-report-to-members.pdf

It does make me ponder once again, the advisability of inspecting sport horses and geldings. If the inspections are about “breeding Irish” and not suitability for competition, why does the IDHSNA include these?

Hay auctions part two

I did indeed go to the Kalona sales barn the next day. The atmosphere was different than at Frytown. The cattle auction was occurring at the same time as the hay auction -- 1 was inside and the other was outside. There were Amish men and farmers here as well but I did not stick out like a sore thumb since I wasn't the only woman there. There was no organic hay. I did purchase 50 bales of hay. I felt a need to only take a dip rather than to dive right in.

One thing I did notice in Kalona which I hadn't at Frytown was the fact that all of the horses pulling the carts were bay. I don't know if this intentional or just a coincidence.

Hay auctions

I made a dry run to check out a hay auction as part of my lunch hour today. I've never had the need to go to one of them, but hay has been mighty scarce this year. I'm extremely low on hay and there won't be any green pastures for a number of months. I went to the Frytown auctions which are held every Wednesday. Since I hadn't been to an auction before I thought I would see how they worked, etc. This auction is very close/part of the Amish community and the Amish seemed to be buying most of the hay. There was a lot of organic hay available as well.

Every Thursday is the hay auction at the Kalona Sales barn. Kalona is considered the heart of the Amish community in Iowa so I'm kind expecting the same kind of scene there. I am actually going to have to purchase some hay tomorrow so fingers crossed that there is some good hay that no one but me wants to bid on. ;)