linebreeding, inbreeding??

[cristy]

Here is an open question, what is line breeding, what is inbreeding, and what is okay? (Just wondering what others opnions are)

I have known of some breeders breeding 1/2 brother to 1/2 sister and getting amazing stuff from the cross, but are there risks from doing that? What about father to daughter or mother to son. The thoughts of breeding this closley scares me, simply because I do not know.

[GeorgeGuns]

I've always been told that inbreeding is parent/offspring, or sibling/sibling, and after that its line breeding which can vary in degrees. Some folks consider breeding grandparent to grand(offspring) inbreeding, but to me it would be so if the grandparent was the grand on more than once in the pedigree, ie: grandparent is parent of both sire and dam of the offspring.

Instances:
Cascabel: I would love (if i keep her) to breed her back to her paternal grandfather, Amadeus, I consider this to be close linebreeding as the dam line has no Resorte, and her father's dam has it further back.

Rio, Pesquisa: they has Hilachas 4 times in their pedigree, 3-5 generations back, I consider this to be linebreeding, not necesarily "heavy" but enough to concentrate some characteristics back into the horse. I'm glad I gelded Rio (hehehe, great little horse, but that mind does not need tatas).

Domingo was bred (not by me) to her half brother a few times, results varied, comments are not mine to make good or bad.

I don't really agree with inbreeding, although a knowledgeable breeder that understands the bloodlines he/she is working with can make a reasonable decision, and for some this has proven to cement some great characteristics.

Linebreeding IMO is trickier because you have to have a good understanding of the whole family and what each horse has most likely contributed to the genetic makeup in the horse being bred. I learned this the hard way, not by producing disaters, but the horse(s) aren't easy sellers and I may well be "stuck" with them - yeah like I'm really crying my eyes out boohoohoo. This goes for any breeding though - KNOW your horses, KNOW what you want in the offspring, research carefully no matter what degree (including zero) of linebreeding you want to use.

[Heidi]

Do we not yet have a diverse enough population of Paso Finos that we can discontinue in/line breeding?

[motorgypsy]

Precisely my thoughts on gelding or not gelding males from unusual or unused blood lines. We are a small breed and need to keep a diverse gene pool. Of course you geld those who have major flaws but one man's "not fino enough" stallion ends up another's prize breeding stallion because he has what that person's clientèle want.

Inbreeding you might say is within the immediate family. We have a brother sister offspring sired by a grandfather granddaughter offspring. The brother sister is inbreeding. The grandfather granddaughter is line breeding.

We have a huge amount of inbreeding and line breeding in our breed. In particular the PPR's have a huge amount. It's good and bad. If you can inbreed and line breed for 10 generations and no serious defects show up you know the genetic makeup of this population is pretty sound. On the other hand all the horses start to look like identical twins so you don't get much diversity if you want some or need some. Perhaps your target population changes. Well if you do nothing but breed to the same stallions' and mares' offspring you know pretty much what the the foals will look and act like and if they aren't what your public wants to buy you have to change breeds or bring in new blood from somewhere and if we geld all but the very best stallions as in "show" stallions, there won't be any diversity. We've been pleased by the quality of the paso finos at nationals but we've also been disturbed by how homogeneous they are.

You don't inbreed or linebreed unless you know what you are doing or are advised by several independent "experts" who know what they are doing because you could compound weaknesses rather than strengths. For example I would not breed our largo mare back to her son because she has very long flexy pasterns. His are not flexy but they are fairly long and their offspring could inherit this conformation which is not necessarily a flaw but which produces a horse who tends to be injured more easily. We would however breed her son's half sister to him which is inbreeding because she has more upright shorter pasterns and really good bone but needs his range of gait although she has more than her mother and he is more refined than she is but she's more muscular than he is so they could produce a nice mix since we would be doubling up on the stallion side and the stallion is very nice. We wouldn't mind a clone of him at all!!

So inbreeding and linebreeding is used to set traits and what is imperative is that it be studied carefully so that it is the good traits that are set, not the bad ones.