20/03/2026
Dear Fellow Breeders,
I have been a member of the Australian Stock Horse Society since its inception in 1971 - over 50 years ago.
I’ve even got the really fancy badge to prove it.
Therefore, I would like to make a few carefully considered remarks about the proposed rule changes facing us.
Firstly, when the breed society was created, it was called the Australian Stock Horse for a very good reason.
The horses that were being classified to make up the breed were, in the vast majority, horses that had either been bred or used to work livestock.
These horses evolved from a vast jigsaw of genetics - Thoroughbreds, unregistered ponies, Arabs, Timor ponies, Welsh Mountain Ponies, Connemara ponies, Cape of Good Hope horses, Walers, Brumbies, clumpers and a few others straight from the Heinz 57 variety.
We need to make sure we are absolutely clear here: our breed evolved from the extraordinary diversity of a wide genetic base.
As much as we’d like to pretend, our breed did not come from a single Heritage Stock Horse ‘breed’ because the truth is - no such ‘breed’ existed.
The ‘heritage’ category - and, in fact, the terminology itself - is purely a creation of the ASHS organisation.
Certainly, there are numerous breeds in the world that have the kind of genetic purity that can be traced back for 300+ years
The English Thoroughbred is acknowledged as having the purest and most accurate studbook in existence.
The Caspian horse from Iran is another, along with the Norwegian Fiord horse, the Akhal-Teke from Turkmenistan and the original Przewalski horse.
Therefore, we must admit that the so-called Heritage Australian Stock horse was not one of the breeds that are scientifically acknowledged - and fully DNA tested - as being a pure breed
Our horses were mostly bred for a similar purpose: to work stock on stations and farms during the week and to provide leisure activity for their owners on weekends with events such as shows, gymkhanas, camp drafting, polo, polo cross, etc
While we may have established a breed registry some 55 years ago, we cannot honestly now attempt to claim it to be a pure breed.
That’s the stuff of Walt Disney.
During these past five decades, our Australian breeders have continued to develop and enhance our horses by adding a wide diversity of bloodlines.
These include the modern thoroughbred which has now been shown by geneticists to be merely a distant genetic cousin to the original colonial thoroughbred.
The wide diversity of introduced bloodlines also included the American Quarter Horse.
All the best breeders of any kind of livestock in the world will tell you that every single species relies on constant selective infusions of genetic diversity.
If we approach a horse’s pedigree from the perspective of it being similar to a giant tapestry, we know we need to replicate superior bloodlines with careful, selective inbreeding.
We also understand that we must attempt to balance this by providing a counter balance of out-crosses.
There is an endless, ongoing quest to find the sires that can provide the right ‘ignition’ to the powerful mare families, therefore regenerating our horses for the next the generation.
It is widely accepted by good breeders that the mare is 80% to 85% of a horse
Rapid advances in understanding pedigrees through the use of DNA and the mitochondrial sequence show us that the X chromosome carries vastly more superior power to the Y.
Therefore, the current ASHS proposal that all future horses presented for registration must carry 25% Heritage horses in their pedigree is seriously laughable.
Any good breeder of livestock understands, the vastly dominant 75% of the pedigree has already ‘saturated’ and ‘dominated’ the existing 25%.
Think of it like cooking a cake for smoko: if you use two eggs in a cake recipe that is mostly made up of flour, sugar, butter, and milk - not to mention a bit of delicious chocolate or a little orange rind - then the presence of the eggs disappear very quickly.
Most concerningly, in all the information that I have read or heard on this matter, nobody has explained to me what the true motive is for taking such a dramatic step - or for making so many radical changes to our existing registry. .
Since it’s so important, I’m going to ask the question one more time - what is the true motive? 
Every performance breed in the world is now searching for a vigorous out-cross to give us the sound and solid future that any good breed of horse deserves.
Unfortunately, the current proposal is such a frighteningly retrograde step it will take us straight back to the dark ages.
The nature of this proposal shows us there is a complete lack of basic knowledge about how genetics work.
Our true responsibility is to the young horsemen and horsewomen of Australia who will one day inherit our wonderful breed.
Let’s make sure we leave them the kind of horse the whole world admires - and not some stagnant swamp. .
Regards
Heather Pascoe. .
