Don’t you think the problem is that people
just can’t stay objective. I was recently given a colt by a friend of mine,
for jumping and dressage. His dam-sire is the top producer of international A
grades in the country, his dam jumped A grade, his sire (only 8 himself) is
currently graded C grade and Elementary dressage. His sire’s dam was by one of
the top jumping TBs in the country, and goes back to Noble Chieftain, who is
still one of our jumping “foundation sires”. So on breeding alone, this horse
is worth putting a mare to.
He’s also incredibly pretty and has a
temperament to die for. But when a friend asked if she could put her mare to
him, I wasn’t prepared to allow it. See, I’m not objective. I can’t see past
the chestnut and four white socks and the cuddly exterior and I’m just not
experienced enough to look at a 3yo and say “this, in time, will be an
outstanding stallion”. So I got hold of the Warmblood Breed Society and asked
them to assess him. The lady came out and critiqued the crap out of my poor
horse, and told me that, although he’s certainly going to be a nice gelding, he’s
simply not good enough to be a stallion. He doesn’t have that “something extra”
that a stallion needs, he’s not going to be tall enough (WB stallions need to
stand 16.2hh or more), he’s got some conformational faults. No problem, he’s
now cut and I have a happy gelding who doesn’t know any better.
I had two people ready to put mares to
him, I know I could have made some money on stud fees, but for what? So that I
could have inferior horses running around with MY horse’s name behind them? I
think not. I have too much pride and too strong a sense of responsibility to
allow that. The ONLY reason to breed, IMO, is to improve the lines. If you’re
not going to do that, don’t bother.
We’re about to get a young TB filly, full
sister to Roderick’s horse, who has ALL the good TB lines for jumping. They’re
lines which are slowly dying out, and I plan to put her to an imported WB to
produce a good jumper for Rod. She’s been carefully picked, we know her dam
AND her sire, we know her full brothers, and I know that I could sell her foal
as it hits the floor, if we needed to (obviously, not being stupid, I also know
that “shit happens” and it could land with three legs, in which event it will
be put down). Part of me is doing this cos it’s the only way to afford a WB
for Rod to jump (another “gift” like my colt is not going to come along in a
hurry) and because I’ve not bred before and would like to experience it. But I’m
ONLY going to do it if I do it right and that means, from the get-go, finding
the best stallion and mare that I can. We spent four years looking for a mare,
and now we’re going to spend some time finding the right stallion. It will be
picked on temperament, performance, and the quality of its progeny. A pretty
face won’t hurt J Because although it’s being bred for Rod, shit happens and we may
need to sell it and if we do, I want to be able to have my choice of buyers, to
ensure a good home.
And this is why I shall NEVER make money
from breeding J
Tracey
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