On 2/10/07, Judy Ryder <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > All of these things can and *do* mask the raw baseline data that we *should* > be looking for in evaluations! > The way they do evaluations doesn't tell me anything about the horse that I really want to know. It is impossible to look at the scores alone and know what I would want to know, as a consumer. I want a solid minded horse with natural gait. I think it's really hard to figure out if an evaluated horse has a solid temperament or not from evaluations. Certain types of training can make a good horse seem crazy and fast, because they want speed. Riding, tack and weights can also make a horse perform better than they would be able to without all of that. > > What's the problem that the riders can not get gait on these ponies > *naturally*? without heavier shoes, without bell boots, without the Dig & > Pinch saddles, without the tight nosebands, without their weight on the > horse's mouth, without sitting on the horse's loins, without whips?
The ponies may not be naturally gaited, maybe, maybe not. There might be highly evaluated horse who would do fine without all of these aids, but there also might be a good percentage who would totally fall apart without these things, the problem is, it's really hard to tell without testing that, therefore the evaluations do nothing for me right now, if they started to show the horses in a more natural way, then it might mean something for breeding and/or offspring you might get from them. > > The value (weight, score) of traits: > > In the riding section, tolt has a weight factor of 15, pace: 9, trot: 7.5, > and gallop: 4.5. Walk is only given a 1.5, and slow tolt and canter are > given 0. > > Walk only 1.5? Right off the bat those different numbers seem pretty arbitrary, they want the horses to have all the gaits, but they assign really different values to each gait, and 0? I want a horse with a good canter, maybe not so much of a full gallop. It just seems that the system is geared toward showing. > The conformation guidelines call for straight legs.... but the resultant > conformation of the horse does not indicate that evaluations are having a > positive impact on good leg conformation. > > If the evaluations were working, wouldn't we see more good legs on Icelandic > Horses, and not what we are seeing now? > I guess...didn't someone mention that there was money held out as a prize for the first person who could come up with a 1st prize roan? So people can figure out how to breed for a goal, I'm sure they could come up with straighter legs if they were actually penalized for really crooked legs. In my mind the system is uneven in some way if ponies with pretty low scores on legs can still attain 1st prize, it just seems wierd to me. It's like a beautiful house without a proper foundation, it's not going to turn out good. Kim
