Horse Breeding Strategies: Linebreeding and Inbreeding and Selection of Stock

Horse Breeding

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Horse Breeding Strategies: Linebreeding and Inbreeding and Selection of Stock
They say in jest, if it works, it is linebreeding, if it doesn't, it is inbreeding
Submitted by Lil Peck, 1/25/2009

When you consider how inbred much of the foundation stock was of any breed, it would be very difficult to do any horse breeding that wasn't at least somewhat linebred.

While my mother and I were breeding Boxer show dogs, we linebred and sometimes inbred, intensively. Much of the work had already been done for us, because we started with a linebred dam and a linebred sire. They both went back to Bang Away, who was linebred, and he in turn went back to Lustig, who was linebred. Our most famous dog was Heldebrands Jet Breaker who was shown by Earl Overstreet: http://www.ewoboxers.com/jetbreaker.html Our program produced other beautiful dogs, some perhaps even better than Jet Breaker, but he was the most famous because at one point he had a millionaire sponsor.

For several years, I raised English Angora show rabbits very intensively. I linebred and inbred them and was very pleased with what I developed after a few years: very cobby little bodies, very thick wool that was resistant to matting. I would recommend rabbit breeding to anyone who wants a crash course for experience in animal breeding. With rabbit breeding, you begin to learn how to leave sentiment out of the process of selecting breeders. As I always say, you can take advantage of the rabbits' early maturing and fast reproduction rate, and you can always eat the mistakes.

One of my favorite horses is tightly linebred: http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/the+elusive+zipper I believe her pedigree is also an example of "sex balancing" because Zippo Pine Bar appears on both the sire and the dam side. My daughter and I did lots of winning with Ellie at the open shows. Eventually, I sold her to a friend who needed a bombproof trail horse. Well, I always regretted parting with Ellie, so back in November, I bought her back!

Mostly, when I look at a pedigree, I want to see some kind of pattern, something to show me that the breeder had some kind of constructive goal in mind. When I look at some pedigrees, I see a little of this and a little of that, and it reveals that whomever bred those individuals to each other didn't know what the heck they were doing.

The way I see it is that judicious linebreeding may be a way to stack the deck in your favor of getting the kind of horse that you want. But you'd better really familiarize yourself with the individuals you're doubling up on, because you'll double up on their 'bad' as well as their 'good.'

Inbreeding won't CREATE faults, but it will expose flaws that appear as the result of double recessives.

A few years ago, I went to help a 4-H family with their mare that was giving them some problems. The mare was pretty, but had some conformational issues: her withers were lower than her rear. Her neck was short and thick. Her front pasterns were way overangulated, with exaggerated her low front end. Physically, this mare had no power steering because she could not sufficiently lift her shoulders. She had never been registered at this point in her life it would have cost more to register her than she was worth. Worst of all, she had a really pissy attitude.

The family told me they wanted to breed her, "So we'll always have something from her." They had her pedigree, so I went over it with them and pointed out how you can find dozens of weanlings at the fall production sales with nearly identical pedigrees (that you can buy for $250 or less), and so there was nothing unique about the mare.

I know it must hurt to receive that kind of information about one's horse that one loves, but to their credit, as far as I know, they bought babies instead of raising them.

If you want to be a responsible horse breeder, educate yourself about good conformation, athleticism, and temperament. Consider marketability as well. Even if you think you will keep the horses you raise forever, what if a time comes when you have to sell them? These things are NOT a matter of "what you like." They are a matter of what is CORRECT.

For example, I remember a fellow who bought himself a stallion that was a washout from Cutting training. He was proud of how wide the horse's chest was, until it was pointed out to him that the width of the horse's chest may have had something to do with why the horse didn't do well in Cutting. The excessively wide chest would have made it more difficult for the horse to cross his legs over in front, and to lift his shoulders. The added bulk would also have made the horse tire more quickly.

I think all of us probably agree on this, one should be most critical of their own stock and should never be satisfied. Furthermore, in this tough economic time in the horse industry, it would be far, far wiser to go BUY a weanling then to breed your own mare. Odds are, your own mare isn't so special that there is any kind of compelling reason to breed her at all. As for stallions, well, most stallions would make only average geldings and shouldn't be stallions at all.

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