The other day I went to a North American Sportpony inspection. I always find these to be well-run, fairly objective evaluations of youngstock and breeding animals, and this year was no exception. But the judge had some interesting comments about the Grand Champion.
This young colt scored 8.5 overall, with a 9 on his overall movement. First, the judge discovered that his owner was an adult amateur. Upon this news, the judge was thrilled with the owner's decision to geld the colt, despite his high scores and beauty. The judge also loved the colt's quiet, sane temperament, and commented frequently on it.
What do I take away from this? Dressage breeders need to breed horses and ponies with quality conformation, movement, and above all, attitude. A "9" mover has no value if he's unusable. Even a breeding animal needs to have a reasonable temperament to handle the challenges that come with breeding and having babies. In a country full of adult amateurs who may never aspire to the upper levels of dressage training, the brain of the horse makes all the difference.
In general, I wouldn't be opposed to stricter breeding regulations across the board, but I beg of all breeders: reproduce only the horses who are trainable! Regardless of how nice the horse is, if I don't look forward to seeing his pricked ears at the pasture gate, if I don't feel safe on him, if he is very difficult to train, I wouldn't want to ride him. And trust me, I'm not the only one.
Bottom line? Not all animals need to be bred. Breed quality, both in mind and body. That makes the journey way more fun for everyone :)
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