More mating prejudice:
It’s an uphill fight. Race horses are very uniform in their genetic makeup. (Ann Gibbons Racing for Disaster? SCIENCE vol. 344 no. 6189 June 13, 2014 page 1213) I would think that’s why they’re called “thoroughbreds,” wouldn’t you. And when somebody uses that word in another context, like this machine is trying to compete with a machine that is a thoroughbred, I take it to mean an unfair contest. Those are fast horses, at least over the distance that their races use. My impression is that there are – less exalted – quarter horses that are faster over the quarter mile.
Breeding for speed has its risks, of course. Light bones are faster but more likely to break. I could have told you that. But the overall vigor of the animals should be pretty good. But the article suggests that current breeding practices are “potentially dangerous.”
My voice teacher once asked me whether I knew a piece I was working on. I said, “Pretty well.” She snorted, “That’s like being a little bit pregnant.” It’s like when the doctor tells you are almost obese. That means you’re not obese.
But of course this highly professional article in a top flight journal speaks for the consensus. And in a population fast approaching global hypo-fertility, if not already there, with what appear to be endless and pointless wars (the nice outbreeders don’t have as many children so the rest of us are maybe not so nice) I think the consensus needs some education.
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