The need to know more. Getting an advantage in breeding.

Recently I have noticed that there have been a number of post on various forums which indicate that bloodlines and genetic information on a horse does not matter as long as the horse looks good and moves well.  We’ve had enquiries about young horses were the purchaser felt that as long as the horse moved well, was the right sex and height and of the required colour bloodlines did not matter.   But even in the case of geldings bloodlines do tell their own story.

Frequently we have enquiries for chestnut WB mares for sale suitable to breed palominos.  When asked what the offspring was going to be used for the answer was “We’re breeding palominos.”  When further questioned about whether he wanted dressage horses, showjumpers or eventers the answer was that it did not matter as they were palominos which could be used for everything.   He wasn’t interested in knowing anything other than that they were 16 hh+ chestnut warmblood mares. Thank goodness he lost interest when the price of the mares was mentioned.

There are a lot of people who want to compete on a mare and then if she reaches a high competition level then breed with her. Should the mare be injured they would like a foal from her if she is still able. If she isn’t able to carry a foal due to injuries then there is the possibility of embryo transfer.

We recommend that people who want to compete on a mare start with one that has bloodlines suited to the sport, one that has more genetic potential to offer than only her ability in the sport.   People are sometimes surprised at this, thinking that if the mare is a good sport horse that should be enough.  However the answer is complex and can be difficult to put in simple terms but I will try to give a reasonably short and comprehensible one.

It is a 50/50 partnership of mare and stallion genetics that makes the foal  When a stallion with all the attributes of a world class jumping horse, with parents of similar abilities, is put to a mare that has jumping performance, there is still no guarantee that the resulting foal will be able to jump like the parents.  Yet sometimes if that same stallion is put to another mare that is not very good at jumping the progeny could still be a champion competition horse.  It is the mare’s genetic history that is coming into play in this case.

When you use a performance tested or at least an approved, selected stallion the genetic bloodline is on record to be investigated and researched. You will therefore know what his abilities and his bloodline are like as well as those of his upline. His genetic bloodline is important to produce a good foal but nowhere near as important as those of the dam.

All the mares we used were of type, quality and had performance abilities. We purchased the best stallion available in Germany when we started in the mid seventies. Other than two Flaneur bloodlines our results were no better than the other breeders. During the late eighties it became apparent that the Flaneur line through him and his son Siegfried produced mares that suited our imported stallion. We researched the mare lines and came to the conclusion that the mares had something more in their genetics than the ability for competitive sport.

This was brought on during some background research into genetic abilities. We came across an old article written by an American horse breeder just after WW 2. The author was a Mr. G W Green. I am not sure about the first initial but the “Green” has stuck in my memory.  He stated that a good broodmares would enhance and improve all her good points and abilities with the good ones of the stallion. She would then transpose them in an improved version into her foals.  We looked into this matter and come to realise that some of our mares were doing this.  We were fortunate in that we had a lot of horses in competition and they had some offspring of an age to start competing.   We hoped this ability would be bred into both male and female offspring.  

The strength of this genetic ability is not the same in each offspring.  You can only be grateful if any of this genetic ability has been has been inherited.  From the unfertilised egg the mare supplies mitochondrial DNA which surrounds the multiplying cells and stops the invasion of another sperm.  This DNA is only supplied by the mare at that particular time of her breeding cycle.  Scientific research indicated that this part of early embryo development plays a far greater role than previously envisaged.  It will be many years before the process can be understood but we are learning continually.

Some stallions have inherited the genetic ability to pass on the stronger traits of their maternal inheritance to their female offspring.  For this reason during the last couple of decades certain stallions have become known as breeders of high quality broodmares.  Unfortunately you cannot test a stallion to see if he is a “broodmare sire”.   It can only be discovered by studying the records kept of the bloodlines and offspring.  

In addition to being sired by a “broodmare sire” and inheriting genetics from a good dam line a potential broodmare has to have a lot of other qualities to be successful. She needs a metabolism that balances her ability to grow a good foal and at the same time keep herself in good condition and health.  She should be a good nurse that provides sufficient milk for her foal and not at the cost of her own health.  She must be a fertile breeder who, barring injury, will produce foals over a period of up to two decades.  These mares are extremely valuable to the breeder for their ability and cost a lot of money to purchase – hence the urgency for breeders such as ourselves to produce a new mareline or keep alive an older one, in order to breed successful competition horses.

From the day a foal is born it should take around seven years for the horse to mature and be in the FEI levels of competitive sport.  It takes a minimum of ten years for a mare or stallion to have the first of their offspring competing at this level to show proof of their genetic qualities.

Given that our mare Alante, one of about twenty breeding mares, has produced only two fillies, her first and ninth foals and as the first has been kept as a competition horse and only had one foal it will be up to the three year old to ascertain the genetic ability of the line. We intend to breed her next season to a stallion we know has the right genes, even then it will take another five years to be certain.

This essay has been written to give those breeders that are interested in producing high quality broodmares some ideas which may help them achieve their goal. It may save them some heartaches and perhaps a substantial amount of time and effort. Not to say a good deal of hard earned cash as well. By spending some time and effort researching the horses bloodlines they may well be surprised at their makeup and breeding potential.  It could be that it would be better to look for another mare.  By researching the bloodline and all genetic material that is available including the total performance of all offspring and siblings of both mare and stallion will give the breeders a greater idea of the outcome.

Being told that your mare is a very good one because she is out of Mary by Toby who was by Jack out of Jenny is a thing of many years past. Getting no details of genetics or anything concerning performance will not give you any idea about the outcome of your breeding plan. It could perhaps only explain why the mare you have purchased looks somewhat mulish. Hopefully this article will give you a little more information about the importance of bloodlines in general. Next time you hear somebody say that bloodlines really do not matter say to them; pardon me, I beg to differ, read this and consider the proven facts.