Mares & foals

[pnalley]

Congratulations to all of you that have new babies, and to those that are on foal patrol!

The babies are all just beatuiful. I really, really want a baby.

I must say I am very impressed with the overall quality of the mares.

We have many conversations about "should I geld". We have very few about what qualifies a mare as a breeding prospect.

So, what do you look for in a broodmare?

I would look for a desirable bloodline, I've never been one to chase the fashionable bloodlines. I have always preferred the older lines that have survived the test of time.

Good conformation, again a horse that is built to be sound and is a good representative of it's breed. If a Paso of course gait is a factor

Then of course what I think is the least considered, would be the mares mind. I have heard too many times, "if she's no good as a riding horse we can always breed her".

If she passes these tests, it would be time to breed her and see what she can produce. I've known wonderful mares that were not great producers, and I have known mediocre mares that were great producers.

So opinions please???

PS
Lets try to keep this polite please

[SandyMM]

I like a broodmare who foals easily, mothers well, and produces even better than herself.

[Sharon B]

I look at bloodlines of course, but my favorite quality that I rank a broodmare on is her disposition. Bloodlines are probably on the bottom of how I rank them. Disposition, conformation, gait, color, then look to the bloodlines. A nasty mare will sometimes make a good mother but they are very hard to deal with on a day to day basis. I don't want that attitude passed on to the foal or learned by the foal.
Sharon

[Pinto Paso]

1 - Gait I raise Paso Finos, if the gait isnt there why would I use a horse to
reproduce lack of gait.
2 - Working brio (this is a combination of desire, ability, disposition
& presence)
3 - Conformation
4 - soundness
5 - Pedigree
6 - Ability to pass these qualities (this requires test breeding obviously,
but if the mare does not pass this test she is removed from our
program)

There are times when prior handling/training or lack there of is worth overlooking to evaluate a mares breedability... Nature vs Nurture evaluation can mean a lot in the breeding shed.

There are so many more things that go in to choosing our mares and who they are bred to each year but the above are the top 6 considerations for us.

[LynnG]

I like for the mare to have a package of all the traits I desire. Many desireable traits they posess may be equally good...and in that case, I may let them be a little less in one desired trait area. But its the total package I want; same with a stallion.

[Blair]

Ok, now this brings on another question that has been in my mind. Once you have bred a mare and have a foal, when do you really get a good feel for the quality of the foal? How early can one really assess the conformation, gait and disposition?

I know when we bred dogs, there was some dependency on how fast certain lines matured. Some breeders were pretty good at picking out which were "pick" of the litter from day one but I always had a hard time - they are all cute! Then the baby enters the gangly stage. Can you really assess a horse before they are of training age???

I am just curious and still learning!

[Cindy]

I like to look at them at about 1 month old if I am looking at a horse that I do not see every day. But I have found that I learn much more and can tell a lot more about foals that I see every day and see how they develop. And, yes, one can tell the quality of foals in a general sense but there is so much that goes into exactly how the foal will turn out as an adult horse. But the quality is always there.

[pnalley]

I have always thought that when they are 3 months old they look much like they will as an adult. After that they start getting those growth spurts.

I agree with Cindy, quality shines through. The mind is more elusive. A horse (or human) all have their mental limitations, but the way they are handled from birth and trained (for riding) makes a HUGE difference.

We will be going to pick up our gelding from the trainers next week. I sent a well mannered (on the ground) horse that was basically a blank slate. I'm curious to see what I get back :lol:

[Carol Nelson]

Temperament, conformation, gait, bloodlines, and then color....

since I'm breeding for good Pleasure horses...temperament is No. 1 on the list. When I call someone about a mare, first thing I ask her is how is her temperament. If they say "hot and spicey" I say thanks, but no thanks. A whole lot of undesireable things go along with that statement. Same with "lots of brios!" ;-)

The next two go hand in hand, I believe. If you have good conformation, you're most likely going to have good gait. I do look at bloodlines too....they tell a lot about the horse...not always do they follow true, but most always.
Last on the list is color unless I am looking for a particular color, like Palomino or Pinto. Other than that...color doesn't mean all that much to me.

I think to REALLY evaluate an offspring, it should be at least two to three years old. And then you really don't know until it goes under saddle. That's tough for us breeders...because you really don't know whether your breeding program is producing what you intended until you do have babies under saddle.

[lisa l aka marci]

For me, I think about what Wendy Spring told me years ago - 'BREED UP'.

It was already mentioned, about the mare producing better than she is.....I agree.

What I look for -

1-Temperment - the mare has to be pretty easy to handle, yet have some Brios and a little attitude - not be a total pussycat. But, also needs to be able to adapt well, handle different situations.....I want a mare to be protective of her foal, but not nasty or viscious (yep, seen that in other breeds).

Marci is very good at mothering - lets the baby be handled by strangers - she almost fell asleep while the vet was doing her thing with her foal yesterday afternoon! Was very relaxed, but also knew where he was and was comfortable with me there petting her. I couldp robably hop on her tomorrow and go for a ride, even though she hasn't been ridden since last year....but I would never put her through that after having a baby a couple days ago!

2 - Comformation - good comformation, no obvious major faults.

Marci has a couple of things that could be improved upon, hopefully we will see that with the foal.....one of these days I'll get conformation pictures up for some critiques!

3 - Gait - A horse must have natural gait, not be 'pacey' - a little trot at liberty or when asked for under saddle is ok with me - again that goes to range of gait. I'm not into Fino - although I like to watch the shows - so I want a horse that will be easy to ride, doesn't need months and months of training to get it to gait or stay in gait........

4 - Bloodlines - I too want to preserve the older 'less fashionable' bloodlines -

Hence a main reason I chose Emi for Marci......Lots of Top 10 older stallions (and mares!) in the pedigree, Versatility, range of gait, disposition........the whole package.

5 - Health - I also want a horse that stays healthy with little or no 'help' from humans.......not prone to colic or founder, allergies etc.......

Marci (knocking on wood!) has not had a 'sick' day in her life.......a few injuries, yes, other than that nada. I hope it stays that way!

6 - - color is last - health is more important!