From: Bernie
Dear Jessica, you are the Best. You've helped me and my horses so much in the last few years. Most of the time I see my questions answered before I even ask them, but now I need to ask something. I have a half-TB, half-Saddlbred mare that is ten, and I like her a lot and would like to breed her. I've looked at several local stallions (I can't afford to go very far from home) and I think I may have found a really good deal on a stallion that lives a few miles from here. He is only three so he doesn't have any foals yet, but he is a beautiful individual with superior conformation. In fact, he is much better looking than either his sire or his dam. He is a half-Friesian, half Appendix Quarter Horse! Since he hasn't had any foals and his breeding isn't very good (although HE is gorgeous), and he doesn't have official papers, I can breed my mare to him for not a lot of money. I like him a lot and would be happy with a foal that looked just like him. I don't really care about having papers for the foal because you don't ride the papers. Do you think this is a good idea? I won't do anything about it until spring, of course, and that will give me time to look for another stallion if your advice is to NOT use this one. You see, I trust you a lot!
Bernie
1) First, yes, you're right, you don't ride the papers. ;-) However, you DO ride the horse, and the horse is the product of his bloodlines. Bloodlines really do matter, even if you're breeding in the hopes of getting a colt that you plan to geld. There ar e superior individuals within breeds, and there are superior individuals that are cross-bred. But it's not enough to breed to a superior individual, because you aren't just breeding to what you see.
2) The mare counts for at least 50% -- "at least" because, as the saying goes, the mare contributes half the genes and all the milk. (Actually she also supplies the mitochondrial DNA, so perhaps "at least 50%" is literally true!) The mare is also a big in fluence on the foal's early behaviour, attitude toward humans, etc.
If you want to breed your mare, you should have a really compelling reason for doing it, and you should also be able to look at her and say, truthfully, that you would be happy if she cloned. ;-) Don't count on the stallion to correct faults in the mare, and don't count on the mare to correct faults in the stallion. Faults don't cancel each other out -- if you breed a mare with a very long back and a good set of legs to a stallion with a very short back and "iffy" legs, in the hope of getting HER legs and HIS back, you may end up with a foal that has HER back and HIS legs.
3) Breeding records matter. An ordinary-looking stallion that has produced many nice-looking, correct foals is a much better breeding prospect than the stunningly gorgeous individual that has produced indifferent foals -- or no foals at all. IF that gorge ous individual comes from a family in which similar stallions have been known to sire nice-looking, correct foals, and in which the mares have been known to produce nice-looking, correct foals, then there's a much better chance of getting what you want -- assuming that the same is true of your MARE's family! An outstanding individual, especially an outstanding CROSS-BRED individual that is almost certainly demonstrating the effects of hybrid vigour, might make an absolutely wonderful gelded) riding horse. THAT would be a good bet! But it's not at all safe to assume that such an individual would make a good sire. For that, you want an individual that's good AND has good bloodlines.
4) Appearance isn't infallible. When you think about breeding a particular horse, you're combining bloodlines. The particular chromasomes that are expressed in the stallion may not be the ones that he will be passing down to his offspring. Think of each b reeding animal as an hourglass: the thin part in the middle is the individual, and the wide, full part at the top is his ancestors, his bloodlines, his genetic history. An individual breeding animal is really just a way for the genes from the ancestors to pass through and recombine in the offspring -- which is why you can breed the same mare to the same stallion several years in a row and get entirely different foals -- and it's why you and your siblings aren' t precisely alike!
In other words, if you breed to a stallion that is "okay", from a family of fabulous horses, your chances of upgrading the foal are better than if you breed to the single best individual ever produced by HIS family of rather indifferent bloodlines.
4) Foals are expensive. They're expensive to create, they're expensive to rear, and they'll cost you money as long as you own them, which might be 30 years. So if you're going to create a foal, do everything to ensure that it will grow up to be the best p ossible horse. This begins with the choice of parents, and believe me, that low stud fee for the local untried stallion is very unlikely to be a bargain.
Put the numbers on your side -- give yourself every advantage. Look for stallions that are the type you like, that are doing the things you want to do with this foal (eventing? reining? dressage? endurance?) and that have many good foals on the ground, pr eferably out of mares that look like and are bred like yours (granted, this won't be easy in your case). If the stallions you like are far away, you may need to arrange for an AI breeding; it's not cheap, but it shouldn't cost more than sending your mare to the stallion for a month or two. The stud fee will be irrelevant by the time your foal is three or four years old and ready to begin under-saddle work, but the quality of your foal will be VERY relevant, and it will be relevant forever.
Many stallion stations, especially those specializing in sport horses, stand a variety of stallions and can offer you choices. If you're very clever, you'll find such a station with several stallions that you like, and you'll talk to the managers about yo ur mare, send them photos and a video, and ask THEM which of their stallions would be likely to cross best on such a mare. If you have photos or video of your mare's sire or dam, use those too. The more information you share, the better "luck" you will have.
5) You may find that the more sensible course is to look at the stallions you like best, look at their offspring, and arrange to BUY one of these horses from the breeder. Yes, they'll SEEM much more expensive than the foal, if you just compare the purchas e price of a two-year-old, say, to the cost of the stud fee. But that's comparing apples and oranges. ;-)
Figure out what it will cost you to keep that foal for several years -- feed, medical care, routine vet care, de-worming, hoof trimming. Add the stud fee, and the cost of the mare care, and the mare's vet bills and injections and extra feed. Add the cost of making your pasture foal-safe. Then take the TOTAL, and ask yourself whether you couldn't BUY a very nice young horse with that sum.
6) Remember, also, that when you buy a young horse, you're buying something that you can see: build, quality, temperament, size, colour, markings are all there for you to accept or reject. When you breed your own, you get what you get: if you're hoping fo r a particular type, colour, size, or sex, you'll be much better off buying a young horse that someone ELSE had the trouble and expense of breeding and raising.
If you still want to breed your mare, and you plan to keep this foal for life, go ahead -- but do select a stallion that will give you a reason to expect a nice foal. Good luck!
Jessica
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