The Stafford and the horse

By Jim McCafferty
In order to give a clearer understanding to the continual 16inch/18inch, right/wrong colour, is it/ is it not debate, I thought I would give an overview of the TYPES of Stafford that I have had personal contact with.
I will use the Horse as an analogy, as I imagine most will have seen the horse types whilst possibly not having encountered the differing types of stafford.

The Shetland Pony: In Stafford terms this is the type that I would imagine most show/pet owners are familiar with, of solid and dependable construction, impish personality, but honest and trustworthy, and always willing to give of his/her best.

The hunter : this is representative of those Staffords who come in all shapes and sizes, those bred with a task in mind, and conformity being of little or no importance to those who seek to attain performance, a dog/bicth who whilst embracing the virtues of "The Shetland Pony type Stafford" have no margins to their capabilities, and are not only willing but able to take part "with a good chance of success" in any events requiring agility and perseverance.

The steeplechaser : This to me is the highest level to wich a Stafford can be bred, a dog/bitch who again embraces the qualities of the prior two, but is capable of entry in The Grand National and more importantly capable of victory. A dog/bicth who will last the course "in the most grueling of conditions" and still have the ability as the race nears a climax to rise again for one last effort in an attempt to seal victory. This is the type of Stafford I aim towards in my future breedings, and if the offspring turn to be handsome/pretty also well and good, but looks were never the object of the exercize.

Finally PEGASUS : The immortal winged horse.

This describes the best of the American pit bull terriers, that it has been my privilege to have seen, they flew above the continent of the canines, they possessed a mastery of dignity/honesty that evades even man. Sadly like all things the human cannot understand / harness it becomes vilified and repugnant, to those who do not have the ability to share a kindred spirit with canines of this type.

With my own KC dogs I am fully aware that I shall never breed a PEGASUS, but I hope to breed dogs/bitch who eyes will look skyward with pride, knowing their ancestors were once capable of flight.

Very good text, very clever analogy, more or less true i'm afraid, the Sbt has been bred far away from the original dogs so to recapture the original qualities will be an up hill task, very difficult, yet impossible?