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> We have always obtained our horses on several basic premise. First came the
> feet and legs, second overall conformation, third heart and lungs, fourth
> (and here is where many were rejected) was attitude. . .
Since all of these things (especially the first three) are heritable
traits, it is perfectly reasonable to presume that performance is/may be
linked to performance. Personally, I think it is patently obvious that
pedigree is linked to endurance performance, for the very reason that most
successful endurance horses are of Arabian descent. This is not merely
coincidence. It is my belief that Arabians dominate in endurance because
the traits necessary to succeed at endurance are passed down from
generation to generation. If you look at the horse population in general,
ALL Arabians are (by definition of the breed) closely related.
It is not unreasonable to ask if there are certain strains or sub-breeds
within the breed that also excel at the sport. It is also not
unreasonable to respond that we don't have anywhere near enough data (the
population of endurance horses just isn't large enough and nobody has
bothered to collect the information properly) to answer that question with
any degree of surety.
These are questions that breeders of racehorses asked themselves centuries
ago. They, too, realized that the data needed to be collected,
performance records needed to be kept, and rational evaluation needed to
be made. Hence the birth of the _General Stud Book_ (rather than each
breeder keeping his own private records). Over hundreds of years of
careful (i.e. thorough) breeding (which is why that same race horse is now
called the Thoroughbred) with one, fairly easily measurable, goal in mind;
along with a ruthless culling program (horses that don't run don't breed)
in place, the TB racehorse of today has been created.
Millenia ago, nomadic warriors of the middle eastern and north African
deserts had a careful breeding program with ruthless culling to breed the
"asil" horse, which, incidentally, is ideally suited to the sport of
endurance today (not the least of reasons because what was asked of those
horses is not all that much different from what we ask of our endurance
mounts today). The stud book was kept in the minds of the breeders passed
from generation to generation.
Both of these breeding programs have produced exceptional athletes that
excel at their respective sports down through hundreds of years. While it
is true that you don't ride the pedigree, you ride the horse; it is also
true, that no horse can be anything more than a combination of its
ancestors (except in the case of a genetic mutation). Because of the
millions of genes that go to make up one individual, there is great
variety within families; however, a horse cannot inherit a trait that its
parents don't have somewhere in their genetic makeup.
> If this really worked out, breeding the top TB stallions to the top TB mares
> should give you many winners but this has never happened in racing to this
> day.
Actually, it has. To the extent that all of the non "top" TB horses have
been virtually removed from the gene pool. Centuries of time, hours of
research, and reams of paper have been expended in the development of TB
racehorses. Every week, in the _Thoroughbred Times_ there is an article
on "Bloodstock Research" that details the success of a particular
bloodline, stallion, mare, breeding program, which crosses are successful,
which are duds, what family traits are being passed on to the next
generation, what aren't.
There was a very interesting article last month about great broodmares.
AFTER determining which horses qualified based on their produce records
(great broodmares being defined as mares that have produced multiple
stakes winners), then the pedigree research was done. Did these mares
have anything in common, pedigree-wise? Indeed, they did; although not
close-up. None of them were by particularly noted broodmare sires;
however most of them (28 of the 30) were closely bred (4x4 or 4x5) to
noted broodmare sires, and noted broodmare sires populated their pedigrees
to a great extent.
And if there were no validity to the concept that certain breeding excels
at racing, you wouldn't have to pay $200,000 to breed your mare to Seattle
Slew and $3,500 to breed to Spectacular Bid. Everybody in the racing
world knows that despite the exceptional racing performance of these two
horses, Seattle Slew is a sire of winners and Spectacular Bid is not (BTW:
Seattle Slew was successful as a racehorse and has been successful as a
sire despite the fact that he has very crooked legs and that he throws
babies with very crooked legs who are also successful racehorses). There
are, indeed, many bloodlines in TB racing that are acknowledged successes
and many that dwindle with unuse. Of course, in the United States alone,
there are over 17,000 TB horses born every year, there are THOUSANDS of
races every year to provide proving grounds for breeding programs, there
is an acknowledged world-wide goal, AND the people participating in this
have LOTS of money.
Whether successful endurance bloodlines have been/can be developed is a
different question. But unless we ask ourselves the question "are there
certain bloodlines that excel at endurance?" we will NEVER know the answer
to this question.
It is true that you don't ride the pedigree, you ride the horse. And it
is true (even in TB racing where research and data have been collected for
longer) that just because some bloodlines excel at a sport does not mean
than any one individual that comes from that bloodline will excel at the
sport. Therefore, the question of what bloodlines may excel at endurance
is far more relevant to the breeders of endurance horses when planning the
next generations, than it is to the buyers of endurance horses. However,
your chances are better (at least in TBs) if you stick with proven
bloodlines. There are, of course, exceptions (Larry the Legend is one
notable one).
In a message dated 97-05-12 10:45:11EDT, Trish wrote:
> -and when I did find a horse, it came as no surprise that he
> came from primarily racing (i.e. athletic) lines rather than halter--
If you go out looking at horses that come form primarily racing (i.e.
athletic) lines, you will spend a lot less time looking at horses that are
unsuitable (because they had been bred for an entirely different purpose).
Does that mean you might miss out on Larry the Legend? Maybe. But it
also means that you won't spend as much time looking at the wrong horse.
There is currently, not enough data to make any statistically significant
statements with regards to what bloodlines excel in endurance (other than
"horses of Arabian descent"). However, that does not mean that success at
endurance is not linked to pedigree. Can we find the links? Certainly
not, if we don't look for them. Do we have the ability to find the
links--given the small size of the endurance population, the varied goals
of different endurance competitors, the long lead time it takes to prove
performance, and the significant lack of funds of the participants, among
other limiting factors? Ummmmm, probably not.
Despite this, as a breeder, I will continue to investigate the pedigrees
of successful (by my definition) endurance horses and try to determine
what bloodlines have a tendency to repeat themselves. And I will continue
to encourage others to do so, because the question is not irrelevant (even
if it may be unanswerable).
kat
Orange County, Calif.
p.s. One cross to one horse 4 or 5 generations back is virtually
meaningless in a horse's pedigree. Especially if you are talking about a
horse that did a lot of breeding. With a horse such as *Bask that was
bred to anything and everything, it is almost meaningless to say *Bask
grand son/daughter, since there are probably close to 50,000 purebred
Arabian horses that meet this description (possibly as much as 1/10th of
the entire population).
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