Page 22 - NMHBA Summer 2017

The wheels of change turn slowly
at the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA). Very. Slowly.
Remember what we fondly referred
to as the “high white” rule? It stated a horse with too much white (X-number
of inches) could not be accepted for AQHA registration. Some of those same horses pursued a Paint Horse Association registration, only to be told they didn’t have enough white. As a result, a handful wandered in a strange, no-man’s land of identity crisis. The “reason” for the rule? Something about preserving the integrity of the breed. One string of words thrown out by AQHA went something like: “How would you like it if a horse with white going way above his knees won the All American Futurity?”
Huh?
One past AQHA president responded, “Very happy if that horse’s papers carried my name as the owner.”
The rule finally became less restrictive, with no diminishment of breed integrity.
And what about the cryptorchid nonsense? That was the rule that said all stud horses must have two descended testicles. Talk about getting personal, all in the name of breed integrity. This issue bounced round and round and back and forth for years. Then, during a meeting at one of the AQHA conventions, the iconic trainer Bubba “Charles” Cascio sprang from his chair, unrecognized, and cut quickly to the chase.
“Look,” he said, “if somebody brings a good-looking, well bred colt to my barn and asks me to train him, I won’t get down on the ground and check how many nuts he has. I’m just gonna’ start training on him.”
That perspective simplified the issue and, before too much time passed, the rule was altered and, once again, the integrity of the breed suffered no negative repercussions.
Things became a bit more radical in 1997 when the association approved shipped semen. A wave of widespread mumbling and grumbling washed across the Quarter Horse industry. Many
farms, especially the larger ones, fretted over losing the often high-dollar board and vet bills for mares booked to their stallions. Others contended the extra labor required for shipping would cancel out the potential profits. Most of the concerns, when brought to their lowest common denominator, could be simmered down
to just three one-syllable words – Fear of Change.
The passage of time proved most
of the reluctance to embrace the new technological breeding liberty was, indeed, unfounded. If anything, allowing shipped semen expanded significantly the mare owners’ options. The 20-year-old stakes winning/producing mare who was a risky traveler, could remain comfortably bedded down in her familiar Texas stall, while waiting for First Down Dash semen to arrive from California.
by Diane M. Ci
Stallion owners quickly learned whether or not their studs’ semen stood up to the rigors of shipping. If it arrived at its destination with a low, living sperm count, chances were very good that particular stallion would not be
a member of the shipped semen club. They could, however, be back in the long-distance business in 2001 when the AQHA approved frozen semen.
It’s readily apparent that both shipped and frozen semen could very easily mess with the breed integrity issue that is one of the AQHA’s constant concerns. There was, however, some serious hanky-panky stinking up the breeding industry before the advent of shipped/frozen semen.
Just how serious was that hanky-panky?
Serious enough for AQHA to take the ol’ bull by the horns and implement new rules and requirements that didn’t set very well with many industry members.
The problem rested in a number of horses who were not who their papers said they were. There were instances of mares being booked to Stalllion A, sent to the farm where that stallion stood, only to be bred with semen from Stallion B instead of Stallion A. It was Stallion A’s name, however, that appeared on the resulting offspring’s registration papers.
Was the “mis-breeding” an honest mistake?
Sometimes.
Was the “mis-breeding” intentional? Sometimes.
The ramifications of these “mis-
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20 New Mexico Horse Breeder