Updates on ApHC Ruling

Last year I posted this message about certain rules violations for registering a colt who was sired by a Paint registered stallion. The ApHC decided that the stallions Paint papers and Paint background essentially don't exist. For the moment, the protest filed regarding this colt has been denied.

The ApHC published a Notice of Decision that basically states that there is " No persuasive evidence that the horse in question has Paint breeding".

The Issue at hand is the VIOLATION of THIS Rule:
205 C. No horse shall be registered with the ApHC that has draft, pony, Pinto, or Paint breeding. 

Well here is MY evidence of Paint breeding.

1. The stallion in question Seriously Secure, was born in 2002 and at the time of his birth he was NOT eligible to be registered as a quarter horse because his dam Powerful Elegance who was born in 1994 had to much excessive white on her belly. Additionally she also produced 9 foals with excessive white. The stallions' sire also had to much excessive white the the AQHA and was registered as a Paint.  The ONLY reason this stallion got AQHA papers was because the AQHA changed their ruling on excessive white.

2. This stallion was registered with REGULAR paint papers not breeding  stock papers. And he's been shown as a Paint and earned three Paint Reserve Championships. 

3. This stallion has produced Paint marked foals.

Just wondering how these facts are not "persuasive evidence of paint breeding"?

Additionally I have several other problems with the way this protest was handled. 

1. The registrar who originally accepted the Colt in question for registration owns and breeds Paint horses and she is also responsible for making the decision on the registration protest filed against the horse in question.

2.  According to internet chat and scuttlebutt, the colts owners were told by ApHC office staff to ONLY submit a copy of the AQHA registration papers for the sire when they sent in the registration papers for the the colt in question. Basically it appears that ApHC staff don't care if a horse is dual registered.

So according to this, A registrar who breeds and raises Paints certainly should be somewhat familiar with Paint bloodlines and breeding. Having a registration for an Appaloosa that contained Paint breeding within the pedigree should have raised a red flag when the registration was first sent in on the colt. 

Second, The individual who made the decision to allow the registration to be processed in the first place should NOT be the same individual who evaluates and reviews the decision if a protest is filed. A judge is not allowed to preside over a case where he might be either the plaintiff or the defendant, so how can a registrar evaluated and review their on decisions?

Finally the last problem I see is that although the ApHC has a limit on non appaloosa white markings on foals from Appaloosa to approved cross breed horses, the do NOT have any limit on excessive non appaloosa white markings from Appaloosa to Appaloosa registered horses. So by continuing to allow horses who have the genetics to produce Paint/pinto markings is not going to help the breed. A pinto marked Appaloosa has already been shown in ApHC shows, and several others have been registered. Without limiting pinto markings in ApHC bred horses we will soon have more pinto marked horses showing up in the breed. 

A breed STOPS being a breed when you can no longer identify multiple individual horses as belonging to that breed. That means either by bloodlines or by what ever characteristics they have. The ApHC is basically the perfect example. You now have a solid non characteristic horse crowned as the National champion weanling halter colt sired by a stallion who was not even eligible to sire ApHC registered foals until after the 2004 AQHA rule change. The Colt now represents the Appaloosa breed but no one can recognize that he's even an appaloosa. On the other hand I've got a very nice loud leopard mare sire by an ApHC stallion out of a mare sired by an ApHC stallion who cannot get registered because that mares dam was not registered or identified with the ApHC back in the 60's. People don't understand why my obviously appaloosa looking mare can't be an Appaloosa when that solid non marked colt can. The ApHC as a "breed" registry is dead because you can't tell what horses belong and what horses don't. ApHC is nothing more than a blood line registry with no breed standards and no breed identity.