Conformation & Designer Horse Breeds

It seems like you can't go anywhere these days without seeing a Friesian. These horses are THE fashionable breed. They're a pretty color (jet black), they've got lots of long hair and they've been popularized by movies and television. (Above: "Mask of Zorro," "Alexander," "Narnia: Prince Caspian")

They're gorgeous and, like, super romantic. Which, of course, is why every backyard breeder is determined to get their hands on one and breed it to anything. Their thinking is that Friesian + anything = profit.

WRONG.

The above horse is Yukon. He's a Friesian "sport horse," in this case meaning his daddy was this Friesian (unregistered as far as I can tell) and his mom was a "warmblood." He's 17.2 hands! Wow. Pretty tall for a "sport horse." Poor guy, we might have to start calling him Yuck-on. He's downhill, with a super steep croup and a  weak hind end in general. He does have a nice shoulder, decent legs and a handsome face, but otherwise looks like a fairly unremarkable draft cross. Guess where he's at? That's right, Midwest Horse Rescue. For $500. Despite being broke to ride, with dressage training.

 

This handsome fellow is Danny, another Friesian "sport horse," also at Midwest Horse Welfare-- Free to a good home. Danny can never be ridden, because he was born with very weak pasterns, a defect apparently commonly passed on by his sire. (God forbid his owners stop breeding him to everything with a uterus...)

 

Here's Jewel, yet another Friesian mutt, recently adopted from Midwest Horse Welfare. Her conformation defects include being downhill, camped-under, short-necked, ewe-necked and goose-rumped. But by God, she's hairy, shiny and black, so she must be worth a ton of money, right?! Wrong again. She was adopted for $600-- and she was broke to ride and drive.

Now, I don't want to insult Midwest Horse Welfare, or imply that all horses who end up there are somehow defective. Some good quality horses wind up there, because their previous owners trust the very-well-run MHW to find them great homes. However, the fact that these Freisian crosses are at a horse rescue in the first place does imply that they're not the super-valueable animals some people seem to think they are. The fact that all of these horses have some pretty glaring flaws also speaks to how badly this trendy breed is being corrupted by "sport horse" breeders. I should clarify, by the way, that there are some nice-conformed, true sport horse crosses out there-- just check out the Friesian Sport Horse Registry for good examples (they have a breed standard and registry requirements and everything!). I'm just insulting the pretend ones people are breeding and calling "sport horses" because "random crossbred created with no attention paid to conformation" doesn't sound as nice.

Now let's continue our examination of ridiculous cross-breds, shall we?

Ah, here's Captain Morgan! It's just so classy to name horses after liquor brands, isn't it? Captain is a Percheron-Friesian-Arabian-- because, apparently, someone decided what the world needed was a really confused foal. He's got the weak butt of a poorly-conformed Arabian, the giant feet of a Friesian and the gut of a draft horse that's eaten too much. What's with those joints? Poor nutrition, injury or just plain ugly?  Only $900 for this weird, un-handled yearling!

...and here's Captain Morgan's sister! This time her breeders opted for classic beauty-- in name only. "Athena" is downhill, with a poor shoulder, camped out, has an unimpressive butt and may also have weak pasterns. She's not even an interesting color, despite being a Paint-Percheron-Friesian cross. Also $900.

Who are these breeders kidding? I can go to any local auction and pick up an yearling just like these guys for $100 or less-- and actually, I could probably score something with better conformation or color too. These people just don't understand that being part-designer-breed doesn't automatically give a horse more value!

I think part of the problem is the idea that a mixed breed horse is "part" anything. Let's say that you cross a Friesian with an Arabian. The foal gets genes from both parents-- but those genes aren't equally expressed. The foal won't necessarily look like a blended 50/50 mix between the two breeds. It could have a totally Arabian head, but have the color and heavy build of a Friesian. Or, it could have the massive body of a Friesian, on the tiny legs of an Arabian. Or it could even look pretty much like an Arabian! Unless you have a very prepotent sire or dam, which strongly stamps its offspring with its characteristics, even breeding horses of the same breed is a gamble. When you cross really unrelated breeds, it's REALLY a crapshoot. Athena up there looks like she came out 80% unremarkable paint. Human kids are a good example of this principle; they aren't a blended 50/50 mix of their parents. They carry strong appearance and personality traits from one or the other.

The mystique of the Friesian breed isn't a wrong thing. Practically, they're just another light draft, but there's nothing wrong with fantasizing about them. What's wrong is crossing them to everything, all the time, on the assumption that the resulting foal with be fabulous. It will just be a light-draft-cross!

Please-- stop breeding nonsensically. We have enough grade horses out there.

Is it a Real Breed? Nope, Just a Fantasy.

I'm probably going to take some heat for this... today I'm going to call out a "fake" horse breed.

The definition of a "breed" of animals has two parts:

1) A group of animals within a species that possess similar distinct traits, such as body type, coat color, size, etc. Not all animals must conform exclusively to this phenotype, but most do.
2) A group of animals that has the ability to consistently pass on those distinct traits to their offspring.


Okay, clear? Now let's do a little experiment. I'm going to describe a horse breed and include a picture. You name the breed. Ready?



 A) These horses tend to be smaller, with finer bones and a shorter back. Their faces are usually slightly "dished" (concave). They have a high tail set, delicate ears (often slightly curved) and a spirited temperament. They excel at racing and endurance events.





B) These horses stand 16-18.2 hands and are very bulky, with thick necks and muscular limbs. They have very feathered lower legs, white in color. They are usually bay in body color. They excel in pulling large carts and farm machinery.







C)  These horses are sort of big/tall, but not always. Sometimes they're spotted like Appaloosas, but not always.

Answer A: Arabian.

Answer B: Clydesdale

Answer C: Uhhhh... If you guessed "Sugarbush Draft," you're one of the few people in America aware of this "breed." They all look different, don't they? The description hardly helps either-- it could include any draft cross. And that's the problem-- these horses are more experiment than breed.

They were first created in the 1950s by American Everett Smith. He crossed Appaloosas with drafts to get big flashy horses for his carriage company. In 1982, he decided to "officially" make these horses a "breed."

Smith produced only one "perfect" specimen from his breeding program, the 7/8 Percheron stallion Sugarbush Harley Quinne. That horse, in turn, apparently only produced one good specimen. According to the Sugarbush Facebook page: "Sadly, Harley died in 2006, leaving only a single intact colt, Sugarbush Harley's Classic O, remaining to the breed."

Granted, he's a pretty handsome fellow.

So where are all the other Sugarbush foals?

My guess is that neither of these stallions produced very many foals that looked like what a Sugarbush is "supposed" to look like. That's a common problem with cross-bred horses; instead of being born with the "right" mix of traits from both breeds, they tend to go one way or the other, or have an odd mix of those traits-- like the four Sugarbush horses in the pictures above. (These were on Craigslist, by the way, for insane prices.) Either that, or no one else wanted to try to pass off their draft-cross as a "new breed."

2 year old Sugarbush filly -- downhill, weak rump, short neck, average shoulder, weak stifle and gaskin.

What is a Sugarbush Draft Anyway?

Well, according to the official Sugarbush Draft website, the breed standard is basically this:

• Tall-ish. Like, we hope it's 15.2 -16.2, "but height should not disqualify an otherwise good example of type," so it's okay if it's shorter.
• Any color. We hope it's spotty like an Appaloosa, but it's not really necessary.
• Mostly draft. Anything with 51% or more draft blood.
• Good conformation. Muscular/big.
• So yeah, basically anything, as long as it's draft-ish...

Close enough.

Oh, and because there are apparently only 12 Sugarbush horses left, they're "opening the stud books" so that, as long as your horse kind of matches the description above, it can be registered as a "foundation" Sugarbush horse. Yet, they claim, "The SDHR is not a "round up" organization built to put registration papers on grade drafts."

You could have fooled me. 
 

The Sugarbush Draft Horse is not a breed. It's not even a color breed at this point (like Paints) because color isn't a requirement of the breed standard. Obviously, this group of animals is not consistently passing on any distinct traits because A) there are no distinct traits besides "draft-ish," and B) there are so damn few unrelated breeding animals.

Now please, don't get me wrong. I'm not a breed snob. I don't show, I'm not a fan of any particular breed, and I think some of the best horses can be grade horses-- conformation matters much more than papers or bloodlines. However, I also think that it's almost fraud to charge people $125 to register one of these critters, and $700 for a breeding to the stallion, when the "breed" is so ill-defined and clearly has so little going for it. Also, why would anyone want to create a new draft-type breed today? Nobody except the Amish relies on horses for transport and farm work any more. These horses may be sweet, and interesting, but why create more and more of them when there are tons of unwanted grade draft crosses already in existence? Hell, go get a PMU foal! Some of 'em are colored, and they're often draft crosses! With thousands of horses going to slaughter each year, we really don't need any more horse breeding experiments contributing to the over-population problem.

(If you don't know about the horror of PMU horse facilities, check out this article.)

Since Everett Smith retired in his 70s, the pipe-dream of salvaging the Sugarbush "breed" has been passed on to a gal named Heather, currently living in Texas. She owns the last remaining "pure" Sugarbush stallion and most of the rest of the existing "breed." Now, Heather seems fairly sensible, articulate and intelligent-- except that she is intent on getting babies out of everything with a uterus. Heather and her husband apparently breed Great Dane dogs as well as Sugarbush horses and the spin-off of that breed, Iron Ridge Sport horses. Oh, and AQHA horses, and possibly rottweilers, and Appaloosas. AND a friend is standing a stallion from another "breed" called an "American Cream Draft" at her place-- because, Jesus, let's throw in some more weird color breed mixes! 


In a  recent blog post, Heather talks about breeding her AQHA mare to her Stonewall Sport horse, and having 5-6 foals due in two weeks-- she not certain about how many because she's a little short of cash for a pregnancy test. (Hint: if you don't have much money, don't create more horses you have to feed!)


Heather maintains four different websites to promote her funky draft crosses: Drafts with Dots, Iron Ridge Sport Horses, Livin' Large Farms and the SDHR website. Wow, that's a lot of work! All of her websites look fabulous, and she talks a great game about being a responsible breeder-- but her actions, and some of her statements, reveal what a hypocrite she is. Here are some gems culled from Heather's various websites:

"Currently, Friesian stallions are being used in the breeding [of Sugarbush horses]."

"Unfortunately, in this day and age of designer breeds, the Sugarbush Draft Horse was so often mistaken for a fly by night draft cross.  This really hurt its image!"

"I have now thrown myself full force in getting these horses recognized by the public, and working hard to help resurrect the breed.  Luckily, the standard for the breed is pretty open.  Cross a Sugarbush to a draft, and you get a full registered Sugarbush.  Cross a Sugarbush to a light horse, and you get a Stonewall Sport Horse.  Cross that Stonewall back to a draft, and you get a Sugarbush with generational papers."   

"I see it over and over again, and no matter how many times it's said, it's still wrong. "Sugarbush Drafts are just an Appaloosa Draft Cross". Uh.... no. Those would be Stonewall Sport Horses."

"Here in my area there are tons of horses listed for free.  There are thousands listed for under $500 bucks.  That's way more supply then even the slaughter houses can demand.  And for every horse that is sold, it seems that 2 more take its place..."  (ironic, coming from a woman who breeds EVERYTHING)

"You see, we're free to breed horses.  Any one can do it, and it's not hard.  Producing quality horses on the other hand, then training them, fitting them, and screening homes for them IS hard.  It takes knowledge and work.  There's this mentality out there, that you can get a foal, and sell it for lots of money, and so people are willing to try."  (Says the woman attempting to sell her un-broke young draft crosses for $2,000-$5,500 -- a great "rock bottom" "sale price" according to her!)

"So what do we do with all the extra horses that are created?  Will society absorb them?  Sure, in about 30 years, during which time millions of horses will suffer.  There simply aren't enough GOOD homes out there for all of these horses."

"Yep, that's 5 babies due within 2 weeks for me.  Of course, mares being like they are, it could be up to 2 months apart, but I'm hoping they get them all done close together (so I can stay sane!).  I do have another mare that I believe to be pregnant..."

Saddlebreds, Traveller, Morgan Horses, Horse Breeds & More

I have nothing against Saddlebreds. Okay, maybe. It's just... they look a little ridiculous:

To me, this horse looks like a startled deer, or maybe a frightened Thoroughbred foal, not a show horse. Yet, apparently, this is the type Saddlebred fanciers strive for!

One of these things is not quite like the others.

However, I can't laugh too hard-- one of my favorite horse heroes, Traveller (spelled with a double "l" in the British style) who carried General Lee throughout the Civil War, was apparently a Saddlebred:

RIP Traveller -- died 1871 of Tetanus

He looks more like a Quarter Horse to me. Which brings up an interesting question-- when is a breed no longer really a cohesive breed? The best example I can think of is the Morgan horse breed. One of my first horses, Jess, was supposed to be a Morgan mare:

She had a stunningly fast trot, a neck that could pull a school bus, and a large-ish rump. She was described to me once as an "Amish-style Morgan" or as an "old type" Morgan. When you go back to the original Morgans, the picture pretty much remains the same:

 

...but if you look at modern Morgan horses, you see something that looks like an Arabian:

...so which one is "correct?" Breeds do change to reflect the needs of their producers-- but it seems to me that our "needs" these days rarely include the Morgan horse's original purpose: a carriage/plow/wagon puller. So the breed changed into a fancier show horse. Is it still a Morgan?!