Rural Heritage - Front Porch

Thank you very much, Lynn, for posting this. The pictures and the text are great, but I must say I was also impressed with a lot of the comments which reflect my own criticism of the show excesses, like oversized, artificially enlarged hooves and heads forced high. I wish the judges would come to a more natural approach instead of tolerating and even rewarding all that nonsense.

as I am an owner and a huge fan of percheron horses, I agree with Klaus 100%, when I hear the crap these show people put there horses through for there own ego's, the only thing I can say to them is if there not ashamed well they should be.

I agree with Klaus. I only saw a few real Percherons

I'm not a fan of the whole "horse of stilts" thing. Even less of the over sized feet, weighted shoes, etc. I kind of stop short of getting too critical though simply because while we may not like the things the show circuit does, there are a lot of people out there who would view us working our horses as just as bad. Read some of the comments that follow the story. There are some people there that would be against real farming with horses too.

As with many things, we have to stick together or we'll be wiped out entirely.

Great advice Bill. We must fight the good fight together as an industry.

Well said Bill, it takes all kind. It is sad but I think we wipe out is nearing fast, cause folks just ain't going to do rite

This is one of those subjects that we have to be careful with. Bill you said it well but I will take it one step further. Without the show world there would be few draft horses left. The show world kept the stud books and records of the breeds. Without those dedicated showman there would be few drafts remaining after the iron revolution on the farms.

Really good looking team on that plow.

While I won't do those things with my own horses, I'm not sure about telling someone what they can and can't do with theirs.

Well put Bill.

Just got home from Congress yesterday. Saw plenty of hitch horses with great feet and many that would make you cringe. In the halter classes, the best horses won. The farm teams had a good assortment, and some of them were big horses also. Gave wagon rides for 3 days and helped with some feed team races. Came home very content.

The reason hitch horses and halter horses are different from what farm horses are, has to do with the vastly different jobs they have in life, it seems to me. It's two types of athlete, as a would be swimmers and weight lifters.

We are Percheron-based here, breeding now with homebred stallions. ALL of our foundation mares came originally from breeders whose names anyone at all familiar with American Percherons over the past few decades will recognize. But they didn't sell me their hitchy mares. They traded on their farm horse types, of the same general breeding, but physically not cut out for the show ring dicipline.

All of our horses pedigrees are loaded with "modern" stallions and mares, and they are all purebreds. But they don't resemble the "modern" profile much, except in height in some instances. We have much more bone, muscle and balance befitting of farm horses, only 3 or 4 generations down the lane.

My point is, the gene pool we have is elastic, and can be easily managed to produce individuals that meet the needs of both the practical and the vane.

AND Kari could not be more right in pointing out that without the show ring, the numbers would be far fewer today.

That said, most of the show people think those of us who breed and work farm horses are nuts too. :-)

Undoubtedly there are different purposes among draft horses, my point is that in order to see the real quality of a horse one should rely on its natural attributes , not artificial ones. If you want to have big feet, breed for those, nature will put its limits on that anyway, but using oversized shoes with putty is basically a pretense of something that just isn't there. The same goes for horses being up-headed, do not force the heads up with artificial means (especially if it can lead to cramped muscles, back aches and other negative consequences for the well-being of the animal), let nature play its way.
There is no doubt that without the show-world at least part of the breed heritage would have disappeared but that cannot be a justification for false advertising.
I did not want to imply, Thomas, that show people are nuts in any way, my concern is the well-being of the animals and the honesty in representing the animal.

I attended the Congress as a spectator and supporter for the large group from Virginia. Most of my friends were in the farm classes and did very well. This being my first time at a 'professional' show, I was appalled at the huge feet on the fancy hitches and halter classes. Frankly, I think they look ugly. That's got to be so hard on the leg bones, especially when clopping around on asphalt. How long do those horses last, remain sound, with those modified feet? However, there were a few horses in the cart classes that had natural features and feet that placed in the top ranks.

Yes, Klaus, we are in agreement on the matter of artificial contrivances that attempt to mimic the extreme.

The champion stallion of the show is already advertised for stud service on Drafts for Sale. It's all about money, of course.

Mark Burley is going to be judging all the horse shows before long if he continues on his current trajectory. Things will be more groovy then. :-)

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