Anybody here especially kowledgeable about breeding???

[Monty]

If you are, then please don't hide your light under a bushel! I need advice please. Not regards any particular breed.More to do with the genetics of what traits tend and tend not to be inherited. Thank you.

[Mehitabel]

i wouldn't say i'm enormously knowledgeable, but i'll give any questions a bash, and if i can't help i have a friend who knows a fair bit about genetics. you've got my email address (if it's not something you're posting on here), haven't you?

[Wally]

One thing I have noticed is that you can have a stallion and several of his offspring, and they will all be totally different in build and temperament.

Silfur and Hákon, full brothers, one a gentleman, high mettle but likes people and wants to be nice, the other was a hard nosed, dominant, unyeilding nutter. Both these guys were brought up the same way. I gave Silfur 5 years and got nowhere...apart from a bruised backside.

One stallion, whose offsrping we have quite a few of, was reputed So bad to work with he was evenntually shot. Now ALL of his kids that we have don't have an evil bone in thier body and are daft as brushes. I know it's a bit of nature and nurture. But I have given up even looking at parentage now. What you get is what you get, nice surprise.....of a nasty one!:D When buying I don't want to know the breeding (so long as it's 100% what it claims to be on the papers) I look at each horse on his own merits, not what his mum and dad were like.

[chev]

I think it's a bit of a lottery really. I've told you about my little psycho coloured mare, whose offspring without exception were fantastic, friendly, easy ponies. She had three different stallions, all different characters, and the foals were all great. She was a nutter.

Then there was Cerys - line bred back to her grandfather, who was again a lovely laid back stallion, and produced the Cob From Hell. He was awful - downright dangerous to be honest. Two more foals from my stallion were nothing like that.

Certain traits seem to come from nowhere but if you look back far enough you find them. Take Lili's head, for example - a bit plain by today's standards and certainly nothing like her near relatives - but go back in her pedigree and it's there. Is she likely to pass that on? It's obviously lain dormant in that particular line but there's no way of saying what switched that particular gene on in Lili. As for actual faults like cow hocks etc... it's hard to say how these things come about since perfectly well conformed horses can produce foals with faults.

My feeling is that some horses seem to have particularly dominant characteristics - like, for example, a stallion whose foals all have the same type of head as him. My stallion had a lovely head - but his foals nearly always had the same head their mothers did. He also had fantastically good straight movement - which his foals seemed to get despite any shortcomings their mother had.

I'd look at the offspring of a horse you were planning to breed from as much as the horse itself really. Some ugly mares breed beautiful foals, time and time again.

A friend of mine had a sec A stallion - superb looking pony who was quiet enough to do anything with. He had two foals, from her mares - and was immediately gelded. They were... well, less than shining examples of the breed! Another friend had an old B mare, who was slightly cow hocked and didn't have the best neck and head - but she had I think about three foals, a filly who won everywhere, another who also did very well and a colt, who was kept entire, sold to Scotland and was eventually sold for £15,000 as a stallion. All from a mare who's owner described her as "put together by committee!"

[Wally]

We have a pure Jersey house cow, she'll follow you about like a big dog...if she knows you, the kids used to sit on her back in the byre and the silly old fool let them. A neighbour has an Aberdeen angus bull who is just as daft, his kids used to sit on him!:eek: :eek: :eek: the product was a total head case which we NEVER did succed at halter training.

Used to watch my man in the mornings, he'd go past the window on the end of the rope at a fast walk, then at an out of control run, then back again on his back being dragged then back again but this time on his front, he never let go of that rope. Then when the opportunity came he'd take a turn round an electricity pole and bring the cow up with a jolt. She kicked, she barged she tried to kneel and gore you. All her other offspring have been angels. One Aberdeen Angus cross bull used to want cuddles and he'd squash you flat with his big stoopid head while you scratched his lugs.

Why the one was a nutter I don't know, the genes were there but they got lost in the wash.
This is why I try not to be influenced by parents.....my own as well!:D :D

[chev]

LOL Wally... :D :D You've brightened my morning now!

[cvb]

Groups of horses are bred selectively for both look, performance and behaviour.

For example Eriskays pretty much had to live with the family and be handled by granny or kids. So any Eriskay that was bad tempered wasn't going to too popular. In general they are supposed to have very good natures. The Eriskay guys have been doing some demos this summer and there's one 4 year old, recently broke to harness, being driven around Blair and Inglsiton without turning a hair. And another one being a bit bolshie and trying to drag its owner about the place. So even within the breed you're going to get individuals !

I would guess these days there is more breeding for performance than temperment, and that is having an effect.

I suspect the final mix has both genetic and environmental factors in it. I think my mare started life in a big, natural herd in Canada - she certainly seems more instinctive than other horses I've spent time with. (and more like the off-the-island Eriskay mare we had the honour to own for a short while).

[Lgd]

It does seem to depend on the horse and how it is handled. Peri's grandsire was an evil swine, all his offspring had beautiful temperaments. Peri's sire was one of the sweetest natured animals I've ever come across - a real pussy-cat to ride and handle BUT he had been taught to be well-mannered from an early age.
Without fail all of his stock inherited his lovely nature and they all seem to get his pretty head and they ALL have the cute ears with the curly tips. I can generally spot 'Lucky' offspring very quickly.
The other stallion we had was a bit of a nipper but basically not bad. All of his stock are completely different to each other except for having similar white markings, although all had a nice temperament.