Impressive (horse)

Horse infobox
horsename = Impressive


caption = - Impressive -
breed = Quarter Horse
discipline = Halter
sire = Lucky Bar
grandsire = Three Bars (TB)
dam = Glamour Bars
damsire = Lightning Bar
sex = Stallion
foaled = April 15 1969
country = United States
color = Sorrel
breeder = Perry Cotton
owner = Dean Landers
Fennel Brown
otherawards= 1974 AQHA World Champion Open Aged Halter stallion
honors =
updated= January 13 2008

Impressive (1968-04-15 - 1995-03-20) was born an Appendix American Quarter Horse, however earned his full AQHA registration in 1971. He was the 1974 World Champion Open Aged halter stallion, the first such World Champion in his breed, despite carrying only 48 halter points in total. He is famous for his highly successful progeny, having sired 2,250 foals. Nearly thirty of his offspring went on to be World Champions themselves.

Impressive is also notorious as the primary source of the widespread genetic disease known as Hyperkalemic Periodic Paralysis (HYPP).

In his showing days, Impressive changed hands a number of times, perhaps his most famous owner being Dean Landers, who also owned the famous halter stallions Two Eyed Jack, Coy's Bonanza, and Sonny Dee Bar. Although Impressive raced for a short time after Landers sold him to Fennel Brown, he was quickly excluded from any performance discipline due to pedal osteitis, leaving halter as his only choice. His groundbreaking 1974 World Championship soon cemented his role in that discipline. Each time Impressive was resold, his price rose quickly; at one point, an offer of $300,000 for him was refused by Brown, who said "ain't nobody in this world got enough money to buy this horse."

Impressive was highly sought after for breeding, despite at one time carrying the outrageously high stud fee of $25,000. He sired a total of 2,250 foals, and was estimated to have in excess of 55,000 living descendants as of 2003. He was bred for his muscular and refined form, which was passed on to his get often enough to make him at least the #5 all-time leading quarter horse sire when ranked by AQHA points earned by all progeny combined. Perhaps his greatest foal is Noble Tradition, a four-time World Champion stallion in halter, who has gone on to be a highly successful sire himself.

Although Impressive never exhibited any symptoms of the disease himself, and indeed is not known to carry it, gradually it became evident that many horses in Impressive's extensive line were afflicted with the painful, alarming, and often fatal disease Hyperkalemic Periodic Paralysis. It has never been observed outside his line. There is currently a widespread effort among many breeders to eliminate the disease by selective breeding, but those who continue to breed without regard for it, seeking the muscular refinement correlated with it, perpetuate the disease's existence.

Pedigree

Pedigree
name = Impressive
f = Lucky Bar (TB)
m = Glamour Bars
ff = Three Bars (TB)
fm = Fulfilment (TB)
mf = Lightning Bar
mm = Tonkawa Bar
fff = Percentage (TB)
ffm = Myrtle Dee (TB)
fmf = Karimkhan
fmm = Flying Bimy
mff = Three Bars (TB)
mfm = Della P
mmf = Sugar Bars
mmm = Bucket Baby
ffff = Midway
fffm = Gossip Avenue
ffmf = Luke McLuke
ffmm = Civil Maid
fmff = Dastur
fmfm = Teresina
fmmf = Bimelech
fmmm = Thirty Knots
mfff = Percentage (TB)
mffm = Myrtle Dee (TB)
mfmf = Doc Horn (TB)
mfmm = mare by Old DJ
mmff = Three Bars (TB)
mmfm = Frontera Sugar
mmmf = Leo
mmmm = Black Dahlia Bucket|

External links

* [http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/breeding/111-hypp.shtml HYPP: getting to grips with Hyperkalemic Periodic Paralysis - Horsetalk.co.nz]
* [http://www.bringinglighttohypp.org/Impressive.html Bringing Light to HyPP: Impressive]
* [http://www.qhd.com/horse/stallion.asp?id=2671 Impressive data sheet and pedigree]
* [http://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/services/hypp.php UC Davis VGL: Hyperkalemic Periodic Paralysis]