>> I haven't studied the conformation goals; I would guess that they would >> be OK... but, like you say, not being recognized.
I DID study them, in detail when I was starting to breed. They are so vague that they are meaningless. >> wasn't as good or something like that - and the judge told me she didn't >> have enough fetlock hair. Now, that's ridiculous Yep. Eveyone knows that old saying: no hair, no horse. (NOT!) I remember reading a comment about fetlock hair on some horse's evaluation once, so yours isn't the only time that ever happened. That shows how ludicrous the scores are. The legs are the basis of the horse's health and strength, along with his back. It had never even occurred to me that HAIR would even be included in the leg scores. "Feathers" should be counted about as strongly as mane and tail - about 0.001%. >> Absolutely. That's probably a good representation of the breeding >> evaluation process as it stands now. I think so. >>> It shows. It shows to those outside the breed, but there is the >>> inability to recognize it within the breed.... in my opinion. When I was talking to the herd manager about the Outer Banks horses, I had to grimace a few times. Some of the symptoms he gave for worrying that the Bankers may be starting to show some early evidence of "genetic collapse" are symptoms that are also common in this breed. The difference is that there are probably 120,000 or so Icelandics in the world. There are 120 Banker horses left in the world. That's very sad. It's also very embarrassing when people in this breed go around with their chests all puffed up in pride over these primitive practices. Karen Thomas, NC
