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 Regular
Posts: 73
| I am wondering why people tend to shy away from horses with Impressive on their papers. I own a grandson and am absolutely in love with him. At a slow lope, we are clocking in the 3D and he is wicked fast on the track. He tends to get a little hot and excited in the alley way even though we're still in the patterning phase and he hasn't run on the pattern yet. I've also heard that Impressive horses are incredibly sensitive and mine certainly fits this mold but it doesn't seem like enough to shy away from them all together. Maybe it's just me. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 679
 
Location: KS | Impressive passed HYPP to his offspring. HYPP is a genetic muscle disease. I don't believe every Quarter Horse has to be tested for it, only if Impressive is on their papers, correct me if I'm wrong. Some people just don't want that risk. |
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 Total Germophobe
Posts: 6443
 
Location: Montana | ACowgirlsLastRun - 2016-03-31 5:33 PM Impressive passed HYPP to his offspring. HYPP is a genetic muscle disease. I don't believe every Quarter Horse has to be tested for it, only if Impressive is on their papers, correct me if I'm wrong. Some people just don't want that risk. You are correct, only horses that go back to Impressive have to be tested for HYPP. My mare was, and was N/N, therefore her foal doesn't have to be tested even though she still has Impressive on her papers.
Most people shy away from Impressive bred horses because there are quite a few out there that are just pains to be around. The one I had was a great kids horse, wonderful horse. Her filly (who is no longer a filly, but is now 10 years old) is a complete pain in the ass to be around and can be dangerous, I'm just glad I don't own her. And I'm pretty certain it isn't from the stud's side because I have a half sister to her out of the same stud but a completely differently bred dam and a completely different personality (see horse in my profil pic). The Impressive bred one gets jealous easily of any attention paid to anything else. They are a horse that you can't make into a pet and let them push you around at all, not that you should let any horse, but they will take advantage. Or so has been my experience with them. And there are good ones out there, like my mare was, but they can have a "goofy" strain I think, I'm not sure what you would call it.
Edited by mtcanchazer 2016-03-31 6:46 PM
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Regular
Posts: 73
| Thank you. My gelding has Impressive on his mom's side and she was a complete idiot. The only reason we bred her was because we got a good breeding opportunity and there was no other mare around. It's quite possible that my gelding gets his speed and any other positive attributes from his sire, who is Eddie Stinson x a Frenchmans Guy mare.
Edited by jmcanchaser 2016-03-31 7:20 PM
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 Expert
Posts: 1261
| I used to market an Impressive bred paint stud he was HYPP negative for three generations and people still made a big deal about it all the time. It was frustrating lol obviously he can't pass on a disease he doesn't carry even if one of his ancestors did lol but people just don't understand genetics. They hear Impressive bred horses carry this and that's all they hear.
Also many many people say they avoid based on past experience with awful horses that went back to Impressive. I have also heard lots of stories about super awesome ones but any time it's a well known discussed bloodline that a lot of people hate I just tend to steer clear. The horse is less marketable, potential foals if you go that direction are less marketable etc. I don't buy my horses with the plan to sell but I do my best to make sure if life happens they are marketable. |
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Expert
Posts: 1561
Location: North of where I want to be | !st, there is a marketability issue with having a horse that is Impressive bred due to the HYPP, umless you are in the pleasuure realm. 2nd...There is no middle ground on the Impressive bred horses when it comes to personality. You either love them or you won't touch them. LOADS of folks say they are rank, ornery, mean etc ....I can say I have seen all these in the Impressive bred mares. Never in a gelding and its a bloodline that is big in our area. You do not want to pick a fight with one....they never forget. If you do like them then they are some of the hardest working smartest and most devoted horses you will encounter and most of them have looks to spare.
Personally, I pick and choose...but again, I live in an area where they are loved because they are sooooo many pleasure riders.
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 A very grounded girl
Posts: 5052
Location: Moving soon..... | My BF has an Impressive bred gelding. He is 18 now. He has not been run to death and is byfar the luckiest gelding I have ever seen. He gets a check any time she takes him anywhere. In one month he made her $1500. He is one of a kind and I really do not think anyone else could put up with him. I was blessed in getting to run him back in 2006 at the NBHA State Finals here in Texas. He just makes the same run every time. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 823
Location: East Texas | Had one that was a little contrary. We turned her out for two years and never rode her......she came back perfect. Just sold her a couple of months ago as a heel horse and she has been cashing checks and winning saddles. |
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 Dog Rescue Hero
Posts: 1660
Location: Oklahoma City OK | Sigh - this subject has come up SO often and I am almost tired of trying to elevate these horses to where they usually deserve to be. The horse in my avatar was Impressive and I have owned and/or worked with many. Yes, the HYPP stigma is real but can be controlled and doesn't affect EVERY Impressive bred horse. Yes, that stigma alone, without education is a marketing nightmare. I lived in the Arabian horse industry for most of my equestrian life and equate the Impressives to Arabians: very sensitive, very quick. Need to be disciplined FAIRLY if necessary...choose your battles wisely and always control your temper when working with one. I have found them to be the most "wanting to please" horses I have ever been around. Obviously athletes...who doesn't like the Three Bars breeding behind them? Capable of huge things in the right hands. Yeah, they can be quirky..but handled intelligently they can be awesome equine partners. Plus, they're usually exceptionally attractive. Good luck with yours - glad you like him!
Edited by smmthbr 2016-04-01 9:32 AM
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 Half-Eaten Cookies
Posts: 2076
Location: Fort Worth / Springtown | I've had a grandson for almost 17 years, now (he's 20), and he's still running strong - he just won a check at Youth Rodeo when the girl hadn't rode him but once in almost a year. I am still running him, myself, as well, but not as much while starting young ones.
His Sire is Impressive Bar Leo - he looks just like him and I wish I could find another. He is N/N and I didn't know much about the stigma before we bought him - the first time I went to look at him he put his muzzle on my shoulder and he was so pretty, despite finding out that he was still on the waiting list for trainer and not even broke when the ad said he was in training, I knew I wouldn't be happy with any other horse. Probably his only "quirk" is that he is better around people than other horses....and I've since learned that is most likely because he seems to want to "guard" his rider/master -- out in the pasture, he's just like a regular horse.
You can do anything on him - he listens to you. He's a 16 hand baby, but very athletic. He will be extremely hard to replace.
This is him last August at 19.
Edited by txbredbr 2016-04-01 4:44 PM
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | I have had a few Impressive bred horses back 15, 18 years ago and loved them, they were very classy looking and smart, would love to have another one. |
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Total Germophobe
Posts: 6443
Location: Montana | txbredbr - 2016-04-01 3:07 PM I've had a grandson for almost 17 years, now (he's 20), and he's still running strong - he just won a check at Youth Rodeo when the girl hadn't rode him but once in almost a year. I am still running him, myself, as well, but not as much while starting young ones.
His Sire is Impressive Bar Leo - he looks just like him and I wish I could find another. He is N/N and I didn't know much about the stigma before we bought him - the first time I went to look at him he put his muzzle on my shoulder and he was so pretty, despite finding out that he was still on the waiting list for trainer and not even broke when the ad said he was in training, I knew I wouldn't be happy with any other horse. Probably his only "quirk" is that he is better around people than other horses....and I've since learned that is most likely because he seems to want to "guard" his rider/master -- out in the pasture, he's just like a regular horse.
You can do anything on him - he listens to you. He's a 16 hand baby, but very athletic. He will be extremely hard to replace.
This is him last August at 19.
He looks so much like the one I was talking about, except the one I'm talking about is a mare. Maybe just a coincedence, same head especially (almost the same star). Just reminds me so much of Lily, she doesn't have white back socks, but wow. Maybe they just have "that" look. |
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Hungarian Midget Woman
Location: Midwest | Love mine, he is 19 this year. Hunt seat bred by a tb stud. N/N.
16 hh.
he can be a bit hot but I get along with him. I have done almost everything with mine from jumping to barrels. He is solid 3D at national level. Not bad for a big pleasure bred goober lol. Loves to work and run. He doesn't have the quickness in turns to be a 1d horse, but I've never been outrun in a flat race. :) I've had him since he was a 5 yo. He was decently broke when I got him, but bucking his owner off. He just needed a job. |
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Hungarian Midget Woman
Location: Midwest | People avoid them as prospects because they don't understand genetics and are not as well suited as the popular lines.
They are also are harder to sell. I'm not worried about it since mine will never go anywhere. |
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  Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | barrelracr131 - 2016-04-02 5:40 AM People avoid them as prospects because they don't understand genetics and are not as well suited as the popular lines.
They are also are harder to sell. I'm not worried about it since mine will never go anywhere.
It isn't always about the HYPP. I have ridden several from different crosses to Impressive and 99% of them had no work ethic. |
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Hungarian Midget Woman
Location: Midwest | wyoming barrel racer - 2016-04-02 3:54 PM barrelracr131 - 2016-04-02 5:40 AM People avoid them as prospects because they don't understand genetics and are not as well suited as the popular lines.
They are also are harder to sell. I'm not worried about it since mine will never go anywhere. It isn't always about the HYPP. I have ridden several from different crosses to Impressive and 99% of them had no work ethic.
They don't get along with everyone for sure. I will not argue with that. I think certain crosses probably accentuate it. My friend had an impressive/conclusive halter gelding that was pretty difficult to break. Another friend had an hypp horse that was a decent trail horse but quite lazy.
Mine is hot but honest. Same pattern every time and doesn't quit me. But impressive is further back, and he's 19 this year, so take that for what you will.
by now, impressive is pretty far back on most pedigrees. I'd look at what is closer up in terms of temperament. I'm not a fan of most halter bred horses.
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 Just a Yankee
Posts: 1239
Location: Some where I haven't left yet | There are a few bloodlines with no work ethic, they come out in every bloodline, some more than others. For me you can't give me a mr san peppy or a murrtheblurr. However there are hundreds of people who love those two lines. Most of the issue with Impressive is as stated before =  Lack of understanding regarding genetics. I hear it all the time from people things like "triple positive for HYPP" which isn't possible, and double positive means dead...... One has to remember when people are breding halter horses they aren't breeding for Mind, they are breeding for looks only. Impressive died in 1995 he's been dead 21 years, if the individual is N/N and has a good mind and is athletic then he's no different then any other. But it goes back to education, and that ignorance that produces statements like "triple positive for HYPP" So then Impressive bred horses have a bad reputation before you even get to the halter horse breeders not caring if the horse had a brain or not. |
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 Fact Checker
Posts: 16575
Location: Displaced Iowegian | I showed “back in the day” when sons & daughters of Impressive flooded the market as “halter horses”. You knew not to buy them when, out of hundreds and hundreds for sale, you would see one or two ads that they were advertised as the “the” Impressive that “rides”. The farther away you get and the breeding of Impressive is diluted, the better the horse will be.
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A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | I loved the 2 Impressive bred horses that I had and they were very close to Impressive both grandgets to him, I was talked out of both of them by a roper, I still kick myself for letting them go. They were really nice horses. Like I said if I ever came across another and liked it I would buy it in a heartbeat, and its got to be a gelding. I dont get along to well with mares like some dont get along to well with a certain breed. I do have mares but perfer geldings.  |
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 Proud to be Deplorable
Posts: 1929
| Impressive was a genic freak. He was bread to be a race horse but was not sound enough to get much of a record as a race horse. Because of his muscle mass and the fact that he could not remain sound when ridden his only avenue to success was in the halter pen. Because he would pass on his mass to his off spring every one that had a pretty mare with a lot of mass and a lot of money bread to him with little regard to if they would ride or stay sound. Most people did not care if they would ride because they would win in the halter pen. His weanlings would bring 50,000 back than. His offspring also had a rep for being mean sob's to be around. I remember showing at the Congress in 1985 and watching the halter classes better than 50% of the horses entered where son's and daughter's of Impressive and not a one of them would trot off sound IMO. Other than an a little shuffle step they called a trot they could not lope a step. I will not judge 3rd or 4th generation off spring because they are so diluted it would it would not be fair. However his own get while pretty could not get out of their own way. I say that because I have seen hundred's. Not a fan!!!! |
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 Ima Cool Kid
Posts: 3496
Location: TN | |
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Miss Southern Sunshine
Posts: 7427
Location: South Central Florida | My bests friend has a grandson. Amazing horse. On the hot side, and always ready to go, but I believe as someone said, it's the HYPP thing people want to stay away from.
My friends is a gelding, and never tested but at almost 30 years old, I think he would have shown a problem in his youth. My daughter rode him for about 10 years, and he pulled a check anywhere from the 1D to the 3D EVERY RUN. I would say he was a solid 2D horse, but could have a bobble and pull a 3d or perfect and have a 1
d (in a 4D format) When he was 24, her horse was injurred and she pulled him out of the pasture for a local ranch rodeo. No leg up or anything and he busted a more ran a 22 second pole run and won the Poles in the rodeo. I wish I had owned 10 of him, he was just fun, honest and great horse to be around.
He is now babysitting in Alabama at 28 years old...and still a little on the hot side when he feels good :)
Edited by Swannranch 2016-04-03 3:34 PM
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Half-Eaten Cookies
Posts: 2076
Location: Fort Worth / Springtown | mtcanchazer - 2016-04-01 6:31 PM txbredbr - 2016-04-01 3:07 PM I've had a grandson for almost 17 years, now (he's 20), and he's still running strong - he just won a check at Youth Rodeo when the girl hadn't rode him but once in almost a year. I am still running him, myself, as well, but not as much while starting young ones.
His Sire is Impressive Bar Leo - he looks just like him and I wish I could find another. He is N/N and I didn't know much about the stigma before we bought him - the first time I went to look at him he put his muzzle on my shoulder and he was so pretty, despite finding out that he was still on the waiting list for trainer and not even broke when the ad said he was in training, I knew I wouldn't be happy with any other horse. Probably his only "quirk" is that he is better around people than other horses....and I've since learned that is most likely because he seems to want to "guard" his rider/master -- out in the pasture, he's just like a regular horse.
You can do anything on him - he listens to you. He's a 16 hand baby, but very athletic. He will be extremely hard to replace.
This is him last August at 19.
Three Bars has that star --- mine has a LOT of Three Bars....maybe that's it.
Impressive wasn't too tall...15.1, which is kind of surprising to me - for years I pictured him to be bigger.
This horse is a dream - he's slow on trails - peps up when you are near the alley. A very special and LOVED horse.
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Ima Cool Kid
Posts: 3496
Location: TN | any time you breed several horses to anyone there will be both good and bad. most problems came from doubling up. I personally love my Impressive bred girls have had the same line for 30 years. its more what you make of a horse than breeding. JMO |
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 Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11511
Location: 31 lengths farms | I had an Impressive bred mare for about 22 years, she was a blown up cutting futurity horse when I got her at an auction, obviously had been drugged to high heavens for the sale,as I hopped on her in a halter on the track and loped some circles both way and fell in love. Got her bought and the next day got on her and she was a basket case. She'd sull up and put her nose to the ground and back up and you couldnt' get her to go forward for anything. Took me 6 months to get her to run away forward and I considered it a victory. Once we put some miles on and she figured out she wasn't in trouble for trying she blossomed into a great little horse, hard headed, single minded, all business, the only one she watched out for was my mom, complete pig on the ground until she was 22, never did mellow out enough to become a kids horse in the arena though she was awesome on the trail for my 80 year old dad. She was a little hot at the gate but simply point her, dont' pull on her head and she'd give you her guts. At 12 she some how fractured her hock in the pasture, was lame and for about 3 days and it ballooned up to the size of a soccer ball. Cold hosed for 3 days until we could get to the vet, by then ,most of the swelling had gone done, passed the flexion test 3 times though she pinned her ears back the whole time. Ended up taking one shot of the hock and found the fractures in the patty shaped bones in the hock, all the way thru verticallly. Vet sent me home with his tens machine that we put on her 3x a day for the first month, kept her penned in a 40x40 pen, anything smaller she paced and spun. Gave her 10 months off, I like to over due time off, had her xrayed again, it was healed and changed her to a lefty first horse as she had a bit of trouble getting that leg up under her like before in tight circles. About 8 years later she degloved herself from the elbow to the coronet band, opened up the fetlock joint capsule, 170+ stitiches later she was a patchwork quilt...3 months later she was back running again, though her first run back she hit the thankfully plastic barrel so hard on teh 2nd barrel it ended up in the roping return alley, LOL!!! Yep, out of the arena. The worse the ground the better that little mare clocked, she out tried most horses and bad ground evened the playing field for her. She was N/H on the HYPP test so never bred her, never had an issue with it however and didnt' know much about HYPP when I got her so she never recieved a special diet either but unless I was running her a lot I never grained her and when I did she got rolled oats. She is buried on our property under her favorite oak tree to hang out at and I honk to her, my HS rodeo mare Ginger and my two dogs that are all buried near there as we pull out of the drive. 4 beeps, day or night. |
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 Veteran
Posts: 119
Location: TX | Regarding Impressive bred horses....a general, blanket statement of "they are hot, they are crazy, etc etc" is not fair to put a stigma on. That happens in every bloodline, lets take into account their training, their rider, the environment, etc when putting labels on.
You have 3 options when having an Impressive bred:
N/N-double negative for the gene-they don't have it and they cannot pass it on. They are asymptomatic. Now, I have had a few colleagues tell me they had N/N's that did show some symptoms but tested negative.
N/H- I've had 2 of these unfortunately as I use to show halter and be very involved with HYPP genetics. They are a carrier of they HYPP gene. Show signs and symptoms, depends on how severe they are effected, diet, exercise, etc. IF they are bred to a N/N there is still a chance of getting an N/N or an N/H.
H/H-100% carrier of the gene. If bred it will be passed on. I believe H/H's are not allowed to be registered anymore because it is very undesirable. I'm sure someone will fact check that.
HYPP affects the muscles. It has to do with the amount of potassium and sodium ion channels. If there is too much potassium those channels open and close very sporadically causing muscle weakness which in turn can cause tremors, collapse,paralysis, loud breathing, even death (considering the heart is a muscle). In the link below the research goes into more depth but for the sake of length I'm keeping the explanation simple.
It can be controlled by diet, exercise, medication (acetazolmide) but you just never know.
all the above including stress and other things can cause an "episode, fit, or attack" as we use to call them.
This is a genetic, inherited disease just like HERDA and other diseases that can now be tested for via DNA testing.
My mare would have falling down fits when she was fed alfalfa and had to be stalled with no turnout. It was awful. Fortunately, we were able to control it very well and her attacks were minimal. She was wicked fast and had a great, gritty ornery attitude. She liked to strut her stuff when she was being shown. Unfortunately, we do not know if she had a fit or slipped on the ice but she hit her head which caused her face to be partially paralyzed and her tear duct dried up causing her eye to shrivel up. She learned to adapt and I even rode her after that.
Long story long, just do your research, take the time. The N/N's could hold great potential but I personally wouldn't touch a N/H with a 50ft pole.
Great information from UC Davis
https://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/services/hypp.php |
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Impressive Bred Horses