As I was reading through the posts, I thought about some of the best buying/breeding advice I ever got:
Buy/breed for movement first. If it moves well it is probably built right. This is how we got Aristocrat TOF. He was the skinniest, runtiest, splay-footed, narrow-chested ewe-necked yearling colt in the herd, but he only had to take one step of trot free-schooling in the indoor arena for me to know he was "the one". I might one day get brave enough to post his yearling photo on the web site - it's hard to believe he turned out the way he did. I have never regretted that decision, which was based mostly on his movement but partly on the next piece of advice.
The second piece of important advice I ever got came from a very well-respected and long-term successful Austrian breeder. He said you have to look at four things when you look at a breeding horse:
First, you look at the family.
Second, you look at the family.
Third, you look at the family.
Fourth, you look at the horse.
I took his advice and looked at brothers, sisters, sires, dams, grandsires and granddams - whatever I could find - of every breeding horse we bought. To this day I still tell people getting into the breeding business that's the best advice I can give them.
The third indispensable piece of advice relates to the last: Look extra carefully at the mare family. Most reputable stallions breed several mares a year, and some offspring may be excellent - those are the ones you hear all about. Undoubtedly, however, some are not so good, and those are the ones you never see or hear much about. Knowing about the mare family and how that mare line has crossed successfully or unsuccessfully with various stallion bloodlines is more important than trying to pick the best stallion. To me, knowing the mare family is the most important part of the equation.
Just my two cents worth,
Jennifer Rousseau
Tudor Oaks Farm
------------------------------------
Community email addresses:
Post message: haflingerfriends@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe: haflingerfriends-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe: haflingerfriends-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
List owner: haflingerfriends-owner@yahoogroups.com
Shortcut URL to this page:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/haflingerfriendsYahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/haflingerfriends/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/haflingerfriends/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
haflingerfriends-digest@yahoogroups.com
haflingerfriends-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
haflingerfriends-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
