What’s in a name or a registry name for that matter?
What is the point of the GVHS organization?
What is the point of any animal registry?
What is the primary objective of an animal registry?
The core objectives of the AKC for example is this: Advance the study, breeding, exhibiting, running and maintenance of purebred dogs.
Great example! Let’s break this down from the perspective of a horse breed registry.
What does it mean to be purebred? - The term "purebred" when referring to horse breeds means an animal that has a known ancestry and is derived from a single breed line, without admixture of other blood over many generations.
What is a breed of animal? - A breed is a specific group of breedable domestic animals having homogeneous phenotype, behavior and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species.
What does horse breed specifically mean? - In the context of horse breeding, the term "breed" refers to a selectively bred population of domesticated horses that share common ancestry and have been subjected to similar selection objectives.
These breeds are identifiable through DNA analysis. Several organizations maintain a database of registered horse breed DNA markers. (See photo)
As you can see Gypsy Horse is defined as a breed just like Shire, Clydesdales, etc through their genetic code.
In the history of the Gypsy Vanner Horse, according to the GVHS page, this breed was brought to North America to recognize a breed of horse (Gypsy Horse) “developed by the Gypsies of Great Britain/Ireland and the only such registry founded on an in-depth study of British/Irish Gypsies and their horses.”
The next paragraph explains “All breeds result from a crossing of breeds by someone, or some culture focused on creating a specific looking horse born from their dreamed image – their vision.”
What we see: A breed registry can be established for purebreds (not crosses) and it is for a breed which can be defined through identifiable genetic markers as defined scientifically. However, there is more to a breed registry aside from those two requirements.
GVHS has chosen to base their registry on a specific looking horse based on someone’s vision. Like it or not, that is what the registry chooses as their vision.
All GVHS horses are Gypsy horses,
but not all Gypsy horses are GVHS horses.
GVHS needs to do a better job of documenting what that vision is. Their vision is different from the original Gypsy Horse as defined by the originators of the breed. In order to prevent arguments, a simple documentation with a full description of said ‘vision’ should be established and used as the gold standard. To be considered an actual breed, this should never be left to interpretation.
Then stick to it! Be your own judge and jury!
If one of your own offspring in the breed does not meet breed standards, don’t add it to the registry just from parentage or lineage.
If you do allow your own offspring in the registry to be automatically registered based on the factor of parentage, you are contradicting your own core vision of having a horse breed based on “a specific looking horse based on someone’s vision”.
I think we are all starting to see the problem with basing an entire breed on a limited set of criteria based on looks. It’s absolutely still possible and admirable to shoot for this, but you can definitely see where problems start to arise. Mother nature doesn’t always cooperate and there are those darned recessive genes that pop up in an offspring that don’t give you what you’re looking for.
My opinion here is that when basing a new breed of animal on optics, keep it strict – even to your own detriment. Otherwise, stick with the breed standard as defined from the original. Then there are no points of contention, arguments, disagreements, or disgruntled horse owners.
Next. Horse ownership is a very personal decision just like all other animals. I personally can’t stand little yippy dogs that bite my ankles, but everyone has their own passion for what they view as beautiful or good companions, etc.
I like the idea of breeding for color or different traits. I have personal reasons for loving grulla horses, but that might not fit into the original GVHS standard. Currently, GVHS doesn’t limit the “look” based on color. So, if I can cross breed to get a GVHS horse that fits according to the “look” standard but is grulla, then I’m a happy camper.
But wait, some in the GVHS world don’t like all the rainbow of colors and when crossing they might look down their nose at my horse as a ‘mutt’ who needs to have an evaluation which I have to pay a lot of money for and add on the expense of taking off work and driving my horse to an evaluation event and paying for travel, and expenses and the stress of taking my horse sometimes up to 12 or more hours just for a 15-minute glance over and then 12 hours back home.
Again, with a document and a gold standard definition of the registry, this could be resolved and evaluations wouldn’t be necessary. It should be very clear with a picture whether or not the horse ‘fits’ the bill in the looks department.
Some argue that color should be considered and the GVHS registry should only allow a certain amount of colors in the registry standard. I’m fine with that – even if it eliminates my beloved grullas. At least there is a clear direction here.
Now comes the crux of the issue. Who pays for the breed registry and the upkeep of it and propagation of the breed? Who is the consumer of the product? How does GVHS get money to remain relevant since their registry is not anything tied to genetics that can be proven. (Who’s your Daddy?)
The assumption here is that people will pay for these beautiful subset of Gypsy horses. The money comes in from the membership of the registry and the support of the members for events and trying to sell this commodity. If it is the mission of GVHS to sell offspring that fit within their gold standard, that’s fine. However, they will need to understand the breed registry will remain fairly small because horses only give birth to one horse every year from the age of roughly 4 to 15ish and not every offspring will meet the gold standard. And horses might take a few years off here and there as not every mare is fit to have a baby every year. Etc.
Let’s say that on average, mares have 8 babies in their lifetime. Out of those, 2 may not fit within the confines of breed standard and therefore cannot be GVHS breed registered. That means a normal breeder will have 6 GVHS registered offspring per mare they breed. These horses sell on average for $10,000-$25,000 (some more and some less). That’s not a huge profit margin.
Add on top of that, there are people who are breeding beautiful Gypsy horses that don’t fit in the looks department required by GVHS. That brings the per horse price down overall. Is it really so exclusive to have a “GVHS” horse? What does that even mean when most people can only afford one or two of these horses and it’s their dream horse(s)?
I’m not a mathematician – don’t even like to spell that word – but that seems to me like bad financial decisions for the registry. You can raise your prices and standardize your gold image and make it an elite social club.
Or you can truly love the breed, look, history, temperament, etc. of the original breed and make it your mission to share these beautiful gentle giants with the world. You can broaden your scope of the registry and base it purely on genetics and increase the numbers and therefore registered members in order to have a breed registry which can stay afloat financially.
Does that mean sacrificing a vision? No! All Gypsy horses (genetically speaking) have the look of the original breed from the actual originators. Some have less hair. Some have post legs. Some have longer faces. Some have shorter manes. But genetically provable as a Gypsy Horse. (We can argue on the science of the genetic testing later. For now, let's agree to 'trust the science'.)
(Thank you for sticking with me thus far.)
My take on this. I hated high school. I hate social clubs. I hate popularity clubs. I can’t afford to schmooze with the likes of Miranda Lambert. I don’t like drama. I don’t like people bad mouthing me because me and my husband work very hard at our jobs to fulfill our dream of owning and breeding these horses but don’t have time or money to be at all the shows in full glitz and glamour. I don’t like the bickering and the inconsistencies.
We tried our hand in the show circuit last year and it was a miserable experience. We had great trainers who represented us with two of our best specimens of the breeds – Gypsy Horse and GVHS. The judges were inconsistent. Times where a mare would come in first with all points from a judge and two categories later with exactly the same horses, she would place 5th at the bottom of the barrel. (and no – she didn’t bite the judge or kick a child on the way in!) Inconsistent. Disappointing.
It was clear that without being part of the “in crowd” and without paying even more money to sponsor the donut table or buy the biggest banner hanging over the food court, we were destined to be at the mercy of the mood of the judge in that moment.
There were no crowds at the events. There were cliques of trainers who were so busy showing multiple client's horses that they didn’t socialize with those of us with one or two horses showing because they were busy or exhausted.
Showing is not for us and quite frankly, we weren’t the only ones with that opinion. Many people were highly disappointed with the events and vowed to never do this again. What good are shows if only 3.8% of the horses in the registry show and only 1% of the owners are ever there at the shows?
Why do we do what we do? We love this breed (genetically, not in name only). These horses are the most amazing creatures on the planet. We thoroughly and completely love all the horses we have or have had. We love the babies and training them and caring for them and helping them find their (hopefully) forever home. We love to bring joy to people who are looking for their 'special dream 'my little pony' forever horse'.
This means variety in size and color. Not everyone likes the green shirt, Karen! Personal tastes are broad and that’s something so completely wonderful about humans. Our dogs eat the dog food. Our cats eat the dog food. They don’t care about color, or texture, or temperature. Humans are diverse and that’s what makes the world so wonderful. And for every taste in a human, there is the perfect horse.
Loran, you can keep the mustangs and clones of warmbloods! I’ll keep my little quiet, curious ponies.
We want a registry for our horses which makes all our Gypsy horses feel included. Ugh. Am I talking about Diversity and Inclusivity? Yes. I want a registry that allows my little guys and my big mamas.
Our goals for our part.
1. Help GVHS get over this identity crisis and get better at identifying their own existence.
2. Make a decision if GVHS is the place for us or if we need to find a registry that aligns more to our understanding of the breed standard.
3. Educate others on this wonderful breed.
4. Host events or farm visits to introduce the breed and help connect people (especially little girls) with their dream horses.
5. Work with local organizations like we have already with 4H and allow girls and boys opportunities to interact with the breed and help enable them to share the breed at events like county fairs and other general horse breed shows.
6. Be a point of contact with others on questions on things we have learned about the breed, genetics, health conditions, idiosyncrasies with the breed.
7. Collaborate with local vets and vet universities like UT Knoxville and especially with their extremely knowledgeable repro team to better understand the special scenarios with this gentle, little draft breed.
8. And probably more that Leon could add to.
Bottom line:
It will be an interesting year to watch the progression of the breed and the GVHS registry! Here’s for hoping they make good decisions to be inclusive to those less able to snatch a horse in a bidding war from Miranda’s personal herd. Clearly define your goals and objectives so the general public can be confident in the registry and the breed itself.
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