In the Lexington area, one may think that there is only one breed of horse and that is the thoroughbred but there are over 200 other breeds in the world. The Thoroughbred is the most celebrated breed in Lexington as evident by the enormous Secretariat statue. This article will concentrate on the Thoroughbred.
Thoroughbreds are considered “hot-blooded” for their agility, speed, and spirit. The modern thoroughbreds can all trace their lineage to three stallions, which are the Byerley Turk, the Darley Arabian, and the Godolphin Arabian that were bred to British native mares. The Thoroughbred foundation mares were of the following: imported Arabs, Oriental, imported from the Middle East and Western Asia, native to the British Isles, and mares from various other places.
Thoroughbreds are primarily used for racing, but are also used for show jumping, dressage, polo, and fox hunting. They have also been crossbred to create new breeds or improve existing ones such as Quarter Horses, Standardbreds, Anglo-Arabians, and other warmblood breeds. Thoroughbred racehorses perform under maximum exertion resulting in bleeding from the lungs, fractures, small hoof-to-body, low fertility, and other health issues. In short, they are fragile, large mammals.
Thoroughbreds range from 15.2 to 17.0 hands (62 to 68 inches, 157 to 173 cm) high, averaging 16 hands (64 inches, 163 cm). Their colors range from dark bay, bay, chestnut, roan, grey, and black. The most prized thoroughbreds have a chiseled head on a long neck, high withers, a deep chest, a short back, good depth of hindquarters, a lean build, with long, strong legs. At sales, they can be purchased from a thousand to millions of dollars. Off-track thoroughbreds newly retired from claiming races may be purchased in the low thousands and sometimes are free due to injuries. The average length of a racehorse’s career is just a few years. Some just aren’t meant to be racehorses and geldings can sometimes race for ten years.
This concludes Part 1 of Thoroughbreds to be continued …
