What do people understand about foundation bred horses?

Erm - only what I've read about Foundation breeding via NFQHA/FQHA, and my own very occasional attempts to work out where my own QH fits into the 'Foundation'/'Non-Foundation' equation - I find it interesting that both of the above organisations, from a qualification perspective, seem to look purely at the TB percentage in a horse's lineage, so evidently the degree of thoroughbred-ness is important; but how can you assess the published attributes of a 'Foundation' QH purely through a blood sample? I may well have got muddled on this, but my understanding is that a Foundation QH is blessed with sound mind, natural cow sense, a willingness to work and a versatility to undertake a huge range of tasks - so if that's the case, and you have a qualifying QH by dint of limited TB heritage but it can only do, eg Western Pleasure, does that really make it a Foundation QH?

Pat what's your take??

Are you refering to Quarter horses???
I think foundation bred means they carry the blood of the old buldog or steeldust horses like king ,zantanon,little joe, traveler,shiloh etc as apposed to some of the modern pleasure type horses which have more TB blood, the tall leggy types 16 hh and bigger..

Post edited by: Roland, at: 2008/05/10 22:32

Got a 100% foundation Appaloosa stallion.......(imported from USA).
the way l see it- FPD horses are PURE BRED generation to generation.
the amount of % comes from that.
100% = 5 generation pure (in my breed) appaloosa to appaloosa.97% = l outcross etc etc.