Bred in the purple...

K

kate081

Well-Known Member
Joined
14 March 2007
Messages
654
Location
Milton Keynes
Visit site
So what does it mean? I understand it means good breeding but what's the significance of purple & why is it on so many adverts these days?

Thanks for enlightening me!
smile.gif
 
It goes back to olden times when purple was the most difficult and costly colour to produce. Only rich people (generally nobility and royalty) could afford to wear something purple or use purple in their homes etc. It suggests that the horse would have a long line of blooded ancestry as would royals etc. or something like that!
 
I used to think it was because that was the colour of the paper they had in the printer at the time but think its is to do with number of generations on both side that pedigree goes back. Am sure that someone with more knowledge than me will be able to enlighten you.
 
Taken from Holme Trakehner's website:

"All Trakehner breeding stock has to undergo rigorous grading methods to maintain the high standards and only foals from graded parents on both sides are eligible for "Pink Papers" and the Trakehner Brand"

So I think they can still be bred in the UK. Just a warmblood is more likely to have both parents graded if it's from abroad.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Taken from Holme Trakehner's website:

"All Trakehner breeding stock has to undergo rigorous grading methods to maintain the high standards and only foals from graded parents on both sides are eligible for "Pink Papers" and the Trakehner Brand"

So I think they can still be bred in the UK. Just a warmblood is more likely to have both parents graded if it's from abroad.

[/ QUOTE ]

thank you for the clarification, up until about 10 years ago pink papers indicated it was imported, but times have changed I suppose
cool.gif
 
How would the colour of a horse's papers, issued at birth, be influenced by it being imported?

The term is literal. Many studbooks really do issue registration on different coloured paper for different "books". So a foal with two graded (fully registered, approved etc.) would be accepted into a higher book (one printed on, for some books anyway, pink paper) than one with, for instance, one graded and one "non" parent (with a certificate on white paper). It's not necessarily a designation that the former foal is of higher quality but that it's *breeding* is of higher calibre. It also makes a difference in how its own foals can be registered.

The first book I heard it used commonly with are Hanoverians which does issue "pink" papers. (Can't say for sure for KWPN etc.) for foals of fully approved parents. Like so many terms in horses though people thought it sounded "cool" and used it in all sorts of less than literally correct situations so it's come to be a general term, which may or may not accurately describe the horse in question.
 
well thanks for the even more indepth information on the subject, when the term was first used it was generally referring to horses that had been imported as at the time very few were born in uk with pink papers, unlike these days i am sure
smile.gif
I worked on a very busy dealing yard back in the lates 80's and our pink papered horses all came off the continent so I suppose that is where i get it from
wink.gif
 
Sorry, didn't mean to cause offence, was just wondering if I'd missed something "uk-specific". That would make sense - it was the same in North America for a long time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top