Breed for color or bloodlines?

My friend is considering breeding one of her mares this spring, but we are stuck on which one to choose. They are both healthy, sound, and of appropriate breeding age, and have both had foals before. She doesn't want to have two foals this year.


The stallion she is going to breed to is Strait Firewater.


http://lazyearperformancehorses.com/stra...


He's owned by a lady that gives barrel racing lessons at my barn. He is a great horse, if you didn't know you'd think he was a gelding.


Anyway, both of her mares have pretty good bloodlines, one better then the other.


One is a sorrel quarter horse appendix mare, with Dash for Cash and Secretariat bloodlines. She is a proven 1D-2D barrel and pole horse, with a great disposition and conformation. (She's 15.2 hands and 10 years old)





The other is a palomino tobiano mare. She is unregistered, as her sire is unknown. Her dam is a proven barrel horse with Jet Deck bloodlines. Her sire is supposedly Rocket Wrangler bred...

Breed for color or bloodlines?
Bloodlines. Then color is a bonus!!!!
Reply:We no longer keep mares, but when we did, we ONLY bred for blood, leaving the color to chance since color means nothing.


Now we have geldings %26amp; we still buy blood NOT color.








The trouble with breeding for color is you can drop 10 foals that have good or great color %26amp; they can ALL be total culls %26amp; not be able to be used for what you bred them for. Then what?
Reply:I personally would breed what you could register. With the horse market in the potty, a grade horse is not such a good idea.





Now, if she is breeding to replace her horse and she is going to keep it forever then she should go with the one that is the better performer. That is what we all strive for, a baby outta our good horses. BUT, the problem is what if that colt doesn't do what you expected? Then what? You have a grade horse you don't want and can't give away! Lot's of IF and And's isn't there?





She could also look for a colt already on the ground by said stallion and buy it, it would probably be cheaper in the long run. Just an idea.
Reply:Breed for quality...which is a combination of pedigree, accomplishment, and conformation.





I like what I like...spots, palomino, buckskin, roan. And if I ever breed again, it will likely be to a stallion of color of some sort.





BUT...when picking your breeding stock, you need to look at these horses as though they are plain jane no chrome stock. How's the conformation? Pedigree? Suitability for discipline? Find a colored horse who would be a horse of excellent quality even if s/he wasn't a special color, and there is the one to go with.





So I'd go with pedigree...especially in this case. Neither "colored" horse is homozygous tobi, right? And neither is a double-dilute. You could still get a "plain" colored red, bay, or black horse.
Reply:I know nothing about barrel horses, but the rule of thumb for any breeding is breed for blood.
Reply:the real question is what you want. do you want a paint? last i heard spots dont make a horse run faster...





i would look at conformation faults and vices. sires should be bred to mares who complements his strengths and cancels out his weaknesses
Reply:Breed for blood, its stupid to breed for colour when you can get any colour. (sorry in my country we spell colour with a 'u')


Nobody really cares about the colour when they want to buy a top horse.
Reply:Always breed for performance! It sounds like it is a barrel horse she is aiming to have drop. In barrel racing the color of your coat has nothing to do with what time you are pulling in.





With the superior conformation and proven performance I would use the sorrel mare, a little bit of tb blood in there is only going to help as well.
Reply:Breed for conformation, whichever one has the best conformation of the two ought to be bred.
Reply:I'd breed for bloodlines, not color. My motto is to always breed to improve the breed, most preferably improving it with confirmation, not color. There are a million unwanted horses out there, many who have come about be circumstances that were probably very similar to your friend's. Many more people would want a well bred horse than a horse of a certain color (or at least, I would hope so.)





I still think this applies even if she is keeping the foal. She may not have it for the rest of its life, and you want to make sure it's marketable. You can't go wrong with a well-bred horse (well, you can, but you get what I mean.)
Reply:ok do bloodlines not for colors
Reply:If she is set on breeding take the appendix mare to this stud. He looks legit, and you would have a more marketable colt. She is proven, and he looks like he has done it, too.





On the other hand, why would you pay $600 plus care on the mare for a year, and take all the chances you take when breeding a mare, when the type of colt you are likely to produce can be bought for less than a couple of hundred dollars anywhere in the United States?
Reply:Always breed for pedigree and mare's ablility. Breeding for color is how you get pretty, yet mentally insane Paints. Though I am not strongly opposed to breeding an unregistered mare, so long as you plan to keep the foal, do not keep the foal a stud (if colt). Stallions should be held to higher standards, since a stallion can have a hundred foals a year, while a mare only has one. I would strongly vote the registered mare, though breeding to a buckskin paint (though he is of the Firewater bloodlines) implies she is already breeding for color, and in that case, genetically the palomino pinto is likely to throw a pretty foal.
Reply:Neither, you breed for good conformation!!





Good bloodlines will usually help but not always!!
Reply:if she breeds for color and produces a grade horse...it is just a future candidate for the auction house...go for the bloodlines that will appeal to buyers.... We breed for bloodlines and hope for color... Our stallion was a grulla and so was our mare and we still got a black foal... our friend bought that grulla mare and bred her to his black stallion and got a red dun foal... 2 times she proved that just because color should have been there..does not mean it will be.... fortunately though the bloodlines could not be changed





edit








the pinto association is just a color registry...there is no consistancy in the horses they register...





You ALWAYS want to breed to a stallion that has qualities your mare lacks...or shares qualities you want to bring out in the foals








edit





is the paint mare even tested as homozygous for the pinto gene? If not the chances are she will not even get a colored foal unless the stallion is also colored and happens to be homozygous..that is the only way you can guarantee a colored foal