Wrangler was the Northwest's first ApHC Champion. He earned this by winning hunt seat. World renown AQHA trainer Steve Metcaled started this great horse and rode him to many wins. Joe and Jan Bard continued to show Wrangler and earned him these titles:

Gold medallion Sire - Wrangler has proven himself as an outstanding sire, producing horses that have won over 65 national and world classes. His first foal, Sirpent (a black fill with snowflake hips), won the National and World Halter classes (earning the bronze medallion), won the World Pleasure class with Clint Harvety (silver medallion), and completed 350 consequetive miles in one season (Gold Medallion)!!

Leading Living Sire of Youth and Non-Pro Horses. This is Wrangler's greatest achievement. His foals are versatile, athletic, pretty, and good minded horses. Some examples: Jessica Evans on Echo's Wrangler had 89.5 points in her national classes and was Reserve Youth Champion to another youth with 90 points on 6 different horses! Nikki St. Pierre on Echo's Sirprize won National Champion Open Western Pleasure (over all trainers) on her 16th birthday! Sirious Cash has many Junior Western Pleasure, trail and driving wins as a 3-year-old. Sirafin was National Junior Trail horse as a 3-year-old. I Be Wrangler was Reserve Natinal Youth Trail Horse in 1997. Sir R Valentine and Sirpico Wrangler are excelling in dressage and jumping. Lansir won Youth Hunter Hack at the '96 Nationals. Sirvived was Jan Bard's mountain horse before he was sold into the show world, winning innumerable national championships. The 1997 World Show had two 3-year-olds, Dude To Wrangler and Spank My Wranglers, tie for first in Junior Trail (class of 40 5-year-old and younger horses!). There are Wranglers at every national show who continue to win. These horses with their magnificent minds and movement become lifetime members of the family.

These horses have earned 4500 youth points, 1100 open performance points, 210 halter points, 32 ROMs and 65 national and world class titles, earning the praise, "The only thing more threatening in the ring than a Wrangler is another Wrangler!"

There IS life outside the show ring! Wranglers are seen from working cattle to mountain riding. Jan and her best friend have been spending 2 weeks each summer in the mountains for 15 years. Wrangler horses ahve gotten them out of many a scary moment and plaves and have been the vehicle for making lasting friensships and memories (and stories). They have supplied Jan with unlimited photographic opportunites and contest wins. Why not have safe, good looking mounts!

Besides Wrangelr being a 1998 Breyer model, Wild Bay Be and her filly were on the horse stamps about 10 years ago, and this was the model for the little Hagen-Renaker porcelain statues and postcard puzzles.

If you wish to learn more about Wrangler, his offspring, or a breeding fee, you can contact Joe and Jan Bard at the Bar-D Ranch, Maple Valley Washington.

A favorite phrase of the Bard's is: "If you own a Wrangler you have a friend who will show you the world."

Thank you Jan for this informative article! (jb)

Question & Answer

Q #1: If I breed a light, almost palomino, chestnut Arabian mare and a very dark bay Arabian stallion, what color will their foal be? Will it be a dark chestnut or a bay?

Answers:

1. I'm rusty on genetics, but I belive the cross would be (not working with the dominants, recessives, etc. from practical experience): My horse's sire was a palomino, his dam bay. 2 copper chestnut, 1 black bay, 1 palomino from 4 breedings. 1 light chestnut or palomino (no "pals" in the Arab world), 2 medium chestnuts, 1 bay. Chestnut is recessive, but there are more chestnuts than any other color of horse. There is a chestnut coloration in all breeds & types of horses. I believe that bay is recessive to chestnut though. The light chestnut usually comes from breeding 2 medium chestnuts or palominos to chestnut.
2. This one question has potential to spark an entire article, since color genetics have so many variables, but simply speaking you will probably end up with either a bay or chestnut foal. If either parent carries a dilution gene (there are two types of these, the Cremello gene and the dun gene), you could end up with a buckskin, palomino, cremello, pseudo-albino, perlino, zebra dun or a red or yellow dun foal. Since the parents are Arabs, these dilution genes are rare to nonexistent. Since they are Arabs they may be carrying a grey gene in which case the foal may be born bay or chestnut but will grey as they age. There is quite a range of possibilities here, the exact shade of chestnut foal would turn out to be depends on the genes both parents carry and which two would pair up. (There would be a great range of possibilities here too.) You'd have a better idea if you knew the colors of the horses in the parents pedigrees. If you are trying to choose parents for a model horse you would probably be safe with whatever shade of chestnut you model happens to be.

Q #2: If I want a leopard Appaloosa foal, do both parents have to be leopard color? (NO waiting until they age doesn't always work!)

Answers:

1. I will say that 1 parent has to be a leopard to get a 'true' leaopard foal, i.e. born a leopard. But to shed off a leopard, your guess is as good as mine. I have seen a leopard foal out of a chestnut leopard stallion and solid chestnut mare. The mare was a solid appy out of 2 black leopards though. The other foals were by a few-spotted leopard stallion out of a black bay Arab mare. The first foal was born a black bay leopard, stayed that way, but the second was born a blanketed chestnut, shedded his foal coat to turn a few spot leopard.
2. Apparently several genes are involved in producing Appy patterns and the genetic factors aren't well understood. There seems to be evidence that horses displaying large areas of white with leopard spots may be homozygous (meaning they carry 2 identical genes, in this case for extensive Appy pattern), so it seems logical that if you breed to such horses you would end up with a leopard offspring. It also appears the Appy genes are dominant since if an Appy is bred with with a non-Appy with high white stockings and a blazke the foals are most often to have extensive Appy patterns. It seems that breeding animals is like playing roulette, you can never be totally sure what is going to happen.

Q #3: What is a "dummy" foal? Answer:

1. This is a symptom, not an illness. They are also called barkers and wanderers depending on the stages. A dummy foal is associated with an extreme lack of oxygen to the brain, just prior to, during or shortly after birth. The foal is inert & totally uninterested in its surroundings. Later it will become active and "wander" without vision. Suspected causes are premature separation of the placenta from the uterus, interference with the normal foal process or severing of the umbilical cord too soon, depriving the foal of oxygen rich blood wtill in the afterbirth. If carefully fed, nursed and protected, most of these foals seem to fully recover.

Thank you for these insightful answers. This issue, the Q/A's will be easier!

1. Theodore Roosevelt had a nickname, what was it?
2. How long is the Kentucky Derby track?
3. What does "roach" mean (horses)?
4. Hybrid is what?

More Bits 'N' Pieces about real horses in the next newsletter.

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