Haflingers, and while I am told I will not bring another home (hmm, Fancy
that!) all 3 have everything you speak of and I want to ride all 3, except
Moonshine, I just want to admire his good looks! :-)
And, while I am relatively novice, I always manage to pick the most
Expensive out of Dawn' herd. Why is that? LOL
Sandy
All I pay my psychiatrist is the cost of feed and hay, and he'll listen to
me all day. -- Unknown
In a message dated 12/17/2009 1:52:32 P.M. Mountain Standard Time,
rivervalleyph@yahoo.com writes:
Hi Everyone,
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@haflingerfrihaf_
(mailto:haflingerfriends@yahoogroups.com) , "rivervalleyph" <rivervalleyph@riv> 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@haflingerfrihaf_
(mailto: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
> >
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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