Advantage of bull in a lurcher

[scotty2306 37]

only thing bull does is make them want to kill and smash things to bits it dont add speed stamina or turing ability and most certainly not brains imo that is

[jinnyfizz 5]

Thoroughbred horses are an example, very unsound physically compared to other breeds, short working life but they are popular all over the world because they are the fastest (when they are sound enough to run).

 

I am curious to know how you come to this conclusion!!?

TBs are amongst the most hardy of breeds - they wouldn't be able to cope with what the racing industry throws at them if they weren't!!

As for having a short working life, how do you account for the myriad of TB eventers who are in their prime from the age of 11 years old and upwards (Mark Todd's Charisma, for example) and what about the likes of Desert Orchid, Red Rum, Mr Frisk and so many more?

Most TBs are injured because of what man requires of them, not because they are conformationally weak or physically unsound.

Native ponies are just as compromised by the environment we expect them to live in - lush grass and overfeeding for showing purposes when they were designed to be grazers across sparse and barren mountains.

I have owned and bred TBs all my life and currently have a 14 year old mare and a 2 year old gelding out to grass with no rugs or extra food and looking bonny!!

 

So far as bull crosses go, I think it depends how much bull is in them and what you want them to do for a job. A bit of collie adds brains and a thicker coat to the mix and I prefer a working dog to have this in them as well as some bull for bone and substance

[skycat 6,174]

Interesting and good thread with good replies. I've not personally had a lurcher with a lot of Bull in it as I've never found much lacking in my own lurchers, though I was given one as a pup, but with only an 1/8 Bull in her. From what I gather she is typical of most Bull lurchers, (although she only has such a small amount of that blood in her) in that she is always up for anything, tries hard, really wants to please, is very intelligent: of course those qualities could have come from the other breeds in her (what are they? Don't know! LOL) She is also about as sensitive as a lump of wood, which in some ways is great and in others is not: pain thresholds through the roof are IMO not good as the dog injures itself but never shows the pain which means the injury often gets really bad before you notice it: I'm talking tendon and muscle damage here.

[poacher3161 1,766]

Interesting and good thread with good replies. I've not personally had a lurcher with a lot of Bull in it as I've never found much lacking in my own lurchers, though I was given one as a pup, but with only an 1/8 Bull in her. From what I gather she is typical of most Bull lurchers, (although she only has such a small amount of that blood in her) in that she is always up for anything, tries hard, really wants to please, is very intelligent: of course those qualities could have come from the other breeds in her (what are they? Don't know! LOL) She is also about as sensitive as a lump of wood, which in some ways is great and in others is not: pain thresholds through the roof are IMO not good as the dog injures itself but never shows the pain which means the injury often gets really bad before you notice it: I'm talking tendon and muscle damage here.

A very good comment i have have also exspirienced this with some beddy hybreds its obviously due to terriers low pain threshold atb dell

[jinnyfizz 5]

 

Well very briefly, because I don't think a hunting forum is the place to discuss horses, I draw my conclusion from 21 years of riding racehorses (flat and NH) in numerous yards in Ireland and England, from friends who breed and train racehorses, from owning an ex-racehorse (riddled with injury), from competing in One Day Events and from my work as a head equine vet nurse.

 

I did not say or imply that horses are delicate with regard to climate or feeding. Neither did I claim that there are no physically sound old Thoroughbreds. Of course there are. But the proportion of injury cases which were TB compared to non-TB in our clinic was very large. It is very difficult to keep racehorses sound. As soon as they begin training most start showing some sort of soundness problem. In one yard I worked in with over 100 flat horses, so many were trained on bute that their left over feed couldn't be reused on brood mares etc. It was dumped. I think that they have a short working life as a result of seeing so so many shot or retired from racing from 2 years of age up. But they can be expected to live to their thirties.

I agree with you that they are injured due to what we require of them and that's why I used the example, people keep breeding and training them despite their tendency to injury, despite their short working life as a racehorse, which tests them physically to the extreme. Eventing is different, the horses are not required to run flat out because there is an optimum time that the stages have to be completed over. You get penalised for competing too quickly.

All the best,

Nijinski

 

Thank you for your reply and I agree with everything you say. I have also had over 40 years experience running point to pointers and hunter chasers as well as competing in other disciplines too.

I brought it up as one of my pet hates is people "dissing" TBs (too many happy hackers around!!)so it's nice to know that you live in the real world

 

I'm following this thread as I have recently acquired two lurcher pups with 1/16th bull in them so finding it very interesting.

[Cleanspade 3,324]

ive had both bull and wheaten first crosses and found them both highly intelligent and trainable. both would go that extra mile and both healed better than my collie crosses. neither took more injuries even accounting for there full on atitude. on the down side they where both hard mouthed and quick to anger. still good allround rabbit dogs though. bull has a lot to offer as have all terrier bred lurchers.

[bird 10,004]

ive had both bull and wheaten first crosses and found them both highly intelligent and trainable. both would go that extra mile and both healed better than my collie crosses. neither took more injuries even accounting for there full on atitude. on the down side they where both hard mouthed and quick to anger. still good allround rabbit dogs though. bull has a lot to offer as have all terrier bred lurchers.

 

Yep clever dogs, my 2 clever picked up training easy, and my 1/4 bull x done wwll on rabbits for a 70lb dog. had a pure bitch and she was clever dog a 1/4 bull in a lurcher is a good thing, give's that bit of extra drive+guts in a saluki x or collie x