Ridgling studs, past and present--let's make a list

[vineyridge]

I can't seem to find any mention of a stallion being a ridgling in the stallion registers or his ads.

How do you folks know who is and who isn't? Where do you go to find that information?

Can we make a list here of ridglings at stud, now and in the recent past? Personally, I wouldn't want to breed to one, no matter how good he was. And where do you go to find out who throws ridglings, or what mares drop them?

[Sysonby]

You wouldn't want to breed to A P Indy?

[FOS]

hi vineyridge

How do you folks know who is and who isn't (a ridgeling)? Where do you go to find that information?

If a stallion interests you and you want to know his status, including whether or not he has both fully descended, I suggest that you contact the standing farm and specifically ask the appropriate person/s the question/s you'd like the answer/s to. Simply ask.

Personally, I wouldn't want to breed to one, no matter how good he was.

You say "...no matter how good he was" you "wouldn't want to breed to (a ridgeling)"? Why not?

Personally, whether a stallion has one or both descended, I'd be concerned (among other things) with his libido and fertility...his ability to stop mares...and the quality of runners he gets (if he's got runners already), etc.

I suggest that (to varying degrees) there have been many successful sires that could be described as ridgelings. Too many to otherwise support the notion that being a ridgeling in and of itself should be reason enough to exclude a stallion from a breeder's short list of possible selections to choose from and/or breed to.

Respectfully

[freshman]

Ridgling status may not matter too much at the top levels and probably wouldn't factor into anyone decision about whether or not to breed to a stallion like A P Indy.

But for breeders without that kind of budget and are a doing things a regional type of scale, I can see how a stallion's ridgling status might be more of a factor to consider. I get the impression that ridglings are docked somewhat at the sales. Breed-to-race folks probably wouldn't care for the added complication and expense of castrating a cryptorchid.

So I wouldn't go so far as to that ridglings should be dismissed immediately and without to regard to their talent and prowess as a sire, but for some people it might be the difference of passing over one modestly priced stallion and going to another.

Regardless, cryptorchidism is a genentic fault that shouldn't be promoted wholeheartedly or without discretion. A stallion, in my mind, does have to overcome this with other outstanding attributes that are worth passing on at the risk of passing on their "asymmetry" as part of the package.

[Nerd]

There's an interesting connundrum with the whole Weekend Surprise bunch, as all her sons with the exception of Honor Grades are/were ridglings. So Darwinistically one might argue that her entire line should be culled, but that would mean no AP Indy, no Summer Squall, no Tiger Ridge... which I argue would be bad for the breed.

[KBEquine]

Hypothetically, I'd prefer to know whether a horse is a ridgling & in theory, it would work against him making my 'short list' of sires. By my reasons for that don't affect lots of breeders.

Having said that -- the one mare we want to breed to sell the foal would probably be most marketable crossed with an A P Indy son.

So while I personally want to know so I can make informed decisions, culling a stallion because of being a rig is certainly unfair to a lot of breeders with different priorities.

Plus, I understand [from a vet] that genetically, it's not as easy to identify what will produce this as it is to figure out whether a baby will be gray. There's at least one theory that likely both parents can contribute.

In which case, it's pretty sexist to hold it against just the stallions.

[Keith]

Roman Ruler and Yankee Victor are ridglings

Keith

[summerhorse]

Leo Castelli

[LaTroienne]

I read in Ed Bowen's "Dynasties" that Lyphard was a ridgling.

[wallinga]

Home On The Grange

[sunday_silence]

Pulpit

[CA Michael]

My uncle.

[Tairaterces]

My uncle.

[vineyridge]

This subject fascinates me.

And I am NOT a dirty old woman, most of the time.

In dogs, cryptorchids can't show; most warmblood registries won't consider ridglings for approval. Yet they seem to be fairly common in American TB breeding, especially at the high end.

What do other countries do about standing and accepting ridgling studs? Are they as accepted in the UK and Ireland as they are here? How about France and Germany? South America? Japan? In those other racing places, how are ridglings handled? Gelded at once? Or kept semi-entire to race, then gelded? Or kept semi-entire for possible stud duty?

Before the days when very invasive surgery wasn't common on horses, what happened to ridglings? High ridglings, where the surgery is a complicated procedure?

Has the incidence of TB ridglings increased since they are being kept entire and bred? How would the TB percentage compare with other horse breeds? How is it viewed in, say, Arabs? And is the incidence of bilateral cryptorchids increasing in TBs?

There are two good articles on why ridglings and the effect on behavior in The Horse, and it has something to do with the lengthening of the cords that doesn't happen in cryptorchids. My little guy was a ridgling at ten months, a low ridgling, and probably would have dropped eventually, but was gelded anyway.

Which is one reason for my prurient interest in this topic.

[madelyn]

I may be entirely wrong about this, but the conformation rules of other disciplines do not seem to apply to racing. For example, I showed (equitation, hunter, eventing, etc.) for years and a parrot mouth was so serious a conformation flaw that it would disqualify a horse from competition. In fact, on several occasions I can recall a judge opening a horse's lips on the linup if the mouth looked a tiny bit suspect. But horses don't run on their teeth, and many parrot mouthed horses make their way into the starting gate.

It is the same thing with crooked legs and bad feet. They would disqualify a horse for just about any other discipline. But if the horse can run like that and win races, it doesn't matter. Some people take that further, to the point of actually SELECTING horses with crooked legs.

With ridgelings, provided they can run, no one seems to care.