I have always enjoyed
doing blog posts while on European trips, but I haven’t blogged from home yet.
That‘s about to change! I plan to blog on topics of interest to North American
breeders and enthusiasts. I hear the most interesting things from people, which
are often learning experiences for me. I hope to share topics of interest and hope
you will send me suggestions for topics and continue to share all those
interesting factoids with me. Please contact me at superiorequinesires@gmail.com
if you have ideas to share.
My new assistant since 2016, when I relocated to Spokane, WA, is my
daughter, Annie Grinolds. It has been a delight working together. She is smart,
friendly, capable, polite, has great phone skills, and can even spell! Though
she was raised on our family horse farm and thus has good basic knowledge of
horses and rode a bit as a kid, she was new to the warmblood world when she
began working for me. Annie has studied diligently to learn about sport horses and
really enjoys our work. She has been responsible for upping our social media
presence and freeing me up to do things like, well, writing a blog.
A recent topic of
interest to breeders has been Warmblood Fragile Foal Syndrome. When the topic
first broke to the general public last April many people pretty much freaked
out. Some were advocating eliminating all carriers from the breeding pool. Now
that folks have had time to do some research, most have come to realize that
the most critical thing is to test your
mares. Then you can breed to any stallion
without getting a fragile foal. You still have a 25% chance of getting a carrier,
but a carrier can be a performance horse, or even be bred, as long as you breed
it to a non-carrier, as then there is no risk of getting an lethal foal. Over
time this gene can be eliminated from the warmblood population, without
eliminating valuable bloodstock from the breeding population. Again, test your mares!
Yesterday, I received from Germany the book “The Hanoverian Horse,” by
multiple authors. I’ve lusted for this book when I’ve seen it in the Verband’s
sales booth at the stallion licensings. I haven’t purchased it because it’s
only been available in German, so I was thrilled to see a 2018 edition in
English. It’s a large-format 400 page book packed with the history of the
Hanoverian and famous farms and breeders. As I go through it, I’ll share some of the
many insights. This tidbit of history details the first German breeding system:
“Until the 17th and 18th century, horses
predominantly reproduced without breeding control and selection in so called
“wild studs” (Wildengestuet), untouched in nature from where they were captured
and domesticated, depending on the individual purpose. Prezellius reported in
1777 about so-called “half-wild studs” with mares living in the wild all year
round and stallions kept in the stable and only released back into the wild
during the breeding season. This type of horse keeping can certainly be
considered a first specific breeding measure, mainly implemented by studfarms,
which were initially separated from rural horse breeding.”
I loved this little tidbit. It reminds me of the way Western ranches,
beginning in the 1930s and 40s, turned out Army Remount Thoroughbred stallions
with their “native” mares. The Army then made regular buying trips to the
ranches to buy the tough, hardy offspring as mounts for the Army. Because the
local cowboys had (and still have) a predilection for colored horses, many of
the mares were colored. The offspring the Army didn’t buy were sent by the
rail carload back East to be used as polo ponies and “English” horses. Old
photos reveal many show horses of that time as having spots, high white socks
and bald faces. I’ve often thought that the discrimination against colored
horses that used to prevail in the early sport horse world here in North
America was because people wanted to distinguish their European warmbloods from
American-bred horses. Remember when sport horse owners and breeders only wanted
solid bays with no chrome? Well, those days are long gone and even the
Europeans have to admit that a good horse can be any color. And as many
breeders have found out, you can have two horses of equal quality, but the one
with four socks and blaze will usually sell first.
This reminds me of reading Mary O’Hara’s novels as a girl. She wrote a
fictional series about her real life on the Remount Ranch in Wyoming. My Friend Flicka, Thunderhead and Green Grass of Wyoming are the titles of
her books, and if you’ve never read them, you must. They are atmospheric and
fun and actually helped inspire my vision of rural living. I used to look for
the ranch when I drove past Tie Siding and Virginia Dare when I lived in Wyoming for
a few years but I never managed to locate it.
A little commercial: Superior Equine Sires is the only semen brokerage in
the country that still conducts "open" orders, where you can order
any stallion from our list, depending on the country of the sale. This allows
breeder to choose from a vast array of stallions not offered anywhere else. We
also offer shipping services, if you prefer to buy your own semen and have us
import it for you.
With that, I’ll close for now but I’ll be back with more blog posts in
the near future.
