I think I should add a few of the things I have been taught along the way too.
First, Granpa always said You have to have the feet, then the legs! He did breed for feet and legs for generations. Movement was what he wanted! That is where your foundation begins, like building a house!
Second, Dad always said you have to have a motor! Breed for a motor and watch em go!
Third, Mom always said breed for a pretty head, the brain will be in there! She also said, refinement was sure beauty.
These three people influenced me a lot over the years, but what is funny is that they all like a different style of horse! However, they all will pick out the top horses again and again.
Now, others have taught me to "look" at the top of a horse as well! How to seek a better neck, wither, etc. How to understand and breed for a modern type of haflinger.
Some of it I have stumbled on as well! I had no idea that a deep heart girth for instance was such a plus! Now I want it in all the colts! I had a hard time understanding round bone verses flat bone until a very kind judge spent a few hours showing me and teaching me. I had a hard time with understanding flat, smooth hocks, he taught me that too.
Then a lot of it is just looking at horses, putting pedigrees to what you are looking at, over and over. You will soon see traits in lines!
Just like Jennifer wrote and I had wrote earlier, pedigree can be a very powerful tool when breeding as well.
But the best advice I ever got was from a QH cutting breeder, a great friend of mine and one of my heros: He said, breed the horse you would want to ride, if he is a good one, others will want him too! (Generally I think this is truer than folks realize. It is always still in the breed standards of course, but for that stuff that others want, I want too.)
I have tried to remember all these words as I select and breed. It does not always "work" however as easily as it may seem. That is where pedigree can help soo much. And understanding genetics can help. The things you don't like in a horse may not be a dominant trait, or the things you like may be resessive. You have to try to find this out too. Sometimes, though the only way to know is to breed for the best and hope for the rest!
Sincerely,
Dawn
--- In haflingerfriends@yahoogroups.com, "rivervalleyph" <rivervalleyph@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Jennifer,
> OH SO TRUE!
> Movement IS EXACTLY why I purchased Merl! The first time I saw him come around the corner of the barn at a trot, that was it. My eyes about fell out, I might have even drooled- I called my dad immediately and asted if he needed a stud. Then I went into debt!!!
> A debt I have NEVER regreted!
> I then researched his pedigree, again I was astonished at my findings. The more I researched, the more excited I got. I had Finally come across a stallion that had the quailities I wanted and wasn't related to ANY of my mares. And- the progress of generations world wide led me to believe that the mares I had would cross with him. The tail female line was a great asset in his pedigree (dam, granddam, great-granddam on the bottom of his papers) although I know that when I saw him come around that barn that day- honestly it wouldn't have made a difference if he was part mule on that day. I remember my words to my father- "Dad-if this horse was a man, I'd marry him!"
> I still laugh at my re-action to Merl that day! But I wouldn't trade the world for him. He has become a magnificent addition here and I have enjoyed training and showing him and now I am enjoying his foals too!
> Truer words can not be spoken to me! I am obviously a fan of pedigrees, research, genetic research, producing power via progency, etc., but I am completely in agree-ance with your three tools for success in the breeding industry!
> Thanks,
> Dawn
>
>
>
>
> --- In haflingerfriends@yahoogroups.com, "Jennifer" <rousseaj@> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Everyone in the genetics discussion,
> >
> > 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
> >
>
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