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Breeding is a combination of experience, skill, insight, and luck. Of course the best philosophy to use is to find two horses that exemplify everything you find important to the breed and cross those two horses. But unfortunately, it is not always easy, or even possible, to follow that course. More often than not, a nice horse that is breeding quality will be somewhat less than perfect and you will find yourself needing another breeding option. When we make our breeding decisions, we follow the outline below. Our breeding philosophy incorporates many breed traits, but the most important and the first we consider in any cross is the disposition of each horse. Both the mare and stallion must exhibit calm, gentle, intelligent, willing, and people-friendly attitudes or we immediately exclude them from any breeding possibilities. The stallion must be a gentleman at all times during handling and react well to correction if needed. We only consider mares that demonstrate willing and easy-going natures during both saddle work and ground handling. All breeding candidates must be people-friendly. We have often heard that mare "a" didn't cut it as anything else so breed her. We vehemently disagree with that logic. To be considered for breeding, each horse must be successful in many areas because those are the genes we want to see passed along to future generations - not the genes for an ill tempered mare or stallion that can't be used for any other discipline. We make no exception to this rule - if the disposition is not there on any particular horse then it will not be bred at our farm. The next trait we consider is the gait each horse prefers. The same course of action applies to gait - breed a good foxtrotting horse to another good foxtrotting horse for your best possibility of a good foxtrotting foal. But again, this may not always be the best option. If a mare tends to lean toward the lateral way of moving but she has many other positive traits, she can be bred to a more trotty stallion to increase the possibility of a foal that foxtrots well. Also, breeding "like" to "like" hopefully gives you "same." There is no expected improvement in that course of action. The ultimate goal is to produce better than each horse for an exceptional foal. For that reason, we always try to make breeding decisions that will improve upon the traits of each contributing horse. The absolute best determining factor when breeding for gait, is the movement of the two horses that are being considered for breeding. It is also important to consider the conformation of the horses intended for breeding. Not only is it important to exclude the obvious flaws such as parrot mouth and post legs, but also to develop the overall qualities we like to see in our horses. Probably because we are ex quarter horses breeders, we like to see a nice round rump and deep hip on our horses. We do not like the sloped butt sometimes seen in this and other gaited breeds, so we carefully breed away from that conformation flaw. If a particular cross yields a foal with a sloped rear end and low tail set, we will not repeat that cross. That does not mean we will not breed a horse with a slight slope, but we will be sure to cross that horse with another horse that has a very round rear end to compensate for that slope. Good breeding practice is a combination of sound, informed choices and a little luck. Again, breeding "like" to "like" will more often than not give you "same." Of course if the mare and stallion both exemplify all of the traits associated with the breed standard, then this course of breeding is an excellent choice. We try to make sound decisions based on the two horses we are going to use for a particular cross. The most important factor is the two horses standing in front of you that will be used for the cross. We often hear people herald this or that horse because an excellent horse is on the pedigree 5 generations back. How much do you really think your characteristics are influenced by your great-great-grandfather? You have a little bit of the genetic material from him in your makeup, but do you think his influence is more than your father or your mother? Of course not. Why would horses be any different? We have also seen claims that this sorrel mare is going to be a strong palomino producer because she has so many palominos in her pedigree - or another sorrel horse has a strong sorrel gene. These statements are simply incorrect. It doesn't matter what the pedigree shows, the first mare can not produce a palomino foal unless the sire can contribute the needed creme gene and there is no such thing as "strong" sorrel." Sorrel is simply 2 red genes. There is also no proof that there is "strong pace" several generations back in a particular horse's pedigree. The horse in question is colored however it is and moves however it does regardless of the other horses back several generations in the pedigree. This is why we look at the horses we intend to breed for our assessments. We note all good and bad traits of one horse and try to balance those with the traits of the other horse. A good example of this can be shown in the cross we made in 2006 between Gypsy and Future. Below you will find a picture of Gypsy and arrows pointing to her conformation weaknesses. They are not drastic flaws, but certainly things we do not particularly find pleasing to a horse's build. As you look at her picture, you probably wonder why we would ever consider breeding her. The answer is simple - she has the most desired disposition available in a horse. She is gentle and willing, rides like a dream and will take her rider anywhere, open to new challenges, and solid as a rock. Her preferred gait is a running walk and although that is not a foxtrot, it is smooth and comfortable to ride. Because Gypsy has such a wonderful disposition, we felt it would be nice to continue that in the breed. We chose to breed her to a stallion, Future, who had a very loose and natural foxtrotting gait and an excellent body conformation. We have included a picture of the stallion and the resulting foal, Desi. As you can see, Desi has a beautiful build, and as you can probably guess, an excellent disposition. And he also has a nice, rhythmic foxtrotting gait. So the mare far outproduced herself with the help of the stallion we chose. Although careful planning and choices don't always turn out this well, you are much more likely to have a nice foal if you carefully and objectively map out the positives and negatives of each horse and plan for the foal to come in somewhere in the middle. |
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The above foal, overall, is a nice blend of the sire and dam. We honestly assessed the mare's weaknesses and picked a stallion with better than average traits in those areas we felt needed improvement. This "assessment" type breeding is what most breeders use today. The key is to be honest in your evaluation of the individual horses. It is easy for mare owners to jump on the bandwagon of a popular stallion at any given time, or breeding certain pedigree bloodlines, but that is not the best, in our opinion, way to have a successful breeding program. It all boils down to the two horses standing in front of you. We vehemently oppose the notion that Foxtrotters of today have too much Tennessee Walking Horse blood. All horses registered as Foxtrotting horses have been included in the official registry and that means they are all Foxtrotters. We do not buy into the theory that TWH bloodlines equate to pacing in the breed. We do not believe the claims that any horse's ancestry from 5 and more generations back has much influence on that particular horse. Yes, there is some DNA matter there but it has been diluted by 4 more generations of horses and we do not believe that is more influential to that horse than the 50% of DNA that has been contributed by the sire and dam. Pedigrees are useful tools when we plan a particular cross but we do not expect to see much influence on the foal beyond the 2nd generation back. Like any other breeder, our breeding plan is not perfect. There is no way to control the combination of all the genetic material that must fall into place to create a wonderful foal. But to date, our crosses have yielded foals with the qualities we strive to produce and we are very pleased with the results. This site has included several breeding plans from several successful Fox Trotter breeders and we hope that you can take the bits and pieces you like from each one to enhance your own breeding program. The end result will be higher quality horses in the Fox Trotter breed and that benefits all horse enthusiasts. |