How long will we have to wait for an apology over breed inspections?

I believe in my lifetime that breed standards and inspections will be banned, because courts will outlaw the practice of forcing breeders to create animals that match a set of criteria written on paper by people who basically are just being bullies.

However, that will merely be Phase 1 of cleaning up this mess.

Phase 2 will require an apology to all the people whose herds were altered or cast aside in the inspections process.

Many Connemara breeders have been silent over inspections, even though they are opposed to them. They fear their horses won’t be judged well at shows or purchased if they say a word.

Nonetheless, some of these same breeders have turned a cold shoulder to me because I discuss the fact that inspectors fail the pretty horses, and the breeders say that makes it harder to sell pretty horses, at least to people who want to be involved in the Connemara society. It doesn’t stop trainers across the country from being interested in pretty Connemaras that have the looks, smarts and athleticism to compete in the open show world, because those ponies often wind up at the top in national points. But those trainers don’t highlight the fact that the horses are Connemaras or even use the horses’ real names because there’s no incentive to do so. There’s nothing the Connemara society offers that appeals to them, certainly not the inspections process and closed society that celebrates coarse horses and throws away the pretty ones. In fact, I know one hunter trainer who now looks for Connemaras with Little Heaven bloodlines since I pointed out those horses are the ones that seem to do well in the show ring. To many trainers, it has always been a mystery why some Connemaras have been able to compete in the open show world and some not.

This is not to say all Connemaras with Little Heaven bloodlines are perfect. I would be guilty of the same bigotry as the people I’m calling out in this forum if I tried to say that. The reality is that every Connemara is unique, and any assessment should not judge these horses by a quick look at their exterior, pedigree or anything else. The market should judge the horses and decide whether they have value for particular tasks, especially since the market is full of a diverse group of buyers, and everyone is looking for something different. If you throw out certain horses in an inspection process, then you’ve denied a buyer the opportunity to find the exact product the buyer needed. Usually, the buyer will just go elsewhere. Can the Connemara society afford to have buyers go elsewhere?

I wonder how many years it will take for an apology to materialize to breeders whose horses were failed at these bullying sessions known as inspections, leading to demand falling off for their great horses?

I was just reading an article on CNN’s website about Emory University apologizing to Jewish students for something that happened half a century ago. From 1948 to 1961, the dean of the Emory University’s School of Dentistry did everything possible to get rid of Jewish students who were allowed into his program by a student admissions process that didn’t share his hatred of people with Jewish heritage. He failed some of those students and made others repeat up to two years of coursework in the four-year program.

It took years for this to come to light because the families of these students felt such shame at not being good enough that they didn’t talk about it. Some students went on to other dental schools and thrived, while others went into alternative professions and did well. There wasn’t anything wrong with the students, just the bigoted dean.

Once the full story was aired, Emory felt it needed to make amends with an apology, and it did so Oct. 10, 2012. I’ll let CNN tell the next part of the story:

“Widows and children of deceased former students showed up for those who didn’t live long enough to see this day. One man, who was young when his father died, came to hear stories no one else in his life could tell.

“All around them, as they took their seats, the ballroom filled. A standing-room-only crowd of hundreds came out to recognize them. Here, any shame from the past was lifted. Instead, these men were the picture of courage and worthy of respect – and that long-awaited apology.”

And then came the apology from Emory President James W. Wagner:

“Institutions – universities – are as fallible as the human beings who populate them, and like individuals, universities need to remind themselves frequently of the principles they want to live by. The discrimination against Jewish dental students undermined the academic integrity of the dental school and ultimately of Emory. … I am sorry. We are sorry.”

I know in my lifetime breed inspections will end.

What I don’t know is if, in my lifetime, the Connemara society will muster the courage to issue the requisite apology.

Likely, it will be the grandchildren of current breeders who get to hear the leaders of the Connemara world say, “This breed society is as fallible as the human beings who populate it. The discrimination against some horses in our breed undermined the integrity of this organization and ultimately horse breeding in general. It was wrong, and we are sorry.”