The equine world’s version of “It’s a bird. It’s a plane! No, it’s …” Ready for it?
It’s a Percheron! It’s a Thoroughbred! No, it’s a THROTRON!
Dear Snarky Rider:
I can’t take it anymore! I run through the local classifieds each morning, looking over the horses, and every single day some dingbat inevitably lists their wonderful “warmblood.” When will people realise that neither a horse’s height nor the fact that it’s a cross-bred (if that) make it a warmblood?! Well, my mind spun yet again today when I came across a new and AMAZING warmblood breed – THE THROTRON. Never fear, you didn’t just have a stroke, nor are you losing your sight or your mind (hopefully): you read that correctly . . .a Throtron. What is a Throtron you might ask? Well, according to the ad, it’s a warmblood, and not just any old warmblood but the much coveted Thoroughbred / Percheron cross. Now, I’m of the mind that a good horse is a good horse (and a bad one, a bad one), whatever the breed. Therefore, I also think people should own up to what their horse actually is, and not make up silly names for it, or stick the warmblood tag on willy-nilly. So, in that vein, a draft cross isn’t a warmblood . . . it’s a draft cross. Calling it a Thortron doesn’t change that one.single.solitary.bit.
-Jennifer
“Mattie is a Percheron/TB cross, sometimes called a throtron. Big, kind and gentle all her ground work is finished and she is now being started under saddle. She can be anything from a trail horse to english pleasure, or even an eventer or a jumper. She just has a great mind and willing to do whatever you ask.”
Just how they got “throtron” out of Thoroughbred and Percheron is beyond me. Or did they misspell their take on the Hollywood couples naming thing (TomKat, Bennifer, Brangelina, I’m sure there are more recent ones but I’m not really up on the celeb buzz)? In which case the name should actually be Thorotron – which is completely amazeballs. Come on! Megatron… Thorotron! See? It’s a horse transformer!!! How awesome is that?
It’d be like if a My Little Pony had a sordid affair with a Transformer!
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(Image from Hasbro. As you can see, she’s totally giving Megatron a ‘come hither’ look.)
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(Ok, it’s actually a Stormtrooper but you get the idea!)
I’m just saying, if a Thoroughbred breeding with a Percheron yields me a horse than can morph into a car, then I’m all for it!
32 Comments
Wouldn’t it be a Thouron? or a Perchbred or perhaps a Thou Perch On Bred or Thou Perch on Ron.
Any how here is a my little pony/transformer I found on MTV
http://geek-news.mtv.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/transformers-my-little-pony.jpg
Wow that is a first for me. How is that cross “sometimes called a throton” if NO-ONE ACTUALLY CALLS IT THAT BUT YOU. Arrgh. I guess in a world of labradoodles and puggles and so on people feel perfectly comfortable making up their own breed words.
Not saying it couldn’t be a perfectly nice horse… TB/Perch can be a great cross, just call it what it is and sell the horse on its own merits.
So … points for not rushing your baby but do they really think they will get $5,000 for a Draft cross who hasn’t even been started under saddle yet (also I couldn’t follow the link but my usual reaction to an ad without a photo attached is that there is a reason you don’t want me to see the horse)
Also I would not describe a horse who wasn’t yet backed as suitable for an “intermediate” rider.
FYI, I think they can call it a warmblood, per these guys: http://www.americanwarmblood.org/eligibility.html
And as the proud owner of a Connevarian (I did not make that up) i think all breed names lost their sanctity once Labradoodle hit the scene…
Actually, I think cockapoo was one of the first bastardized breeds.
Well….it is what it is. But I do question How old it is since ad states 3 and 6 years old. If she is 3 and that big she really should not being doing much of anything.If she is 6 she doing not much for her age!
How timely is this post. 2 weeks ago I was blessed with the opportunity to RESCUE one or more horses from a breeder with major health issues. I had my choice of a Georgian Grande or an American Warmblood. Ok, I admit, I am a paint and MFT owner who trail rides so these breeds were not familiar to me. I had to “google” both because one of my friends is a Dressage rider and was so excited for me. She paid big bucks for HER Georgian Grande from this same breeder. Long story short, I chose the Am Warmblood gelding as he is the sweetest 17hh pocket pony on the planet, so low in the pecking order that he was VERY thin and he was desperate for his own loving human. His breeding consists of 1/2 Saddlebred, 1/4 Percheron, and 1/4 Arabian. How’s that for a mix????? After 400+ lbs of much needed weight from my good groceries he will be drop dead gorgeous. I still don’t understand the Warmblood and Am Warmblood registries but I guess I don’t need to, he will be a much pampered trail horse and pet for me.
I guess I need to change my name to Slave 2 3 FAT and 1 STARVED Horses. LOL
I guess his breed is SaddPerchBian ? Saddperchbian….yeah that’s it !
Or how about…
Saddle Perchian.
LOL
Throtron…definately sounds like a really lame villian.
These sort of things really pester me. I had no idea what the heck an American Warmblood, Gregorian Grande, Quariesian, or a Friesian Sport Horse was until I started doing some research. The American Warmblood I came across was a Quarter Horse/Shire; the Gregorian Grande was a Saddlebred/Frieisan; the Quariesian was a Quarter Horse/Friesian, and the Friesian Sport Horse was a spotted Frieisan. A good majority had poor conformation and I can only ask ‘why’?!
Oooh! And what a rare horse color too!
“Black heart on forhead”
I’ve never heard of such a thing! It must be extremely valuable!
I’m assuming they mean it is a black horse with a star? And its forehead, not forhead.
OMG!!! Totally dying laughing here… Hahahaha.
I can’t wait to tell MY five year old Percheron/TB cross… err,Thorotron (I like that better than Throtron)… that our next task in training is to develop some of those awesome transformer skills that her sire possessed!!!
Shoot, for that matter, since her dam was a My Little Pony, do you think I could get her to produce rainbows too???
LOL
Why not just skip ahead to the inevitable Thorough-Doodle?
So do I have a Quartcheron? I am laughing my draft-cross butt off here! Great post!!!
BTW, personally I think the AWS is a joke… Americans couldn’t commit to a breed (uhm, hi, our beloved Mustangs we’re slaughtering?) so we’re encouraging back yard breeding by enabling anything to be registered!
The horse could be registered American Warmblood, but I think you should be required to actually have gotten the papers before you get to call it that. And it seems like you should be required to specify “American warmblood” and not just say “warmblood” so that people know you mean “bulky mutt-horse” and actually “carefully bred warmblood from a breed that requires inspections”. But maybe that’s just ME! =)
LOL!
My mare is a Throtron, I think. That, or she’s a “warmblood.” Her dam was definitely TB, and the sire was supposedly Hanoverian, buuuut he wasn’t registered, soo…that makes her a “warmblood cross”, and I always say it with the quotation marks, and make it a point to mention that her previous owner/breeder has heard rumors that the sire was actually anything from draft to TWH. As big as her head is, though, I’m going with Thorotron; it sounds so much more awesome.
That’s Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots, that she’s giving the come hither eyes to.. Megatron is the leader of the Decepticons. (I could blame this knowledge on my kid, but I admit I was a shameless Transformers fan when I was young.
)
My first thought was of labradoodles and cavachons and puggles too. Not a fan of that ridiculous “Smash the names together, it’ll sound AWESOME!” thing. Maybe I should call my horse a Thorosdale, or a Clyoghbred, or a Thorclydebred.
Hehe, glad someone else caught that.
Our nerd is showing.
This is one of my big pet peeves. If you have a crossbred anything, call it that, don’t make up some stupid name for it. I’m still pissed over the Quarabs crap and I first heard about that 20 years ago! ARGH! What a stupid cross! Opposites may attract, but that doesn’t mean we should BREED them!
Actually that’s been a pretty successful cross among all the ones I have met and heard of. One recently showed up some of the FEI horses in Dressage.
I agree, I’ve known some very cute Quarter Horse/ Arab crosses, but I’d still call them just that, rather than Quarab. I think since QH and Arab are reasonably similar in type (ie both are compact riding horses, more similar than say, TB and draft) it has a much less chance of producing a freak-horse. Morgan/Arab (“Morab”, arrgh) is another nice cross, for a similar reason, I think.
I have a half Arabian half Saddlebred with the most boring breed name ever….National Show Horse. Boring! Seriously couldn’t the powers that be have come up with something way snazzier than NSH.
Off topic, I adopted a pound pup last year. I figured him to be a basic Heinz 57 mutt. Some lady came up to me a the dogpark and wanted to know where I purchased my Puggle. Apparently I adopted a designer dog.
Squee! Shiny! I haz a ThoroughDale or Clydesorbred.
Where can I get one of those stormtrooper horses?
I had a QH/Marsh Tacky cross gelding…so was he a Quarter Tacky? A Marsh Horse? A Quarter Marshy? Tarter? Marter? Quarsh? Quacky? Yeah I like the last one….he was a Quacky….
Quacky *snicker*
Love it…
So what do I have if I have a NSH/TB cross? Besides a giant mess?
A Thoroughly National Show Horse?
A high stepping flighty horse who can run away really, really fast? LOL!
I really wanted to see a photo of that designer breed the Throtron. Could be nice. Could be a train wreck. 50/50 chance it would look like your average horse. A head, tail, and 4 legs. I had a Quarab more that 20 years ago. Had a Quarter Horse butt as big as a house and the tiniest front end with the most impossibly narrow chest you were ever going to find. He was sweet though.
Come on folks, just because a horse is registered with the “American” Warmblood Society does not a warmblood make. They will register anything with a pulse!
My first horse was a Throtron. You’d get on him after a day off without longeing first, and he’d automatically toss you over his head. I called him “Mr. Trebuchet” but I like “Throtron” much better. Sounds so … modern and efficient.
FWIW, I have some friends who have true Perche/T-bred crosses and some are really gorgeous, especially once they grow into their bones. Seems like all crossbreds — some succeed, some fail horribly; depends on genetics and of course, luck.