Establishing a mareline and Continuing a bloodline.
In a previous essay I have written some of the reasons for breeding a foal.
Here are some more as to the reasons why and how we go about strengthening our bloodlines.
At the moment we are trying to raise an orphan foal colt by Renegade Z out of a named Alante. Alante is by our Holsteiner stallion Siegfried (by Flaneur who was imported from Germany), out of our thoroughbred foundation mare River Cris by Prince Poppa. River Cris had another daughter by Siegfried name Shiraz who had a daughter who we sold as a 2yr old and only a year ago bought back as a 13 year old. Montserrat has given birth to a magnificent colt this season, also by Renegade Z.
Alante has provided us with 10 magnificent foals in her lifetime by four different stallions. The first a mare is now happily retired and of the next three only one is still being ridden. All of the horses were competing at FEI level dressage and eventing.
The first of her progeny by our stallion Riptide Bfd is now a seven year old and has qualified for the One Star section of the Melbourne Three Day Event. The next two progeny are showing the same qualities and abilities.
Not only has she produced upstanding horses of good size and excellent conformation, they also have good health. As the old horsemen would say, they are good doers. At this time none of the horses have shown any signs of genetic diseases or hereditary faults of any type or description, the eldest being seventeen and eighteen years of age. For this reason we wish to establish this mare’s bloodline so that it will contribute to our breeding program for many generations to come.
Unfortunately Alante has given us only one more filly, now a three year old, by our stallion Riptide. It will be a few more years before we know if the filly Adeste has the genetic makeup to pass on the abilities required to produce competition horses like her dam.
It will be another four years before we know if Alante’s niece Montserrat has the genetic attributes to do the same. If we raise the orphan colt to maturity it will be at least six years before we know if we have another genetically viable breeding bloodline. We will also have to find mares that will suit his type and bloodline.
As you can see it is an extremely long and tedious process. We’ve been at it for 35 years and sometimes are still disappointed or surprised by the outcomes. Certainly proof of your decisions, right or wrong, rarely occurs within a single generation. It is difficult and expensive and may well be of limited success. We know however that any good result will be greatly welcomed and appreciated.
I still get shivers along my spine when I hear people say, “Oh I have a T B mare and am going to usee frozen semen to breed a GP dressage horse”, or “I’ve been given a mare and I am going to breed my next competition horse with her”. It used to aggravate me intensely that people would make such uninformed decisions and my responses were at times very vocal and derogatory. I have mellowed a great deal and have also stopped gnashing what is left of my teeth. Nowadays I shrug my shoulders and wonder when the last showers were. Mostly I say good luck with your project and silently thank the Lord that the days of miracles are not yet over even if impossible takes a fair while longer.
For ourselves we hope to continue to be able to provide the bloodline of our wonderful mare Alante (and other proven mares) to keen riders for many years to come.
|