Horse breeding

 Hi there, how are You? Hope You're doing fine and Your horses are healthy and mares safely pregnant! 

Another year has passed and we've come a long way with the Pintabian breed. And still not much, since we're still working with the first generation of our own breeding. But I've learned a lot, mainly because I started from zero. Let me tell You, the very first time I was in a situation where I might be on my own taking care of a horse giving birth I had to Google how it's done! Even though I had twenty years of experience with horses, I never dealt with birth before. Fortunately the mare also thought better do it later on, so I didn't help her alone. It was 2020 and she gave birth to the first Pintabian foal born here in Loimaa, Finland, all on her own in the pasture, at night. An entire month after the due date. 

The idea behind the Pintabian breeding here was simple. The breeders had the Pintabian stallion, and they brought Arabian fullblood mares from Lithuania in Finland to be used in endurance riding. One of the mares was a bit difficult to handle and not anyone wanted to buy her, so they thought they'd get a foal out of her. And what a foal it was, the most stunningly beautiful boy I've ever seen, with a friendly, calm and vice character! I fell in love with him, the breeders named him AK Sergei. During the time I spent with him I learned that these horses, the Arabians and Pintabians with a little extra to Arabian fullblood, are my horse breed. I wasn't able to purchase Sergei, since the breeders wanted to get acknowledgement abroad and therefore they sold him to Sweden. Unfortunately he died the very same day he arrived there. 

I had bought Sergei's mother, Automatika LT ox, and leased her to the breeders for more foals. I didn't have the courage to breed her for me, but I was there learning more every day. Automatika happened to be a good mare. Her pedigree wasn't spectacular but she had a good structure, good teeth and good overall health. Her temper was problematic but I believed then and I still do that it was because of the handling, not something biological. She knew how to get pregnant and how to take care of the foals, and she gave her all on every foal. She was a true Arabian mare, she wasn't easy to get to know and seriously wouldn't let anyone harm her babies, but to the ones she trusted she really gave her heart. She gave us three Pintabian colts, two from sire GP Touchof Dandi and one from Inkspots de Terackie. The first, AK Sergei, died. The two later ones, AK Janosh and AK RustyInk are here to stay with me. As stallions, for the Pintabian future in Finland. 

Today I was thinking that as a breeder You obviously need to know the lines You use. You absolutely need to have mares that are good enough. I've learned from experience that breeding isn't just adding the stallions genes to the mares genes by chance, lucky if the two represent the same horse breed. No way. We added the stallion and a mare to make another Pintabian, and yes we got a "purebred" colt, but he surely has some serious temperament! We didn't do our homework with the lines behind the parents, and now we have a small boy who's adorably beautiful but very opinionated. It's not wrong, of course! There are Arabian fullblood lines that do have some extra character, some charm, and also are quite difficult to handle. Not all of them are safely ridden, for example. And it's okay, but when I as a breeder am about to use these lines in my breeding program, I need to know what I'm doing. 

So the main question as a breeder is of course why am I willing to get this foal. Why do I use this specific mare and why do I want to use this stallion, what features from them do I wish to have in the foal. Do I want to keep the foal or am I going to sell it? To whom am I selling? What do the buyers want in a foal? I think that every single foal must be for a purpose. In my opinion there should be no foals born without a reason, just for fun or just by accident. At least those "love foals" should be wanted to keep. I find it very sad that there are many foals looking for the five star homes year after year, growing older and not getting the education and attention they deserve as individuals. Their moms might be on a sick leave from their actual jobs and therefore pregnant, their sires might be just the stallion that broke loose on the day. Their genetic constructions are not planned and there is no interest in the market for them. It breaks my heart. I've seen it, there's been some older colts, somehow they always are boys that end up being three or more years old, untouched and uneducated, fearful and strong, full of testosterone and very insecure. Many of them get a bullet, not the five star home. They would certainly deserve more, but there are not enough skillful people to take all of them. So my point here is, that when breeding, have a plan! We didn't and I learned my lesson. 

These are of course thoughts of a hobby breeder. We've had here a total of ten foals so far during the years from 2020, and one is on the way, an Icelandic horse. One foal and one mare lost in the birth. One foal and one mare saved from a possibly fatal birth in a wrong foal position in the uterus. Three cases of birth complications for the mares, all saved. One foal saved from a mystery illness via a month-long antibiotic treatment. Three foals born with legs that were not ideal, all fixed. One foal saved later on from a bacteria. Also some births that were optimal, everything by the book. I've had such strong emotions with all these babies that I can't even describe them here. But I know my limitations and I admit that I don't have the knowledge of a professional horse breeder. I don't have what it takes to tell which warmblood sports horse to breed and with which stallion. I can't even imagine what it's like to have something like a hundred foals born every Spring. And this brings me to the bottom line moral problem I've been also thinking about lately. 

As a breeder You always aim for the best. But as we all know You can't always get the best. So what do You do with the other, not so good ones? In Finland the harness trot racing is the biggest horse sport and standardbreds are bred only for that purpose. Every breeder wants to have the fastest, healthiest and strongest foal. After the racing career some of the horses are retrained to riding, but not all. What happens to all the horses that can't be on top in racing, and for some reasons can't be trained to be ridden? Most of them are killed. Of course I know that the horse doesn't suffer from the bullet if the shooter knows the job. It's always a better option than becoming neglected for example. But for me the question is that when a breeder knows the foal doesn't have what it takes to become the winner or anything they want, does the breeder sell the foal to anybody who gives the money, or does he give the foal the bullet. Since the breeders job is to breed mares for more foals, and they can't keep all of those foals that won't find their five star homes. It's a difficult question without one right answer to it. But it's also worth thinking about for a while, to be prepared to justify Your actions for Yourself. 

This text has been a bit more serious, but it's for a reason. These deep thoughts have been in my mind during Christmas time. The breeders here have decided to end the Pintabian horse breeding in their account. Inkspots de Terackie is still here but we don't have a mare, not a good nor a bad one. And we still do have both 2023 foals here as well, there's not been much happening in the foal market in Finland lately. Everything is so expensive these days that people rather buy horses that are ready to ride, not foals. So I'm fostering the genetic heritage of both stallions, GP Touchof Dandi and Inkspots de Terackie in these two boys, AK Janosh and AK RustyInk. Maybe another Spring will come for the Pintabian breed here, maybe not. At least I'm satisfied with my horses, they are exactly what I want in a horse. If this is the end of the Pintabian breeding story here in Loimaa, it is a happy one for me. 

Hope the best for the New Year 2025 for You and Your horses! 

Love, Anna

The Needs of a Horse

 Hi there, it's me again! How are You doing? We've entered the darkest season in Southern Finland when there's not yet snow on the ground that would brighten the landscape, but the days are short and the Sun stays mostly behind heavy clouds. Temperature goes back and forth between zero Celsius which means everything freezes and melts every day. In other words, the muddy and rainy but cold season is here! 

This post is about to be more of my own thoughts, since there's not really much going on with the horses now but the normal daily routines. Surviving the mud and so on. I've been thinking a lot about how to keep the horses so that it would construct the best conditions possible for the horse. Obviously at least here the climate tells there's no way of letting them run free in the pasture of the year round. It would be best for their bellies and minds if they had the chance, but there's just no grass growing in the winter. Of course we could give them bales to eat, shelters to cover from the weather and so on, but how does that differ from the paddock life anymore? 

This debate about horse keeping conditions is endless, since there are as many opinions as there are people. In my mind I've found the best for my horses is to have a balanced herd and a paddock. My horses don't stay the nights in boxes, they live outdoors and have a good shelter with a dry floor of strain to lay down for sleep. Of course they all have been in boxes for vet and farrier treatments for example and they know how to calm down there, but daily they don't stay there for hours. As some competition horses and expensive horses in Finland do, they may be out for some hours and mostly stay in their boxes, all alone. And on the other hand I understand why this is, it's a very expensive hobby to own horses. But in my mind I'm thinking that all horses need horse company.

Of course my horses are still foals and youngsters, they can't be compared to for example competition horses. Still I think a horse needs at least one another horse to be in contact with. We had our colts in the summer pasture in a herd of seven where an older stallion was the boss and the rest formed their hierarchy on their own. So sad we don't have a paddock big enough to keep the herd not separated, now it's down to four with my colts. But they seem to enjoy their company, they sleep side by side and there really is no fights between them ever. Of course they play, run and wrestle, but it's not serious. Mentally I think this means a lot for them. 

And there's the point I was entitled to make in this post: the basic needs of a horse mentally. Many of us these days do know and have conditions updated to keep horses well physically. The boxes and shelters are measured and environments are safe, hay quality is good enough and so on. This is also why we couldn't just put the seven stallions in the same paddock. There is a lot in public about the species-specific needs that come from the tradition of ethology. But what do the horses need to keep their minds as well as their bodies? Can there be such a thing as "horse psychology"? This popped into my mind as I'm a student of psychology and found myself thinking, if we know this much about how humans need other humans, autonomy, feel of capability, feel of control and that on, why would it be any different for horses. We all are animals in the end, even horses being prey animals and us humans the ultimate predators. 

Self-efficacy is an interesting concept in psychology which kind of includes a lot of issues in human well being. Taking it straight forward stands for one feeling of being able to do an act asked to perform. That's the crucial point: You possess the feeling that You are capable, You have what it takes to do a certain thing. And I was thinking, why would it be any different for a horse? Of course they don't have a brain system this complicated as ours is and they don't think this much, they react more. But as the research goes further, it's always found that even horses actually do feel, do think, more than we have earlier assumed. 

For humans the way to build stronger self-efficacy is to have more autonomy, more feeling of capability and more acceptance by peers, family and significant others. These are the psychological basic needs of humans in Self-determination Theory by Deci and Ryan (2000). The theory itself is a lot more complicated than I refer here and I suggest You get to know it if You're interested at all. It's very enlightening. For example parents can do a lot to make their child's self-efficacy strong, or mainly destroyed. Also bullying in school has long traces in adulthood when it comes to feeling confident and competent in life overall. 

So why would it be good for us to have our horses feeling confident and competent? I argue it makes our co-operation more safe. In the end I believe it is the very same point many animal educators have been telling for years. Also many of us think this way naturally, it feels the way it should be. But at least here in Finland there's a tradition of riding schools and a culture of handling horses that has told us to control the horse, tell the horse who's the boss. Silence the horse. We've been taught to work the horse, not to work with the horse, and there I see a big difference. In the first adaption the horse has no other option than to obey, it has no say to what happens to it. The second point of view gives the horse a voice of its own, even when the human is still responsible for what they are doing and how it's done. 

When the horse has a feeling of self-efficacy, it has a voice, it has a chance to tell that it is feeling uncomfortable before it bucks off the rider or bites the handler, for example. When the co-operation of a human and a horse is in two ways, it is a true interaction, the reactions don't need to be that extreme. The horse can relax when it can trust that its opinions are taken into account, even when it obviously cannot decide what's about to happen next. Most horses don't even want to make decisions, most horses aren't the herd leaders by nature. And by talking about leading a horse, I don't mean the old authoritarian leadership that we've learned before, but the more interactive new way. 

So from the long poetry back to the point of this blog post! I'm glad there's a lot of new going on in the research field of horse well being. We know more so we can do better. The physical needs of horses are met mostly well I think and the awareness of the psychological needs is also rising. Not in these terms that I've argued here, but in the overall climate. It's just not good to haze Your horse around anymore even if You're not using a violent tool to do so but Your attitude. What I've done here is that I've taken the points I'm learning in my psychology studies of humans and played with them in the context of horses to see if it could fit. I think there's room for further thinking. 

Thank You for reading this far! Feel free to comment or send me a message. Have a happy Halloween / Samhain / Kekri You people and let Your own light shine on in the darkening season. Love Your horses! 

Anna

Pintabian horse

 Hi there! Today I felt like writing some facts about what is a horse breed called Pintabian. Obviously many of You who read this allready know the details, and I may not know so much since I'm still a total beginner with the breed. So please leave a comment and correct my errors so that we will all learn more! 

As said before, in Finland there is no such horse breed as a Pintabian at all. So if a Pintabian foal is born here, it needs to be registered in some other country first, and then here as an import. Or it will be registered in the Finnish association Hippos as an unrecognized equine animal. The same is true with many other horse breeds as well. It makes the registration process long and a bit frustrating. Hippos is found for registering standardbred trotters and the Finnhorse, only some warmblood riding horses and purebred ponies were accepted later. Trotting racing is a big business and a hobby here, so that's the reason why. In Finland there operates a breed association for the Arabian fullblood horse, SAHY ry, but they haven't been interested in co-operating with us Pintabian people. 

Pintabian is a mixed breed. I've heard two different definitions of how a horse can be registered as a Pintabian. Both of them state that there has to be at least 50% pure full Arabian blood, another one adding that the more the better. So in many cases the percentage of Arabian fullblood is mentioned something like 99,79%. In short a Pintabian is exactly like an Arabian horse, but the visible color is tobiano, which is forbidden in the Arabian breed. That pattern comes from a Pinto. In one definition it is mentioned that a Pintabian has to be tobiano, otherwise a horse is not a Pintabian. The other one says that a solid color can also be a Pintabian if the Arabian blood is over 50%. There are many opinions on how it's right. The homeland of the breed is the US. 

In breeding color there's always a favor for the homozygote individual. It means that both parents carry the same allele of the particular gene, in case of Pintabians the tobiano gene, and the foal inherits it from both of them. When the foal has offspring of its own they all are tobiano since the homozygote cannot leave anything else. Another option is of course a heterozygote, which means that the desired allele comes only from one parent and the other gives for example a solid bay color gene to the foal. So when trying to get as high as possible a percentage of Arabian blood from horses that do not have a tobiano gene since it's not allowed in the breed, one needs to have a plan for many generations in order to one day have a homozygote tobiano Pintabian foal. And there's a genetic factor also in adding a homozygote to a homozygote, it usually weakens the other features dramatically. Mainly breeging only homozygotes together the health issues come into play and there's been a debate about for example a thing called lethal white in other breeds. So one needs to add the Arabians in Pintabian for the health as well. 

And of course aside from color there are other features that need to be taken seriously in horse breeding: the health, the character, the size, and so on. That's why in Pintabian breeding especially homozygote proven breeding stallions are golden. The life of a horse breeder isn't only a walk on clouds, since there's always something else, there just can't be a perfect foal even though one aims for it everyday. In America Pintabians are used in shows, hobby riding and western at least. In Finland there are not so many Pintabian individuals that it could be said what they are used for but most of the adults are trained in riding. They can be trained in anything and that's one point to keep in mind in breeding: the character and health of the foals need to be good enough that they can later embrace a life as a hobby horse. We people in Finland are a bit larger than in some warmer countries, so when we want to ride our Pintabians, we need to focus on breeding them big enough too. And by this I don't mean being fat but being larger in structure. 

What I love about Pintabians the most is their character. Of course it depends a lot on the environment, the way the horses are handled daily and the way they live, are they part of a herd or sadly living alone, and so on. Naturally the character is much like the Arabians, since they have so much genetically in common. I love the combination of fire and wisdom. I'd say Pintabians don't need to be educated so much but the relationship between them and their people is crucial. When they trust in their person, they'll do anything without teaching a lot. They also can use their own intelligence to work things out and solve issues. For example we have had many occasions when trying to catch a foal and there's been another foal helping us out without asking by his own body positioning and driving. Sometimes it feels like they understand what I say, and it's always easy to communicate with them when the relationship is good. 

Of course it's a nice bonus when your horse is stunning to watch. The way Pintabians move, it's a love story. But the main point in all horse life is that You feel complete everyday with the horses You have at the moment. To focus on breeding or one breed or aiming towards a goal, it's good, but the most important thing is the feeling one has every day with his own horses. It makes me happy when I can go to the paddock and just sit there listening to my horses eat or snore, and I don't need anything more from them. Their existence is the win for me. The herd dynamics, that they accept me all the way as I am, sometimes tired and sad, sometimes happy and full of ideas. That's the reason why I love this particular horse breed so much. They're always there for me as I am always there for them. And I know it's what horse breed ever is the one for anyone, You'll find Yours by trying. I've found mine and it is a Pintabian for sure. 

About us

 Hi there! Love to see You visiting my new blog! 

This very first post will be just to tell You some things about us. And the first thing to say as a native Finnish speaker, I'm sorry for the linguistic errors in this and all the future posts! My English is not the best, but I hope it's enough. If You are willing to read in Finnish You can find more my texts in blog Varsakuiskaaja here on blogspot.com. 

I am a forty year old granny of the Finnish fir forest who has no children but has horses and loves anything in nature. I may not be seen so often in the pictures, but You'll recognize me for my muddy clothes, and tree leaves and branches hanging in my grayish hair. I've developed a passion for the Pintabian horse breed, and that's the main reason I started the Instagram account Pintabian Horses Finland, and now this blog. Maybe later an account on Facebook as well, we'll see. The account You can find on Facebook by the name Pintabians Finland is a page by Annina Huovinen, the first breeder of Pintabian horses here, please check it out as well!

I live in Loimaa, South-Western part of Finland. My neighbour is the man behind AK Pintabians and his wife has all kinds of horses. She's active in horse breeding, therapeutic work with horses and many more. They both are part of the endurance riding community in Finland as well. So it was natural for me to get to know the Pintabian horse breed via them. 

Pintabian is a very small breed in Finland. If I'm counting right there are somewhat twenty individuals living here currently and that's it. I assume the first person to bring Pintabians in was Annina who had spent some time in the US and while there had fallen in love with the tobiano Arabians. She bought a mare and a young stallion, and had some beautiful foals later in Finland. 

More later on that stallion was about to change my life too. Antti the breeder of AK Pintabian foals bought GP Touchof Dandi (Hnds Shocknavwe x GP Kassadora) the very stallion and decided to breed the Arabian fullblood mare Automatika LT ox (Abatas LT ox x Alyva LT ox) who he owned with Tintti his wife. The first Pintabian foal here in Loimaa was born in 2020. He was named AK Sergei, and to me he was the most perfect little man ever. He stole my heart completely and I was heartbroken when he was sold to Sweden and died there soon after. 

In my earlier horse life I had young warmbloods and developed a great fear for riding since I was not a very good rider but the horses were experts in bucking. Dandi the Pintabian stallion was the wisest horse I've ever seen and he let me ride him without any scary moves. Even though he still kept fooling me because of his clever mind, it's a feature in the breed. Pintabians are not simple minded, no way! 

Every year there's been some foals born in Finland but the next ones and the last for Dandi here in Loimaa 2022. Antti sold Dandi to Austria and got another breeding stallion from there, Inkspots de Terackie (Terackie Psynsatonal Design x Terackie Malikah). I bought Automatika LT ox from him in December 2020 but leased her back to him, to be used in the Pintabian breeding later on. In 2022 was born AK Janosh, a full brother to the beloved AK Sergei. He was a beauty and a disappointment as he was another stallion. Antti and Tintti were not about to keep any more stallions since they allready had Inkspots. 

Antti and Tintti hoped to sell AK Janosh to some other country because in Finland there really are not many interested buyers for Pintabians, not at least stallions. There was no interest in him, even though he has some blue in his eyes. Then one rainy October day was my ultimate lucky day: they said if I ever wanted to purchase him I'd better act now. I did, and I now own the full brother to AK Sergei the founding foal. 

In 2023 there were two more Pintabian foals coming, AK Rustyink (Inkspots de Terackie x Automatika LT ox) and AK Dustyink (Inkspots de Terackie x Desert Rose ox), both stallions of course. After Rustyink we decided to put Automatika down after a strong career in Pintabian breeding, and so we had no Arabian full blood or Pintabian mares to breed more. We only had stallions. Antti still owns Inkspots and he has had some visiting mares these years. I'm the proud owner of Janosh, Dustyink and a pony x Pintabian cross, who is also sired by Dandi. 

We've been joking about us breeding only stallions but it seems to be a fact not a joke. All the foals born here have been colts. So it's official now, we've called ourselves Etelä-Mellilän oripalvelut in Finnish, which translates to something like Southern-Mellilä stallion services. Interested mare owners are still welcome to book breedings, but at least for now there are no more Pintabian foals coming under the title AK Pintabians, mainly because they'll be stallions anyway. And it seems I'm the only buyer for Pintabian colts in Finland and I'm out of money... Now this is a joke of course.

But the breed is not dead in Finland. There's one so called purebred Pintabian foal expected next Summer who respectfully combines the two lines we've had here. Also there are cross foals born, even though the term cross is a bit misleading since Pintabian is a cross breed itself. Finnish association for horse breeding Hippos does not register Pintabian as a breed but an unrecognized equine animal. That's where we need the registration of the foals still in the US. And I think we need a breed association of our own one day. 

So this is about me and my horses, us and our horses and the situation with Pintabian horses in Finland at the moment. This blog will be written by me and therefore contain also my personal opinions and judgements. They do not represent the opinions of the whole Pintabian community. My horses are young and maybe something about their development as well. And of horses in general, since I truly am an enthusiast. Hope You enjoyed reading! Feel free to contact us! You'll find our Instagram account pintabianhorsesfinland to see pictures and some info as well. 

Have a lovely day, maybe with Your horses! 

Anna