by Didi Hornberger

Taking a look in this article at the term "grade horse", and what it means to exhibitors of model horses.

Wikipedia defines a "grade horse" as:

"A Grade horse is a horse whose parentage is unknown, unidentifiable, or of significantly mixed breeding.

This differs from purebred animals of known bloodlines and also differs from deliberately crossbred animals that are produced with an intent of either creating a new breed of horse or an animal with characteristics the deliberately combine the strengths of two different breeds.

Then, we have the Wikipedia definition of a "Crossbred horse":

A crossbreed or crossbred usually refers to an animal with purebred parents of two different breeds, varieties, or populations. Crossbreeding refers to the process of breeding such an animal, often with the intention to create offspring that share the traits of both parent lineages, or producing an animal with hybrid vigor.

There is a significant different in the two terms. The "grade" horse is likened to the "mutt" dog. It is an unregistered animal with an untraceable background record of parentage or pedigree. It may be of any color, any equine ancestry, any size, and any and every conformation imaginable. It may or may not in some way present a vague resemblance to a certain "type" of horse, but there is absolutely no way to tell if it actually is "part this" or "part that", or perhaps a conglomeration of "part everything, with something else thrown into the mix". Unless the grade horse's actual parentage (sire and dam) could be uncovered and proven on paper, his origins would forever be a mystery, with his pedigree only to be guessed at, with no basis in fact. Rather unfairly I think, the term "grade horse" in the past has often been used to designate a horse of "poor quality", or "little worth", since he has no traceable lineage to "prove himself" worthy of the time and effort it would take to try to train him for some kind of use. By and large the grade horses I have personally come into contact with over a lifetime of exposure to real equines has proven to be quite the opposite. Some of the most brilliant performers, companions, and using horses I have ever had the pleasure of interacting with, were "grade horses".

One of these outstanding grade horses was "Diamond Dust", a 15.3 hand palomino gelding. Purchased as a 3-year-old out of a hack stable, "Blaze" had feet which were too big for him, a rather large jowl for his size, and a somewhat "cobby" look, with the slightest of "feathering" at the back of his pasterns. In the wintertime his coat bleached out almost to plain cream, but his summer coat always came in as a dark gold, with enough huge dapples to knock your socks off. He was four-square, sound, honest, and smart, but except for his pretty summer color, as a skinny 3-year-old he was otherwise unremarkable.

I purchased Blaze the year before I graduated from Penn State. My then fiancé, Rick and I got a weekend job at the hack stable in State College, PA where Blaze lived; guiding trail rides for the owners and helping out with the hack stable during the week, between classes. Blaze had been obtained by the owner with another grade horse, a narrow-chested chestnut pinto named "Thunder". When the owners had gone to buy Blaze, the seller had wanted to get rid of Thunder, (who was older and not as sound) so he had told the owner that in order to buy Blaze; he would also have to buy Thunder with Blaze. Thus Blaze and Thunder came to the hack stable, together. Not a lot of money goes into rental hack type horses, so they came cheap. During his early stint as a "rental horse", he was always given to the beginner riders due to his gentle ways and unflappable nature, despite his young age. We soon discovered however that Blaze also had a wry sense of humor. One afternoon Blaze was taken out by a loud, obnoxious fellow who was out to prove to everyone what a "cowboy" he was, on a horse. For 45 minutes Blaze patiently endured being kicked, spurred, slapped, hauled this way and that, and jerked repeatedly in the mouth without a sign of protest. As we were coming in the lane to the stable at the end of the ride, Blaze's rider turned around in his saddle to shout some more misbegotten advice to the person riding behind him. Blaze subtly lowered his head, stepped neatly out from under his rider, and sent him cart wheeling into the gutter alongside the lane, where he landed in a foolish heap. As Blaze's rider lay there, unhurt and red-faced, but mystified as to how he had so suddenly come off, under the roar of appreciative laughter from the fifteen other riders, Blaze simply stopped in his tracks, stood quietly, and looked down at him with a benign expression. I don't think I have ever laughed so hard myself, and from that day forward, I began to plot a course toward buying Blaze, and taking him out of the rental stable, and home with me. I bought him in the fall of 1965 – for $350.00.

Rick and I married in the summer of 1966, went to Nellis AFB in Las Vegas with the USAF, and shortly sent for Blaze to follow us there. Because my equestrian background had been riding and showing Thoroughbreds and hunters, I determined to make Blaze into a show hunter. (Say, WHAT???) Well – consider that in the late 1960's, the "Arabian" and the "Appaloosa" were King and Queen in the Nevada desert show rings, and the "hunter/jumpers" at that time may have numbered only 20 or so, in the entire state. But – to make this "stubby", "chubby", plebian little palomino non-name with the big feet and the big face, into a show ring "hunter"? Well – we would see.

The emphasis back then on winning-style "hunter-type movement" wasn't as paranoid as it is today with the show ring hunter, nevertheless for his size and conformation, Blaze could move well with the best of them. Those big feet seemed to just disappear as he glided over the ground, and he took to jumping fences like he did to everything else – like it was "nothing". He was the greatest fun to jump because he was both honest, and sensible. If he could do the jump, he jumped. If he deemed the jump beyond his capabilities, he'd simply stop GENTLY, and let me know he needed more time, or more experience. He never outright "refused" to do anything which was within his capabilities, which I would eventually discover in the years that we owned him, would absolutely SOAR beyond what his plebian looks and unknown background promised.

Rick and I did everything and took Blaze everywhere with us, all over the State of Nevada. From the show ring behind the (now long-gone) Stardust Hotel on the Vegas Strip, to the dusty desert show rings of places like Pahrump, Tonopah, Yerington, Reno, Sparks, and Fallon; and to Bishop, California and back, we showed in just about every kind of class, from Costume to Hunters to "gaming", and even got into Jumper classes. We rode desert trails at night, (after the 120+ summer degrees of the daytime had cooled down to a pleasant 72 degrees) and I watched the final TV episode of the original "The Fugitive", sitting on Blaze's back in an outdoor ring with night lights. (The TV was mounted on a card table, connected with a long extension cord to the ranch house of Blaze's boarding stable.) We jumped in night shows under the lights, (again, these shows were popular at night in the desert summertime because of the heat) and our photo was in the Chronicle of the Horse in 1968, for Blaze winning the overall Nevada State Horseman's Association Hunter Championship that year.

I taught very young children to ride on Blaze, and vividly remember watching one tottery 5-year old cling to his mane and saddle pommel as he baby-sat her around an entire course of "mini-jumps". It was the child's very first "jumping" class, and she was game, but scared. Blaze entered the in-gate looking like a half-asleep cart horse, to the amused snickers of several spectators. What followed, though was golden. Blaze stopped briefly, waiting for the child to get a good seat, and then he slowly trotted off toward the first fence. As they approached the small cross-rail, he could feel that she was "behind his motion", so he slowed further, to let her get a good grip, and then he hopped over the fence in a "front-back" motion. The child stayed on, so they headed for the 2nd fence, again at the trot. (They were permitted to "trot" the course in this class, as it was for rank beginners.) Blaze took every fence the same way, visibly WAITING until the child felt secure before he eased himself over each fence, and he did the entire course at the trot. All she did was to steer him. After they cleared the last fence, I was giggling with glee, and those spectators who had dissed him when he first walked into the ring, joined in with the roar of approval the pair got from the spectators! And, yes – they won the class. Another of his many, many happy triumphs that summer, of both the very large and the very small. He always managed to add fans to his own "fan club" wherever we went, and within a year, every horseman in the State knew about Diamond Dust. Once someone called him a "plow horse" as we entered a different ring at a different show, for a hunter class. Blaze notched up to "serious rider mode" and carried off the class in fine style with a win, and as we moseyed past the nay-sayer on our way out of the ring, I couldn't help my mouth. I called sweetly to the man, "Oh, this is what Blaze does, when he isn't out plowing."

Then there was our heart-stopping jump-off against one of the finest Open Jumper horses in the Western States. "HB" had once cleared seven feet two inches in a Puissance class, and he was so far out of the league of the "Nevada Jumpers" that few horses would even compete against him. HB won EVERYTHING, and was a sensational and spectacular leaper. As we were friends with his junior rider and her parents, I was once invited down to their stable to watch HB "train", over a truly frightening sky-high jump. During the training session, his young owner asked me if I'd like to jump HB. I was thrilled at the prospect if just SITTING on this wonderful horse, and I expected that they would lower the high jump to a "reasonable" height for me. I asked the owner how she rode HB into a fence, and she told me, "Just sit tight, aim him at the jump, and let him go!" As I turned HB around at the end of the jumping lane, I was suddenly paralyzed with fright at the sight of the sky-high fence, still sitting at 6'6"…………….there was NO WAY I was going to jump that fence! But it was too late. HB snatched the bit and took off, and although I knew very well that HB was going to clear that fence, I was sure I was about to DIE! I think I shut my eyes as HB left the ground, and he soared into the air and just HUNG UP THERE – and I kept waiting for him to COME DOWN – it seemed like we were airborne, forever! Eventually he floated back to earth, cantered to the end of the paddock, and shook his head like he was proud of himself, as well he should be. As I slithered off his back my knees collapsed under me, and the owner came running over and asked me how I liked jumping HB, and if I wanted to jump him again. I said, "Noooooooooo thanks – but that one jump will remain with me for the rest of my life!"

Well – the funny part was that one afternoon Blaze and HB were entered in the same Open Jumping class. Blaze and I were literally competing for 2nd place, which considering our competition, I was quite happy to do. Unfortunately for HB, his owner would sometimes get halfway around a jumper course, forget where she was going, and stop. She then sometimes rode "off course," and got eliminated. The final fence in the class that day was a "measly" 5'2" high – a "no contest" for HB, but a rather severely HUGE fence for Diamond Dust and me. As Blaze and I galloped down to that terrifying last fence, I mentally told Blaze that if he didn't want to jump that fence, it was fine with me. As always, he sensed my hesitation, so he hesitated and I thought we were going to stop. And I didn't care. But as I settled back in the saddle, Blaze took off from a virtual standstill, and cleared that 5'2" fence as if he were flying. My heart almost jumped up my throat as we landed, as I knew we had won that hard-earned 2nd place, but HB was yet to go. Sure enough, his rider flubbed up, stopped halfway around the course, and then took one jump out of order. So she never even made it to the 5' fence – and Blaze won the class. I didn't even care that we hadn't actually "defeated" the famous and wonderful HB – all I could do was hug my palomino plow horse until neither of us could breathe!

Well – but. My tales of Diamond Dust, my wonderful "grade horse" are legend, and funny, and I could go on and on, but I will stop here. Suffice to say, he was one of the best "grades" there could ever be, to everyone who ever came into contact with him – a multi-talented, golden horse with big feet and a huge heart. But I defy anyone to look at his photos and tell me what "type" you think he is; like me, you may imagine all sorts of ideas about what parentage he may LOOK like he COULD have come from. But no one will ever know, because he was a "grade" horse. So to "identify" him as any particular breed or type, would be just an empty guess. After we took Blaze to Vegas, I did have him color-registered as a "palomino" with a "color registry." That was funny! The inspector gent who came to "inspect" Blaze for registry with the PHBA (Palomino Horse Breeders Association) took one long look at Blaze, stated, "Yep! He's a palomino!" and that was that! But the most anyone will ever know about Blaze's origins was that he was probably originally bred "somewhere in Pennsylvania". (And we aren't even sure about that.)

The "Crossbred" horse, then is an entirely different animal that the "grade" horse.

The real equine Mastermind, "Beautiful Jim Key", who reputedly could count, spell, do math, sort mail, answer phones, and do all manner of other wonders, was a documented example of a crossbred horse. He was by the Standardbred stallion "Tennessee Volunteer", out of the Arabian mare, "Lauretta". Who would ever have guessed this however, when looking at his photos, were it not down on paper? Breyer did a very nice Petsmart Exclusive model of "Beautiful Jim Key" in 2006. While some may disagree, I think the Breyer model very much resembles the photos of the real horse. If you haven't read the book about the real Beautiful Jim Key by Mim Eichler Rivas, it is some of the finest "equine reading" you will find anywhere. I was loaned this book about the true life of an exceptional crossbred horse by a dear friend, and I enjoyed it immensely, and recommend it highly.

The Crossbred horse has definite "parameters" to define it, depending on what "pure breeds" are involved. Many of the crossbred and Sporthorse registries state plainly a required percentage of the bloodline(s) of which actual breeds are included, to qualify for the crossbred registries.

The "Anglo- Arabian," for example – a cross between a Thoroughbred and an Arabian, must have at least 12.5% percent Arabian blood to be considered an Anglo-Arabian.

An AraAppaloosa, (Arabian/Appaloosa cross) needs one purebred Arabian parent to be registered as a half-Arabian with the Arabian Horse Association.

The "Colorado Ranger" horse may only contain the bloodlines of Appaloosa, Arabian Horse, Thoroughbred or American Quarter Horse breeds. There are no color requirements, except that a horse cannot contain paint or pinto bloodlines or markings. A Colorado Ranger horse also cannot be of pony or draft horse breeding. Appaloosas are the largest source for Colorado Ranger horse bloodlines.

The "Poney Francais de Selle", or French Saddle Pony was created by crossing native French pony mares with Welsh pony, New Forest Pony, Arabian horse and Connemara Pony stallions.

The National Show Horse, (NSH), originated as a cross between an American Saddlebred and an Arabian horse. It is now established as a separate breed, since the founding of a breed registry in August 1981.Although any combination of these three breeds may be used, there must be at least 25% Arabian blood in the horse to be registered, up to 99% Arabian blood.

All of the above horses are in the "Crossbred" category, and there are many, many more.

When filling out your toe tags for your show models, remember that a "Crossbred" horse must have at least one registered breed parent, and usually, two. Remember to list plainly what breed(s) are involved. A "grade horse" is a horse of unknown parentage.

Some model show judges insist on seeing a "type of horse" listed on a "grade horse" tag. To be on the safe side, it can't hurt to carefully consider your model's conformation and characteristics, make a guess as to what vague "type" of unregistered breed or unregistered breed combination your "grade horse" may resemble, and list it on your tag. But when considering whether or not to show one of your models as a "grade horse", go back to the definition of "grade" - a horse whose parentage is unknown, unidentifiable, or of significantly mixed breeding.

Don't be afraid to take pride in presenting some of your model horses as "grade". I came to love and respect just such a real horse, with Diamond Dust. (If you would like to see photos of Diamond Dust, email me.)

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