Re: Evaluating foals

[kitten@resp-sci.arizona.edu (Bruce Saul)]

> Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 12:43:07 -0600
> From: Lance Rosedale <rosedale@sonic.net>
> To: ridecamp@endurance.net
> Subject: evaluating foals?
> Message-ID: <34C39EBB.E3B39373@sonic.net>
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> 
> I'm thinking of breeding my Arab mare and am looking around at
> stallions, and, if possible, their get.  I understand how to look at
> conformation in a grown horse, but what do you look for in a foal?  Can
> they tell you anything?  Can you assume that if the legs are correct
> they will stay correct?
> 
> Thanks for any ideas--
> 
> Eileen

	Hi, Eileen, I do some breeding and I always try to look not only
at the stallion but all of his close relatives I can find, his sire, his
dam, his grandsire, his full and half siblings, as well as his foals.
The foals are really important as some stallions produce better than they
themselves are and some stallions do not reproduce themselves well.  Some
stallions have good nicks with certain mare lines and some do well with
anything they are bred to.  All of these factors plus how the traits that
the stallion has and passes on and the traits that the mare I am considering
breeding match up will go into my making my decisions.  
	The first thing to think about is what traits your mare has, her
ancestors, and so forth and how likely her traits are to be passed on.  You
have to have a good mare to breed good foals.  But you should also know that
there is no such thing as a perfect horse, near but not perfect, so you
should also be absolutely honest about the things in her that you want
to keep and those that you want to see corrected.  
	Now how to look at the stallion's foals, first look at the dams of
those foals, you can't look at the foals without seeing what parts she
is contributing and what parts he is contributing.  The foals themselves
will have many things in common with older horses, they should have roughly
a 1/3 shoulder to 1/3 barrel to 1/3 hip body balance.  Young foals will
have longer legs than they have body, if a very young foal doesn't have
that chances are it will have short legs as an adult.  Foals change very
quickly and go through awkward growth spurts at certain times.  They tend
to grow hindquarter first, then the body elongates, then the shoulder and
neck catch up and the whole cycle starts again.  Certain lines stay balanced
as youngsters only to wind up not looking so good as adults, while others
go through the worst awkward phases only to look wonderful as adults.  When
in doubt look at the stallion and dam of the foal to get an idea of which
lines you are looking at.  And a few very rare horses will look good 
regardless of what stage of growth they are in as well as into adulthood.
Look for straight legs, calf knees tend to be a problem the horse will
have as an adult, while over at the knees can stay or it may straighten
out, but crooked joints in a foal over a month old are likely to be a
problem for life.  Foals that are just born are often a bit crooked in
the legs because of the tight compacting of the womb, they may be down
on the pasterns, or a little contracted in pastern or knee, as long as
it is relatively small and they straighten out quickly this is not a 
problem.  Some foals even come out "windswept" meaning that their legs
are both crooked to one side, I have seen even these foals straighten
out.  Again minimally affected horses tend to straighten out better, but
a signifigantly affected foal may need veterinary attention to help
support it while it straightens out.  Crookedness over 5 degrees often
needs surgery (you would be surprised how crooked that is).  Once a foal
gets to being a month old though you should be seeing pretty straight legs.
A foal should not have any signs of offset cannons, those do not straighten
out at all and are a bad problem with some Arabs as it is a difficult 
condition to breed out, look to the stallion and mare, if one of them
has offset cannons then chances are that about 1/2 of the offspring coming
from that horse will also have them.  Newborn foals often have longer 
gaskins than they do thighs, this tends to put them camping out behind,
the difficulty here is whether they will remain camped out or not.  Within
two months the foal should have corrected that and stand with hock and
fetlock located so a plumbline dropped from the point of the hip intersects
with them, if it doesn't then look to the stallion and mare, if one of them
is camped out then the chances are that foal will also be camped out.
Look for straight hinds, some very minor sickle hocks can straighten out,
especially if it is coming from a recent widening growth spurt through
the hips while the pelvis has not yet caught up, however signifigant sickle
hocks will not straighten out.  If the hip angle is good as a foal it will
generally be quite good as an adult.  A foal should not stand with the 
toes perfectly straight forward because as it grows and gets more breadth
in the chest it will tend to make that foal become pidgeon toed as an adult.
So some slight turning out of the whole leg (not just one part which would
be crookedness) is allowable, but not much, again look to the sire and
dam, if one of them turns out chances are the foal will, many horses turn
out in one foot but not the other and even that can be inherited.  Look for
a long hip and a strong back, powerful movement, etc.  The neck of most
foals is very hard to judge, it can get long and slim at some times and
be short and fat at others.  What you look for in the neck is that the
attachment be very high up so that the neck runs smoothly into the withers,
and also look for a wide base of attachment at the shoulder but that base
should attach slightly higher than the point of the shoulder.  Look also
for a clean  but not excessively clean throatlatch (excessively clean 
throatlatches are usually artificial caused by sweating rather than natural).
Very thick throats should be avoided especially in a colt (because they
tend to get thicker as they mature.  Look for a pleasing shape to the neck,
a very slight hint of an arch, but don't expect too much arch.  Look for
width between the branches of the jaw sufficient that the windpipe is
not impinged on when the head is flexed.  I prefer wider chests to narrower
ones (there are lots of arguments as to which are better some people like
narrow horses, I'm not one of them this is a preference)  The chest is 
hard to judge because it is one of the last things to mature (usually 
after age 3 or 4).  So look for an upside V of muscle between the forelegs,
that shows that the foal has good enough width to have good muscle for
foreleg movement.  Look for good withers, but do not sacrifice other things
for them.  Withers are generally low in many Arab lines, this does not 
disqualify a good horse but it does make it more difficult to hold a saddle
in place.  The problem is that most foals haven't got anything resembling
withers until they are at least a year old so withers are very hard to
judge.  Feet should be very evenly shaped and large, club feet are no longer 
thought to be so much a genetic problem as a growth and/or pain related problem,
however if you are judging a group of foals and see either a lot of club
feet or a lack of them you can get some information about the tendency
toward the problem from that.  Now to genetic things, laminitis is now
thought to have a genetic component just as is navicular disease, if a horse
has more than one offspring who has foundered it may signify that this 
line is more prone to that problem than others.  Malignant melanomas
same thing.  (Benign melanomas are less important.)  Epiphysitis same thing.
Osteochondrosis same thing.  And finally look for good bone in the stallion
and his offspring.
	In general, quality shows, if you research the lines you will see
that certain traits are inherited over and over while others are not.  A
good stallion will stamp his offspring with a look that can identify them,
with a positive impression of a good horse, to a knowledgable person.  Other 
stallions will stamp their offspring negatively or not at all.
	Good hunting.

					Tracy and everybody

Misty Mountain Arabian Sport Horses
Tucson, AZ