Archive for category Sport Horse
The Modern Sport Horse Breeding Game
Posted by in Sport Horse on July 11, 2011
More and more people who are looking for a Warmblood Sport Horse are asking about the bloodlines and registration papers of the prospective horses that they are considering. Dressage and Jumper riders and trainers are the most likely to want a horse with registration papers because they recognize the success of the horses bred in Europe and in Europe it is very important that all horses have been inspected and have their papers. Breeders of Warmblood horses in America are becoming more educated about the bloodlines of stallions and mares in the various breed registries, but many are not nearly as concerned about them as their counterparts in Europe. In the hunter world it seems that only some of the breeders are concerned with bloodlines and registration papers, but that is changing as more of the European breed registries are recognizing stallions that are producing good hunters. They have noted the price that American hunter riders are willing to pay for a good hunter and have set out to produce them for us.
For the breeder, going to inspections with mares and foals is a lot of work and money. The mares and foals are presented like at a breed show and are expected to be clean, braided, and able to at least stand for the judge while the conformation is checked. The foal is usually allowed to move freely afterwards while the judge checks out the gaits and overall impression. The mare must have on a bridle and be walked and trotted on the triangle even if she has already been approved with the foal usually staying close and moving with her. The foal can not get papers from the breed registry unless it is presented at an inspection. If it cannot go the year it was born it can be presented as a yearling or 2 year old, but then DNA must be done on the foal and if it hasn’t already been done on the mare and stallion, it must be done on them as well so that a letter of parentage can be presented to the judge to prove that the foal is from these parents. Read the rest of this entry »
Horse-Racing – The Noble Sport of Kings
Posted by in Sport Horse on July 11, 2011
The origins of horse-racing are as old as recorded history. Beginning in 1500 B.C., this sport of kings was practiced by the Egyptians. Flowing down through the Greeks in the first Olympic Games and through to the Romans with their coliseums such as Circus Maximus and its 20,000 spectators, horse-racing has paired man and animal in games of gambling.
Western civilization was introduced to the sport when English knights returned from the Crusades with swift Arab horses. Cross breeding with English mares produced a steed with both stamina and speed. The seeds of the modern horse race stretch back to 1702 during the reign of Queen Anne when several horses were pitted against each other in a race and wagering was born. The profitability of race courses promoted the growth of tracks through out England and the sport became an institution. It has remained a British tradition and has a strong following today. A derivation of the traditional multi-horse race called the steeplechase (the racing of horses over a course with hurdles and shallow water jumps to approximate country riding conditions) was born in England and Ireland in the 19th cent. The Grand National Steeplechase and the Irish Sweepstakes are some of the most famous.
Factoid–Pony-sized Irish horses were the original horse stock in the time of Henry I. They were called Hobby Horses
With the colonization of America horse racing took on a new form. Informal races between the early settlers provided for entertainment and a way to settle disputes. These eventually gave way by century’s end to formal contests at racetracks. The first racetrack was built on Long Island as early as 1665. Harness racing, begun in the 1830s from the custom of informal carriage races usually between frontiersmen who had refined the art from the family buggy. This form of racing is a direct descendent of chariot racing. A variation of this existed in the Old West and was conducted using Chuck Wagons. Read the rest of this entry »