Selecting the Superior Stallion

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130 – January/February, 2017

BY WILLIAM GIVEN

You have decided you are ready to breed your mare, or at least you think you are. So what’s next? Before you even begin the process of choosing the perfect stallion for your mare, you must do a tremendous amount of homework on the background of the mare that you plan to breed. Hopefully, you have already been assured that you have an exceptional show quality mare, that she has a history of good health and is of sound temperament. Your task of selecting the superior sire will be easier when you have formulated a clear understanding of what it is that you expect to produce from the breeding you are planning. You must focus on the specific traits of conformation, health and temperament not only in your mare, but in the stallion also. Using the fundamentals of pedigree analysis you can learn much about the positive and negative breed traits in the pedigree of your mare, as well as in the pedigrees of the potential sires. If your mare has good overall conformation and possesses a solid pedigree, then you will find your task of choosing the superior stallion is much less difficult. However, if your mare has some good traits and noticeable faults, then the task of finding the perfect sire requires more research and careful contemplation.

Quantify and Qualify Virtues

Look at your mare’s virtues and decide which traits you most wish to retain. With a critical eye, determine her faults, both major and minor, and choose which faults you most need to improve. Be totally honest with this task and write them down. When looking at the potential sires, keep in mind that they should possess outstanding qualities that are highly regarded. Hopefully you will find a stallion that is so superior to the others this will give you more reason to breed to him. If a stallion is mediocre, possessing no outstanding virtues, then you could not reasonably expect anything but a mediocre foal from your breeding. A best breeding practice given me by my mentor is, “eliminate weaknesses while building on strengths.” You should narrow down the written list of your mare’s faults and virtues to two or three each. Decide then what faults you can live with and which must be eliminated. Consider what good traits can be transformed into outstanding ones. Your selection of possible sires should have at least a single best attribute that can correct your mare’s most noticeable fault. For example, if your mare has a poor head but a correct body, then consider only studs with a correct body and an outstanding head whose progeny also have outstanding heads. However, do not ever forget to look at the overall horse. A serious fault in your mare will not be corrected by a stallion that is overdone in that trait. If this is your situation, you can typically expect to get a foal with traits of each, but not a blend. Remember, the mating of opposite faults and opposite virtues will not result in some “average” of the two. If you should get something that appears to be the average of the two, you must realize that the next generation may suffer significantly because this horse carries the opposite extremes and may not breed true. Look for a sire that has similar type to your mare. In my experience, it is always best to breed to a stallion that is better than your mare’s faults and who is also correct and balanced all over.

Click here to read the complete article
130 – January/February, 2017