I just read this thread today. My show horse is a Morgan-type mini, who is an excellent performance horse. We show primarily ADS driving shows, because it doesn't matter what "type" your horse is, each horse is judged as being an example of it's breed. Morgans are not expected to look like QHs and Warmbloods don't look like Haflingers or Fjords. But they are all welcome to show.
Although I am glad that the mini breed is looking for ways to increase value of horses that are not mini Arabs, it will be interesting to see where this pans out.
If you take the QHs for example, they started out being a "stock horse" breed. Now, some QHs are bred for Hunter classes looking more like a Thoroughbred. There are whole separate bloodlines for Western Pleasure horses, which are heavier, and then there are "performance bred" horses for Reining, Cutting, and the like which are heavier and shorter yet. AND then there are separate bloodlines just for parading around the ring in Halter classes. All of these "types" are from what used to (and maybe still is) considered a "stock horse" type.
So, in ten years, are all the "stock type" minis going to look like performance-bred QHs or Hunter-type QHs? Then are we going to have to create yet another division?
It is too bad that a good judge can't just see a good horse for being a good horse, regardless of type. Personally, although we have big Part-Arabians here, I like to see a mini with some structure. They tend to have less structural bone issues and internal organ issues than their finer counterparts. I want a horse I can do something with, not just "feed and lead".
I also think that the Arabian trend in the mini ring has actually decreased the structural correctness of the breed. I have seen more and more "butt high" horses that are big-time mini winners, because of this trend to overly "stretch-out" the horses in line up. This levels their croup, but actually they are built down hill. A downhill built horse is going to have a harder time using their haunches for performance. They might also have less stamina than their uphill-built counterparts. And legs are so fine, that they look like they are on stilts. Having the breed standard wrote more "generically" would give ALL horses value regardless of what "type" they are.
