What is it with breed?

I think that the fixation is not with breed, but with money. In the US, most breed do not exclude based on any sort of breed standard. If your horse is the offspring of two registered Paints, then it is a Paint whether it has any color or not. The QH people still allow breeding and registrations of HYPP positive Impressive descendants even though they can test for the gene and exclude carriers at will. There are no kurings or inspections, so any Joe Blow that owns a couple of registered horses can breed them whether they are a good match or an improvement to the breed or not. And for every one of those horses, the registry collects a fee or multiple fees. So, being a country of entrepreneurs, someone else decides they can make fees by creating a Pintaloosa registry, or a Palomino registry, or Pinto or whatever. There are no breed standards for these, you just have to pay. I actually have no issue with horses that are cross breeds or even mutts as long as they are good horses. But breeding unsound horses with uncomfortable gaits that will cost more in upkeep than they are worth does no one any favors -especially the horses.

Well let me take a hit at this and see if I can come up with an explanation. For me, both of my horses are registered. One is a registered paint the other is a registered QH. When buying my colt breeding was important to me. It was very important to me, actually. I don't pleasure ride as my main purpose, I barrel race. A successful barrel horse has to have a certain conformation, a certain attitude. I bought a horse for that. Having a successful performance breeding doesn't guarantee the horse will be good, but it makes your chances at your horse succeeding even more. Especially with Quarter Horses. They are an extremely versatile breed, but there are subsections of breeding, those that are bred for the halter ring, the WP ring, cutting, reining, barrel racing, racing, etc. I bought my colt based off of what his siblings have done, how successful they are, his sire's performance and breeding record as well as his dam's record and then so on and so forth back. I also looked at his conformation for my purposes and saw what he's built for and compared it to what I was looking for. If I bought a horse with a WP breeding, I'm lessening my chances of him becoming a successful barrel horse over a horse bred for barrel racing, reining or a cow bred horse. A particular bloodline can also help you get results, if you want speed, look for a race-bred horse. Some do better than others like First Down Dash and Dash for Cash and Mr Eye Opener, etc. You're not going to buy a Western Pleasure horse or an HUS horse for a race horse. In the English world, you do have a lot of crossbreds that are very successful. In the Western world it's just not the same. There are successful crossbreds, but showing in breed shows is a big thing. Registered horses are the norm. The most crossbred you might find is an Appendix. You will find grade horses, but they are more the exception than the norm. There is a reason breeding is cultivated and carefully chosen (excluding all the lovely BYB) so that the get they produce will go on and be able to perform and have what it takes to perform. @OP Okay! I get you now! Lol. You know exactly where I'm coming from then! I agree with that too. Why can't they just say it's a crossbreed? It's not hard. I know plenty of grade horses that have had VERY successful careers and gone on to whip some of the purebreds with papers a mile long. I'm more worried about what your horse can do, not that he traces back to Three Bars, etc (like 90% of QH do...).

Any idiot can start a registry and then rake in the cash. People buy into them because they want to say their animal is registered or registered multiple times like it's going to make the animal more valuable or marketable. I often find myself wondering what breeds my horse is out of curiosity. She's gorgeous (I'm not biased, I swear!), big and a unique color for a horse of such a size. Although I would never attempt to reproduce another Mystic, I would just really like to know. Who knows why people buy into these schemes - and I really see them as nothing more but encouraging breeding for only color or an attempt to make a new designer breed of horse - ever heard of a Moresian (I think that's how you spell it) and there's a registry for those too. But as long as people are constantly buying into these "registries" more and more will keep popping up.

Not really into horse breeding, but from my standpoint and experience in purebred dogs, if dad did it well, mom did it well, and so did grandma and grandpa, you have a better hand when the pups hit the ground that they may grow up to do it well, too. If animal has amazing attributes that come out of nowhere(from a standpoint of pedigree), despite the lesser chances that he would be able to pass on such traits being that they were recessive in his line or pedigree, it is foolish to dust him under the rug and not give him a chance to pass that on. From a genetics standpoint, when you are crossing two different breeds, you are fooling with genetics, and the genes will not always express themselves with consistancy like they would if you were dealing with lines of the same breed and of pedigrees you are familiar with. This is one reason why your breed crosses would, and should, have lesser value from a breeding standpoint. From a working standpoint, however, that is left up to the horse's talent and the talent of the hands that hold the other end of the rope--and never should be left up to speculation based on breed or pedigree.

I agree - I actually only recently posted a similar question about people who would buy a horse without having its breeding recorded. I think a lot of people put such an emphasis on "what breed my horse is" because they possibly hear a lot about particular breeds - possibly by the likes of people in the lines of breeding horses, and I know myself a lot of people then repeat the stories of breeding to make themselves sound more knowledgeable when in reality anyone with a clue about horses knows that you might guess what breed the horse is - but will never truely know. Ive seen thoroughbreds that look more like connemara ponies they're so big boned and so on, so I agree with you on how pointless asking these questions on here are - likewise, the questions with how much is my horse worth.. no one can tell you that from a picture or video! An example would be a young lady on the jumping circuit here in Ireland who went about telling everyone about the fact her 4 year old horse was by a stallion that died over 8 years ago! It was found out later that she didnt have a clue who the horses parents were, but she couldnt leave it at the fact the horse was an amazing jumper - she had to go one better with making up a good breeding background for him!! In a world where a lot of emphasis IS placed on breeding, but more for top performance horses, it is possible for us mere mortals to get caught up in the obsession, for me personally - I base a horse on what it can do and have in fact just bought a horse with no recorded pedigree. xx

As you know it is for breeding purpose's and registration, doesn't make the horse a better horse ,in fact in the 50 years of owning horses i never had a horse who could read so papers didnt mean much to them or me .