American Saddlebred Horses
Origin and Type
Bred in the Southern States of USA, primarily Kentucky, Saddlebreds derive from Narragansett Pacers and Thoroughbred horses. Narragansett Pacers go back to Hobby horses and other stock imported from England. The term pacer in this case refers to an ambling (four beat) rather than pacing (two beat lateral) horse.
Saddlebreds served on the southern side in the American Civil War and made a name for themselves under tough conditions. The mounts of several southern generals became famous for their speed, courage and ability to endure.
Saddlebreds were used to pull the buggy to church on Sundays, they carried their owners around the plantatation and they were used by anyone needing to travel distances in comfort, due to their smooth saddle gaits.
In the late 1800's, horse shows became popular. The American Saddlebred we see at shows today is probably more exaggerated than was the norm a hundred years ago. The performance asked of Saddlebreds in the 3-gaited, 5-gaited and fine harness classes is still requiring stamina and courage. It is only the excesses found in the shoeing, presentation and riding style which diminish the achievements of these horses and which turn so many people off the breed.
Seeing Saddlebreds compete for a ribbon in the big US show classes is watching the products of often questionable training methods. These aim for maximum knee action, high tail carriage and fiery expression. The number of gadgets and techniques employed to achieve this extravagance are numerous and not always applied with the horse's well-being or sanity in mind. Horses are housed permanently so they won't lose their stacked, padded shoes or their tail sets which prevent their nicked tails from sitting back down. When ridden or driven, horses are often forced into an upside down position, assumed to "set the neck", usually ending up in permanent neck, back and leg damage to young horses.
There are also Country and Pleasure classes for Saddlebreds which attract the amateur rider. Here, the shoeing is more reasonable and set tails are not the norm. Many of these horses are also pleasure riding horses.
Considering that Saddlebreds naturally have a lot of action, love to show off with a high held head and wide eyes, and all by themselves enjoy holding their tails up, it is hard to understand why so much artificiality has to be applied to "improve" on nature.
It is interesting to watch Saddlebred foals. They simply love to use those long legs and arch those necks. And when they simply float along with their head and tail up, it is a sight hard to forget. And they love playing to an audience.
Luckily, underneath that beautiful exterior and those naturally extravagant movements is still the tough, sensible and courageous horse of the early settler and soldier. Another endearing quality of Saddlebred horses is their pleasant, people oriented nature. They are keen to be with people and will work their hearts out to please you.
A better partner for either the competitive rider or the weekend pleasure rider is hard to find.
Gaits
Walk, Trot, Slow Gait, Rack, Canter
Size
15-16.2 hands
General Info
Saddlebreds can be found competing successfully in many equestrian disciplines, such as dressage, eventing, endurance, western pleasure and combined driving.
But above all, they are fantastic pleasure riding horses, many of which are well gaited.
For more information:
We are members of the American Saddlebred Horse Association of Australia Inc. (ASHAA). All our Saddlebred horses are registered with ASHAA. Our stallions are registered to breed and all our stock is dna tested and parentage verified. All our purebred Saddlebred horses are eligible for registration with ASHA of USA.
ASHAA is the original registry for Saddlebreds in Australia and fully recognised with ASHA (USA) as a charter club. ASHAA is one of only three international registries recognised by ASHA (USA).
There exists, in Australia, another Saddlebed club who issues "registration papers" at low cost and without the requirement for either bloodtyping or dna testing. This club was formed by people who broke away from ASHAA several years ago, led by the principals of one large Saddlebred stud. This decision nearly cost Australia the international recognition we had been trying to attain. Despite the shortsightedness of some of those Saddlebred breeders, ASHAA Inc. was successful in becoming one of the few foreign (non-US) Saddlbred studbooks recognised by ASHA USA.
The breeders who chose to stay outside the framework of rules laid down by the USA registry have unfortunately painted themselves into a corner with regard to USA recognition, as several of the breeding stock used by them was never parentage verified and now many of them have died. It has been reported that buyers of offpring of these horses are not made aware of the existence of ASHAA, and if they are aware, they are told not to worry. In many cases, the new owners later on desire registration of their beautiful horses with ASHAA Inc. And of those, several horses are now impossible to verify against their parents, making it impossible for ASHAA Inc. to include them in the purebred studbook.
As ASHAA Inc. does not wish to jeopardize it's standing as a recognised registry, the solution provided for purebred Saddlebred horses is a new section in the studbook called the E registry. Entry into this section is open to purebred Saddlebred horses with documentation or registration certificate from another registry. They are required to be dna tested for future record, even though they cannot be parentage verified. It is hoped that, as the E registry grows, some of the horses in it will one day be upgraded to the pure blood A registry, as relevant dna records become available. Whilst every effort is made to help the owners of such purebred Saddlebred horses, it is usually heartbreaking for them to find out that most of these horses are barred from the A registry.
ASHAA has been critized for requiring dna testing (blood-typing until a few years ago), due to the additional cost to breeders. Furthermore, there are some who believe there is no point in being recognised by ASHA (USA), as it is unlikely that a Saddlebred will ever be sold to USA. However, several Saddlebreds have now been exported from Australia, and some of those breeders may well seek USA registration for those horses and their foals, as some of them have also purchased stock from USA. No Australian breeder needs to go to the cost of registering with USA, but the option is always there for them and for the purchasers of ASHAA registered Saddlebred horses.
The dna testing requirement is an additional cost to breeders, and it is true that not all horse registries require all purebred stock to be dna tested and verified. However, errors can occur, mares can swap newborn foals, papers and horses can get lost and stallions can jump fences. So even without ill intent, a horse may have parents different to the ones shown on the breeding forms. Dna testing will verify the correctness of a pedigree.
As breeders, we prefer to sell horses with registration papers which show the horse's true and correct breeding. This protects us as much as the potential purchasers of a horse.
In this day and age of quality control, we prefer to look at dna testing is a valuable tool, rather than an onerous task. We and most other consciencous breeders in Australia made the obvious choice to stay with and support ASHAA Inc.
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