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Re: [RC] To breed or not to Breed - heidi

*Hi Jody, I have a few opinions on this, and I hope some other folks can
comment too....I feel that
breeding at age 3 is NOT a good idea for some various reasons.....

OK, I'll bite...  :-)

1.  You really have no idea what you have!  Until this mare is trained
under saddle, conditioned and fit,
you have really no idea what the gaits are like, how the horse holds up
under hard riding and miles, how
the metabolics are...what the "riding" disposition will be (lazy under
saddle, loves to go, or maniac), in other
words...you are dealing with a pretty blank slate based only on the bone
and conformation you see at age 3...and
whatevery disposition the horse has BEFORE it has gone out in the world
and done anything.....things like,
is this a horse that is steady in an emergency situation...or will tend
to panic???

Well, that depends on how you select the 3-year-old.  When you have good
knowledge of the individuals in her pedigree and when those individuals
CONSISTENTLY represent the sorts of traits you want, you have a VERY good
idea about those things.  And as a breeder, I wouldn't breed ANY mare that
I couldn't say that about--no matter HOW good her personal performance! 
If the pedigree is a mishmash of traits, you will not get consistent
foals, regardless of how good the mare herself is.  And if the pedigree is
consistent, you are not apt to be surprised by the foal, even if you have
not yet ridden the mare.

Granted, most American pedigrees (in many breeds) are a mishmash, so in
that case yes, it's a crap shoot.  But you will only diminish the crap
shoot in such cases somewhat by performance testing.  When you know (and
in my case have vetted and/or ridden) many of the immediate close
relatives, and you've studied their attributes and faults, and they are
consistent in the traits you desire, your odds are far better.

2.  Many 3 year olds are not finished growing....

3.  ....and the problem with THAT, is that they still maybe rump high,
unbalanced......and so...should they be carrying
a baby that young?

Depends ENTIRELY on the individual.  In practice I dealt primarily with
non-Arabs, and the vast majority of them were QUITE sufficiently mature at
3 to be breeding to foal at 4.  With Arabs, you have to look a bit more at
the individuals--but a fair number are quite fine to be foaling at four. 
If we can ride a 4-year-old in LDs, a 4-year-old can certainly have
babies...

Also....I still think our 13 year old Arab mare has
a slightly dropped back...becuase she was bred
when she was 4, as an unfit horse.  I think a mare should have good, fit
muscle tone and a very strong back before being
asked to carry a baby.

Fitness is a relative thing.  My mares run out on a mountainside and are
fairly "fit" with respect to muscle tone, etc.  I would also submit that
conformation plays a MAJOR role here--and if a mare has a poor back, then
she isn't a good genetic prospect, anyway.  I'd also say that perhaps the
single biggest factor in producing sway backs is nutrition.  If the
nutrition goes to hell in a handcart, so will the back.  And this can be
true even if the horse is NOT pregnant.

Now, maybe it doesn't matter if a horse is
destined to  run in the wild forever, or be a broodmare
for life....but for a potential mare with a good riding career ahead of
her...I would NOT chose one that had been bred as
a youngster....

Having started several such mares under saddle in their teens, I've never
had it be an issue.  And yes, all of them had good backs.

4. Makes more sense to breed a mare that has proven, through a lot of
miles, at whatever discipline you deisre, that they are manageable and
sound and somehow superior in some way.

While that is ideal, again, see the above.  If you have the knowledge to
select good prospects in the first place, you also have the knowledge to
select mares that can MAKE good prospects.

I am sorry, but I have seen far too many extremely poor quality mares
bred just because the owners were so emotionally attatched to them!
Including a Kahahty sister, who I felt had extremely bad conformation.

Oh, I agree!  But you can tell if the mare has bad conformation when she
is three!  And you can tell how she moves, and what her disposition is
like, and a great many other things.  If she is good enough for me to want
to ride, she is good enough for me to want a foal from.

Additionally, I have to really sit on myself to KEEP from riding some of
my best mares.  Sadly, as other posters have pointed out, the GOOD ones
are the ones who too often DON'T get the chance to reproduce.  I want to
keep those that I REEEAAALLLY want to ride in production--because that is
how you build a superior breeding program.

Heidi


============================================================
Personally, I shouldn't give a s--- where the other people on the course
are, and if I find myself starting to concern myself over this, I remind
myself that this is the first step on the road to overriding my horse and
tell myself to "knock it off!"  :)
~  Kat Swigart

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Replies
[RC] To breed or not to Breed, Ridecamp Guest
Re: [RC] To breed or not to Breed, Karen Sullivan