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Re: [RC] Understanding Mares/ Horse deaths - heidiRight.....and how do you know that unless they are ridden and competed? Personally, and I bet you agree with me; I am sick and tired of all the mares that get bred as 3-4 year olds, that not only have not DONE anything athletic, but have been pasture potatoes and have no muscle tone..... so how does anyone know if they are surefooted, smooth gaited or strong metabolicaly? When they come from families where every male individual is thusly talented, I'm willing to gamble. (It's hardly a gamble, really.) Likewise, it doesn't take competition to demonstrate the surefooted and smooth-gaited part--I can tell that getting on them green-broke. An astute breeder that truly understands biomechanics can also be pretty darn accurate looking at how they're built and how they move out in the pasture or on the hillside. I've started some of my good broodmares in their teens, and they've gone on to be athletes--one that I started at 13 and only rode intermittently until age 17 (while she had more babies) was the PNER Junior champion and AERC Junior Top Ten at 17 and was PNER senior mileage champion, PNER senior points reserve champion, and AERC Top 25 at age 19. Knowledge of the horses in the pedigrees (and knowing that they are consistent in having the sorts of traits you want) gives you considerable knowledge about which mares will produce the traits you want--whereas possessing the traits but having an extremely heterogenous pedigree will often disappoint you in the breeding barn, since the pedigree contains so many diverse possibilities. So no, in all likelihood some of my best mares will never see competition, nor those of some of the top-notch breeders I know. Neither did mares of the past such as Muferra--who produced RT Muffin (AERC Hall of Fame), Aurlani Farwa (sire of several top endurance contenders, including Tevis winner BRR Aurber Lights), FV Stoic (himself also not ridden due to an injury but has produced offspring beginning to prove themselves), Amal Salute (top notch race horse--2nd highest money winner in North America one season), and others. Or the mare Razifa that pretty much founded the Hyannis dynasty--she produced (by three different stallions) Witezarif, El Karbaj, and Law Thunder, and her unridden daughters produced scores of other top endurance horses. (For years, virtually every top Hyannis horse had this mare up close in the pedigree--and when one looks at HER pedigree, one can see why.) Nope, it doesn't take competition for themselves to prove that good mares are valuable in the broodband. I do agree, though, that a lot of mares are bred that shouldn't be--and that includes some who do very well themselves but are not themselves bred to pass it on. Heidi =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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