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RE: [RC] Good breeding stock IS out there! - heidiIMO, folks like Cheri Brisco and Michael Bowling (among others) DO create a good working/breeding program. I have seen Michael's horses in person, and photos of ones Heidi Sagehill has from him. Michael is in Davis, CA and has a couple amazing stallions! Ranelle, you're right that there is good breeding stock out there--and that good breeding stock proves its worth on the trail. Michael has bred a Tevis winner among other top endurance horses, as well as successful horses in the sport horse world. Cheri's program is well-represented in the working world as well. Let me share a non-endurance example that I shared privately with another poster, to try to illustrate the difference between "working stock" and "breeding stock." Although I happen to breed Arabs, this is a graphic example from the TB world. A horse named Pillory came out of nowhere in 1922 and won both the Preakness and the Belmont, and was 2nd in the Kentucky Derby. He missed being a Triple Crown horse by one placing in one race. That puts him up in a pretty rarified crowd in the TB world, for sure! I first became aware of this horse when I was a kid, because we had a 15/16 TB ranch mare sired by a Remount stallion that was a son of his. Back in those days, the culls from the track could go into things like the Remount program--not an option anymore. Anyway, Pillory's pedigree was not suggestive of speed--and despite the fact that he himself could run like hell, he never sired anything worth a damn on the track. Man O'War, on the other hand, had a pedigree that suggested he could do precisely what he did--and he in turn passed it on, because he was bred to be a breeder as well as a runner. If one had a son of Man O'War, even unraced for whatever reason but out of a compatable mare, one would be far more apt to achieve success as a breeder betting on him in the breeding shed than on a "proven" horse like Pillory. THAT's the difference between "working stock" and "breeding stock." One poster who publicly bashed the difference between working stock and breeding stock did privately say to me that she had heard of broodmare sires--same thing. You breed to known stallions to raise daughters whose odds of raising good working stock are much higher than the average, because they possess the genetic potential to produce the sorts of horses you are trying to breed. This is one example of "breeding stock." By the same token, I'd be more apt to raise successful endurance babies from an unproven Faramir daughter or Doc daughter (Faramir's pedigree is absolutely consistent with production, and Doc's has one horse that is kinda neutral and the rest is stellar), bred to a stallion that likewise is bred for the sport and possesses the necessary traits, than I would be to randomly take a "proven" endurance mare and breed her to a "proven" endurance stallion, with pedigrees inconsistent with performance. Case in point--while Cheri has ridden much of her breeding stock, successful breeders like Michael have not--and yet Michael has consistently produced top working horses because he KNOWS what traits are necessary, and has put together a breeding program of good breeding stock possessing not only those traits but the genetic makeup to consistently pass on those traits. The latter is absolutely essential for the success of a long-term breeding program. Heidi =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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