WordPlay

 

Yep that’s my brand again, which is only peripherally related to my purported topic: registering horses. But brands help with ID and so does registration…or maybe I was just looking at my pictures, saw the brand and got all nostalgic.  I am STILL not over losing my cows!

I own only registered horses (Well! Are we not SNOOTY?  Wait!  Keep reading!) at this time.

I had a grade (i.e. unregistered) pony named Indy that was sort of like a Daschund –horse size body and short legs.  She cost 175.00 bucks and ended up learning to do flying lead changes, bridleless. Had her for four years before her untimely demise.  Papers (registered) or no papers (unregistered) she was a gem.

I also had a dark buckskin mare that supposedly was a Quarter Horse, dumped without papers in a forty horse group at an auction.  Without papers, she was also considered “grade”. I bought her for $750.

I ended up registering  her with the American Buckskin Horse Association (ABRA).

People that liked buckskin, dun and grulla colored horses got together.  They made a club. With rules.  They called themselves the ABRA.

Some other people liked the same colors and they got together and made a different club (The International Buckskin Horse Association; IBHA).

Naturally, there is some tension between the two!

So, why did I register my horse and why did I pick ABRA?

Because I got a cool certificate thingy (“The Papers”, suitable for framing, or photocopying and keeping in your trailer with your other horse papers in case you stopped by the livestock inspector…) with my horse’s name on it (PW Tres) and it only cost $25!

Well, it is true I got a certificate  but I actually went to that trouble and picked that association because I wanted to show her with the New Mexico Buckskin Horse Association in classes they held  especially for ABRA horses. We don’t have any IBHA events in NM.  If we did I might have registered her there as well.

Eventually, I sold her (for a lot more than I paid), and having her ABRA registration did increase her value.

I have also, since I first subscribed to Western Horsemen back in the ’70′s, always wanted a registered  Quarter Horse.  As time progressed I decided I wanted a reined cow horse type. So, I bought Lacey.

Luckily (or maybe I did this on purpose? Ya think?) she is also registerable in the ABRA.  (I just sent the required photos and my money to get that done this week.)

ABRA is a “color breed”.  Any light (not a draft breed like a Clydesdale) horse (over 14.2 hands–so not a pony) of the right color can be registered. They do have pony and mule divisions, but those don’t compete against the horses.

The American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), on the other hand, was formed to preserve and promote the genetics (blood lines) of horses that could run a quarter mile really fast, were versatile, good minded and had a certain look or conformation.

But if you breed your Quarter Horse, you can “out cross” to a  Thoroughbred and still have a Quarter Horse.

Huh? 

Well, you have to call it an “appendix” Quarter Horse, but you can still show it with the “regular” Quarter Horses.  You just have to breed the appendix to a regular.

Naturally, there is a splinter group that does not allow out crossing.

Appaloosas have color but the breed is based on blood lines not color. (Penny for example has no spots at all but is still an Appy because both her parents were). But because Penny is a “solid” (she has no Appaloosa characteristics), if I breed her I am required to breed her to a “colored” stallion in order to register the foal.

Extra money had to be paid to the Appaloosa Horse Club to buy papers that allow me to show her against her colored kin (and the other solids whose owners forked over the dough.)

Apps can be out crossed to Arabians, QH’s and thoroughbreds…

This kind of reduces the homogeneity of breed.

Guess what?  There are splinter Appaloosa groups that do not allow out-crossing.

I have three Appaloosas (Penny, LT and Toots).  I am about to transfer the papers for Toots into my name.

Why have bought I into this bother?

1.  Increased value.

2.  Documentation of parentage.

3. Proof of ownership.

4. Ability to show in breed shows.

5. I’m a sucker for a nice certificate (?).

In order get the transfer completed, I got the original certificate from Toot’s (former) owner and we both have signed the “transfer form”.  This form and the certificate are sent to the ApHC headquarters along with the transfer fee.

With the advent of technology, pictures are now included on the papers, but since Toots looked like this when her papers were issued:

and now she looks like this:

 So, I have the option of applying for a “Corrected Certificate” which would have updated pictures and thus be a better reflection of the appearance of the horse.

Appaloosas are known for their changeable colors, so certificate corrections are pretty common.

It costs another 20 bucks and I need to submit new photos: Left side, right side, face, butt.  The idea is to see the markings. Then, I have to fill out a form describing all the markings and THEN draw on some diagrams to ILLUSTRATE the markings.  Maybe it won’t be so bad as she is mostly white now.

ABRA requires the same type of thing for registration, but since Lacey has no white markings whatsoever, it was easier.  (Fortunately, the photos do not need to be suitable for framing!)

My goal for the weekend is to take the last photo I need for Toots so I can get the transfer form and the corrected certificate form filled out and submitted! (and also to write a quiz for Ch 17 for my Microbiology students and buy a new mask and snorkle before we go to Hawaii(!!) as mine are lost in some jetty rocks on Catalina Island!)

 

 

Tags: horses, The Write Horse

This entry was posted on Friday, November 16th, 2012 at 04:00 and is filed under The Write Horse. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.