[SeaSide81]

I think some people are not quite understanding the purpose of the thread, or at least what I intended to ask.

I am NOT saying Grade horses are poor animals, useless, ugly, or anything like that. There are many exceptional grade horses in the world. A lot of people are defending their personal grade horse saying how great they are. And I agree. There are a lot of very nice grade horses in the world.

The question is: should you breed a grade horse and for what reason? All of you defending your grade horse, would you breed them? A lot seem to be geldings, so I would think if you are the one that gelded them, you did not consider them to be a breeding animal. What about those telling us how wonderful their grade mare is? Are you planning to breed her at some point?

Also, I don't consider a purebred with papers to be a grade, I call that Unregistered, which is different. I also don't consider a cross between two purebred horses a grade, I call that a Partbred myself. A grade horse (to me) is a horse of completely unknown bloodlines, i.e. - you don't know if s/he has Quarter Horse, Draft, Appaloosa, Morgan, or whatever in their background.

Again, I am not arguing that there are not good grade horses, I am asking if you would take the chance to breed a grade horse. And if you are for breeding grade horses (not Unregistered, Partbred, etc. but purely GRADE), why?

[SeaSide81]

Originally Posted by Circle C

Very true. We used to have the UGLIEST App mare I've ever seen. Her conformation wasn't bad, but it wasn't excellent either. She had a roman nose, a short back, a big head, her color was kind of like a flea bitten grey with big black spots everywhere. She was fast, I'll give her that. She was a horse we picked up without seeing (bad idea) from a friend. We bought her because she had excellent barrel lines and we figured what the heck.....she can be used as a broodmare. HA! I was madder than a hornet when we went to get her. She was SOOOOOO ugly LOL.

Anyways, point is - She hasn't thrown a bad baby yet. EVERY time she has thrown excellent conformed and gorgeous babies that have won mo ney in the barrel industry or some other speed event. I;m actually glad we ended up with her.

She sounds like she has worked out well for you, BUT how many other ugly mares do you know that throw good babies? Your mare is probably one in a thousand. She seems to show her bad genes, but give all the good ones. That is very, very rare! Most mares with poor conformation and looks tend to pass that on, I am sure most people will admit.

[lucky_pine]

This is an old thread, yes. But I want to apologize right now. By grade I was kind of thinking unregistered, which to a point offended me considering my purebred filly isn't registered but I do have history and her dam and sires papers. If I did not know the breed of the mare, I wouldn't breed her. If I didn't know the breed of the stud, I wouldn't breed to him. If I did know the breed...or half the breed, then maybe.

[SweetIron]

I think that, whether it's a reg'd horse or grade, the whole thing can be reduced to this question: should I breed this mare, or shouldn't I?
Personally, I think that too many people breed their horses. I know, people want to continue a lineage of, say, their favorite mare. So they reed her once and plan on keeping the offspring forever. In my opinion, that's fine in theory, but I also believe that some kinda provisions should be made in case you become unable to care for that horse. Maybe like a living will? This would prevent the good-intentioned people who fall into hardtimes, from having their horse eventually end up as meat.
I guess I am just thinking of it in terms of cats and dogs. There are so many strays out there that need homes, so why would anyone go outta their way to breed themselves a litter of kittens? Sure, there are the show-cat breeders who actually breed one specific breed and strive for perfection and preservation of that breed. But why breed "grade" cats when you could go to the pound and liberate a few that are already out there and could be on the euthanasia list?
I know I know; comparing horses and cats seems silly to some. And there aren't really "stray" horses like there are cats and dogs, not in most places really! Instead there are auctions, where the killer buyers wait in the shadows and take off with the unlucky, unwanted horses.
Ah heck; I am not disrespecting anyone who breeds and trying to make ya feel guilty or anything. But personally, if I want another horse, I will go buy one that is already out there, alive, and unwanted.

[Lightningsrider]

I think that with the way the horse market is right now that it's just really stupid to breed grades. For one thing, right now they aren't worth anything at all. My mare is a grade and so is her foal, and I don't think either one of them have very good conformation. Way later on, I might breed the foal to a good stallion, in order to always have part of Lightning and Destiny. But in general, breeding grades is BAD.

[WildHorseSpirit]

We bred our BLM mare to a QH/TB/Arab stud *who is now a gelding I convinced her to as she did not need or have the proper place for having a stud* and I got one heck of a filly out of that union.
She goes back to the whos who of the TB and QH racing world and even King himself.
She is perfect in my eyes and such a sweet temperment.
I am picky when it comes to breeding, I could care less if the horse is registered or not. You can't ride papers and papers doesn't mean it will be a world champion but they can add onto sale prices since they can be in breed sanctioned shows.
My BLM is registered with NAMAR and the sire 1/2 QH Association so they are papered , the filly is registered too!

I think you have to look at quality over lineage alot of the time, I have seen some nice lineage on nasty looking horses, and some nice lesser bred studs that has produced wonderful horses.

I think it all boils down to personal preference.

PS I only breed for my personal horses so I don't breed every time you turn around. I don't sell and I don't want an overload of horses.
Another reason why I breed for my own is I don't trust alot of sellers out there, too many horses sick being sold.

I agree NO ONE should be breeding at the moment until we can get the situation under control and these big ranches and farms breed everything in the barn contribute to the over population so don't pick on the small breeders or backyard breeders as some of us have been called. I have seen some big ranches take a big loss as well, you would think they would lower the amount of mares bred for a couple of years until things pick up.

If you can't afford to keep it don't breed it! Sorry that is only my opinion not meant to upset anyone.