LARRY BAILEY HORSE WORLD

Consistency in Breeding

 It's spring and it's that time again when foals are arriving and folks are thinking about making foals too! There have been so many articles written about breeding and what are the essential elements in making a breeding decision. Some articles are very scientific some are the other end of the spectrum where little science if any is discussed.   Probably one of the  most important  "rules" to remember in breeding is simply  if it's not in the pedigree you're not going to get it in your foal. Conversely to that is if it's in the pedigree you may get it in the foal. Let's think about this for a minute.....  How many times have you heard someone say , "I saw this beautiful stallion , he has a very beautiful head, gorgeous long legs , good hip, nice shoulder,  "he'll really compliment my mare whose quite small and plain with a very straight shoulder."  I've heard it too many times to count! So let's look at this from a very easy visual that is not about horses.

 Stallion    Mare

 You're sitting on a bench on a street in your town. As you watch people pass by you notice a family that looks like they're all dressed up for a special event. There is the father, tall, handsome , with an athletic build. Beside him is his wife, quite short, and rather plain but obviously a proud mother of her three children beside her. The three teenage girls are all dressed up in their "Sunday best". Almost little replicas of there mom, all short, all plain even down to the same haircolor. Curious you follow them , and realize they are heading for the church nearby which looks like a wedding is taking place. You enter the church behind them and watch as they file in to one side of the church. You hear someone say "oh look there's Richard and his girls, "he's the groom's brother you know". You then realize that Richard's family is sitting with his side of the family, his other brothers, aunts uncles even his mother and father.Soon the music starts and you see the groom at the altar. He is also quite short and nowhere as handsome as Richard. Then everyone stands, as the bride enters, you look at Richard's and groom's family members stand and realize Richard is the tallest of all his relatives. It seems like almost 95% of all his family is actually quite short. Hmmmmm... no wonder all his girls are short too!

So in horse terms genetics work the same way. It is impossible to tell what kind of foal you might get from just looking at the mare and stallion. You must look at all the "family members" too.  If the stallion is only one of say 4 horses on either side of his pedigree that has size, the odds are not good you will get it, unless on the mares side your "little mare" has many tall relatives. The point is consistent breeding requires research and alot of it. Good breeding is not a snapshot of a stallion and a mare like the pictures above. It's a family album of many generations to see what's in the genetic pool for both the stallion and the mare. Many stallion owners throw around terms like" he always throws big foals or he always puts straight legs...." I guess the key here is what does he mean by the word "always" ? Genetics say he can't "always" throw anything because his part is only 50% of the gene pool. They would like to make you think that somehow the stallion's genes are more "powerful" than the mare's but 50% is 50% is 50%. They only account for half the puzzel pieces ! Vice versa, the mare has to have some good traits in her pedigree fairly consistently to get a reasonaly good foal out of her. There is no way a stallion even with the best pedigree and characteristics can improve greatly on a mare if the mare's pedigree has nothing of any valuable characteristics in it to start with. Which for mare owners means just because you have a mare does not mean it should be bred. Good research should be done and only then can you make a decision on whether or not to breed a mare and to which stallion.

So next time you go to a wedding look around, check out the groom's family, observe the bride's family it's a wonderful event to see genetics at work!