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Westeros Equine Academy
The Mediner
Between Baroque and Sporthorse...
The Mediner is a relatively new breed, created 15 years ago by Dr. Mediner, an Australian born, French geneticist who sought to combine the sportive versatility of sporthorses with the graceful strength of baroque horses into a perfect package. Going further than naturally breeding the two types, Mediner altered the DNA of the first embryos to ensure all breed founders and their offspring would be born with light colored eyes regardless of their genotype. Various coloring generally not found in warmbloods (such as appaloosa patterns, champagne and silver genotypes) were also introduced in a couple specimens to allow diversity in a sport breed in a way never encountered before.
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The Mediner International Studbook (MIS) currently counts four generations of the original breed, and the Annual Mediner Showcase (AMS) gathers more and more members and spectators from all around Europe each year. With its recent acceptance in the Internationally Recognized Equine Breeds Committee (IREBC), the Mediner has drawn the attention of several well established breeding stables and is gaining notoriety as both a leisure and competition horse. Its ever growing fanbase include people of all ages, levels and backgrounds.
Types
In accordance with its pre-Mediner bloodlines, the Mediner comes in three possible types; Sport Mediner, Ideal Mediner and Classic Mediner. Although the MIS makes currently no difference in the registry, types often dictate the disciplines and uses a specimen might be most successful in, and Mediner breeders generally favor one or the other.
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Ideal Mediner
The ideal Mediner strikes a perfect balance between sport and baroque physique. It is characterized by a broad forehead and a straight to slightly convex profile with a more or less pronounced (but always present) bump above the nose, a strong and semi long neck that seamlessly joins its sloping shoulders and soft withers followed by a strong and short back. The croup is gently oblique and well rounded and the chest deep and wide. Legs are defined by short and strong canons and thick joints ending in hard round hooves.
The mane and tail are often very thick and straight and can grow rather long similarly to its baroque ancestors, while its legs do not have much, if any, feathering at all.
Accessible to all riders, Mediners range between 110cm (10.3h) and 180cm (17.3h) but Ideal Mediners are generally found to be between 125cm (12.1h) and 170cm (16.3h).
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Sport Mediner
Mediners dubbed as "sport" are generally more gangly than their ideal or classical counterparts. They look mostly like warmblood/sport ponies with the nose bump and head profile characteristical to the breed. The mane and tail of a Sport typed Mediner is thiner as well and the former doesn't grow in a very flattering manner, resulting on most owners keeping it trimmed in a fashion similar to that of other sport breeds.
Although it is possible to find shorter Sport Mediners, they rarely go under 140cm (13.3h).
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Classic Mediner
Classic Mediners are heavily influenced by baroque and, in some cases, draft blood, making them more compact, and imposing. Extremely graceful, they can be recognized by their thick wavy manes and tails which are rarely cut short. It is sometimes hard to physically differentiate Classic Mediners from actual baroque breeds other than for their ever so present nose bump.
Classic Mediners range from (almost) shetland to large draft sizes.
Genetic Characteristics
Extensively modified by man, the Mediner distinguishes itself from other similar breeds by its extreme coat color diversity and its unusual eye colors. Indeed, bored by the overwhelming amount of chestnuts, bays and greys found in the breeds he wished to combine, Dr. Mediner manually introduced less common to rare (and sometimes even inexistant in the mother breeds) genes to his foundation breeding stock in even amounts and selectively bred them for color as well as performance.
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All base coats (chestnut, black, bay, brown) are common as well as coats requiring one copy of a gene to appear in the phenotype of the horse (palomino, champagne, buckskin, dun, smokey black, roan, grey, silver and minimal expressions of paint and appaloosa markings), whilst two copies of a gene or the combination of two different modifiers are currently considered uncommon (extensive expressions of paint and appaloosa markings, cremello, flaxen, and buckskin roan for example). Due to the newness of the breed, colors created by multiple gene (more than 2) combinations, such as silver sable brown dunskin or silver smokey cream sabino, are rare.
It is also important to note that a faint dorsal ray is always present regardless of the color (it will be much more visible if the horse is dun). The reason for it is unknown as of yet.
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For full color lists, click here....
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As mentioned in the origins of the breed, one of the most easily identifiable characteristics of the Mediner horse is its eyes. Thanks to a cleverly engineered modification of the DNA, all specimens of the breed sport light colored eyes, most of which are already naturally found in equines (amber, greenish hazel and blue) but only when some genes (double dilutes, champagne, and some paint patterns) are present. The Mediners surpass those genetic laws to which other horse breeds are bound and those colors, as well some more unnatural ones (such as the more rare and sought after grey, deep green and aquamarine) can pop up regardless of their genotype. The eye color of offspring is directly tied to its parents' and breeding a mare and a stallion with different colored eyes may create some interesting results. The colors may merge into a new shade in between (rarely), but more commonly the eyes of the foal will be particolored (with one eye the dam's color and the other the sire's), or even bicolored (2 colors in both eyes) with either a clean half and half manifestation, a layered iris, or less commonly, speckled. The prevalence of that phenomenon is attributed to the DNA modification made by Dr. Mediner (the nucleotides he engineered are so dominant that they cannot yield to one another).
Breeding
The Mediner is evidently a young breed, with a low count of specimens, despite their rapid growth in number, and consequently, the studbook remains currently open to heavy cross breeding with other accepted breeds. This aspect is likely to change with stricter guidelines once constant pure breeding can be sustained without inbreeding.
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Breeding Pure Lines
At this point in time, it is possible to breed Mediners exclusively with other Mediners, but it is still encouraged to keep on introducing fresh blood from time to time, especially for breeders who concentrate on a specific type, coloring or height range. Even though this could potentially change in a far future, "types" are not regarded as sub breeds of Mediners but solely as a physical description of the specimen and thus breeding a classically typed Mediner to an ideally typed Mediner is considered pure breeding.
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Cross Breeding
Mediners with one grandparent or even a parent belonging to another breed is currently extremely common. In fact "cross bred" Mediners make up the majority of the present population. Offspring with one pure Mediner parent (foundation Mediners are considered pure) and one parent of any approved breeds are automatically registered as Mediners (unless bred to other new breeds with open studbook, in which case the offspring takes its dam's breed).
A "cross bred" Mediner with a previous "cross bred" ancestor may be registered as Mediner as long as it possesses 35% pure Mediner blood in its pedigree (this percentage is likely to change in time). In other words, a "cross bred" Mediner (50% Mediner) cannot be bred with another approved breed and produce a registerable Mediner. Instead, such offspring will be recognized as "Grades", "KO" (Known Origins) or even Part Mediner. Part Mediners may of course produced registerable Mediners if crossed with other Mediners (as long as the pedigree percentage condition is met).
Breeding to unapproved breeds will result in an automatic Part Mediner status. It is not possible for those crosses to produce registerable Mediners, which is why it is important to thoroughly check the bloodlines of any Half Mediners before choosing to breed with them.
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For a list of approved breeds, click here....
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Naming Rules
There are not many rules in the naming of Mediners. Each breeder seems to make up their own, from following a yearly letter, to using the same starting letter as one of the parent, or even following a specific theme for a specific bloodline. The only official rule is that no two horses may have the same name (regardless of their prefix), but numbering after the name to circumvent the problem is allowed (ex: 'WEA Ser Gregor' and 'Ser Gregor IV des Avilettes').
Temperament
Temperament varying from horse to horse notwithstanding, most Mediners tend to be energetic, friendly, patient and quick to learn. Although they make excellent lesson horses, they have some mischevious tendencies and are known to take advantage of inexperienced riders by pretending not to know what is expected of them. With that said, once their trust is earned, they prove to be extremely brave and obedient, and as such, make great show horses for both casual and professional riders.
They generally need a lot of exercise and distractions to keep their minds occupied. A bored Mediner is a trouble maker in waiting. Indeed, there has been more than a few reports of Mediners escaping from their stalls or pastures, earning them the affectionate nickname of Mhoudinis.
Highly sociable, Mediners require the company of other horses (or equine companions such as goats, sheep or pigs, if alone) and welcome people with a vivid curiosity, bordering on a lack of "personal space" awareness. They are quite expressive and like to welcome their horse and human friends with whinnies and snickers, making their home stables rather noisy.
Performance and Uses
Bred to be polyvalent, the Mediner demarks itself in all English disciplines from dressage to eventing to horseball or even vaulting and has proved to be as good competitor as any other sport horse. Its abilities in one domain or the other is often tied to its type, however. As such, a Sport Mediner, being nimble and quick excells in show jumping, eventing and horseball, whilst a Classic Mediner with its strength and its ample, soft and sometimes ethereal movements does particularly well in dressage, classical dressage, vaulting and although they tend to be a bit too heavy for serious show jumping, are able to learn the spanish walk unlike the other Mediner types. The Ideal Mediner, allying all qualities has proven to be a force to be reckoned with everywhere, including team driving.
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Although they are sweet and very friendly with both animals and children, they need serious owners who will exercise them several times a week, and cannot be kept as simple pasture grazers (omitting exceptions). For this reason they do better as competition rides or lesson horses in equestrian centers than casual family pets left to their own devices for half the year.
Notable Mediners
Coming soon....
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