Linebreeding

Leopard Rock Sport Horse Appaloosas

LINE BREEDING,

THE IMPORTANCE OF MARES IN A BREEDING PROGRAMME &

THE MISCONCEPTION OF THE

‘APPALOOSA SPORT HORSE’

“The Home of Sport Horse Appaloosas in Africa”

THE IMPORTANCE OF MARES IN A BREEDING PROGRAMME

Knowledgeable breeders research their mare lines as carefully as their stallion lines. The following illustrates the importance of the dam line in the pedigree: The sire can only pass an X-chromosome from his dam on to his filly foals and none to his colts, and the mare passes an X-chromosome onto every single one of her foals - both male and female. Therefore, the mare is a major influence in the makeup of each and every single foal she produces. She is not simply a vessel in which to carry the stallions genes. There is a reason why one refers to all foals out of the same dam as the ’half brother or half sister’ of one another, whereas foals from the same stallion are not. The moral of the story is: Choose the mares in your pedigree very carefully!! “The hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world..”

‘Truly pre-potent sires or dams are the rarest of the rare! They are to be cherished, and unlike diamonds, they will not last forever. Use them wisely! To find one is truly like panning for gold. You go through tons and tons of rock and dirt to find only a grain-a nugget-of real gold. That is why it has value, because it is rare! Yet once found they are rarely ever appreciated nor in most cases properly used. This is because people ignorantly believe, "Oh, well, I'll find or breed another." Well, good luck because the reality is you rarely will.

Can mutations in the mitochondrial genes be inherited? The number of mitochondria in every cell of a horse’s body varies from a few to hundreds. All of these mitochondria, and therefore the DNA within the mitochondria, descend from the small number of mitochondria present in the original egg cell at the time of that horse’s conception. The sperm does not contribute any mitochondria to the baby. Thus an individual’s mitochondria are only inherited from his or her mother. An abnormality in one of the mitochondrial genes can therefore be passed by the mother in her egg cells. As most of the mother’s egg cells carry the same mitochondrial mutation, the risk of this mother having another affected offspring with the mitochondrial disorder is high. This pattern of inheritance is therefore referred to as maternal inheritance.’ http://www.pipa.be/en/newsandarticles/pigeonandloft/mitochondrial-significance-maternal-line.

“Around the globe, you will see that the most successful farm operators active at acquiring quality mares and fillies, they know maternal strength is the pathway to success.’’ (McLean)

CROSS BREEDING, OUTCROSSING and the MISNOMER & MISUSE of the term ‘APPALOOSA SPORT HORSE’

When cross breeding to a non-Appaloosa, the resulting foal will always be far less than 50% Appaloosa genetically. Because many of the so-called ‘Appaloosas’ used do not have a large percentage of Appaloosa genes themselves (probably only a maximum of 35 - 40% Appaloosa, if that) as they are the result of cross breeding to start with, once these horses are cross bred to a non-Appaloosa their offspring is probably a maximum of 20% Appaloosa. Not enough for them to even be classified as Appaloosas at all! The mere fluke that they might have Appaloosa colouring is no guarantee that they can perpetuate [any] Appaloosa characteristics whatsoever should they in turn be bred with.

Just as there is more to an Appaloosa than a name, the same goes for a Sport Horse. A genuine sport horse needs to be able to compete successfully in one of the equestrian sports in the adult divisions at a high level, be it dressage, eventing, show jumping, hunters etc. An Appaloosa sport horse is, theoretically, a horse which is an Appaloosa genetically and which also has the ability to compete in high level equine sport. Only the highest quality crosses to excellent quality Thoroughbreds and Warmbloods should be categorized as Appaloosa Sport Horses. Anything else is simply a part-bred Appaloosa!

In summary: One cannot simply cross an Appaloosa with a Thoroughbred or a Warmblood, or a mix thereof, and hope to create an ‘Appaloosa sport horse’. To the same end, mixing and matching various different breeds and conformation types will never create consistent quality which can be relied upon generation after generation. Multiple crosses simply create ‘mongrels’ which have no reliable phenotype or genotype to pass on to future generations.

There is far more planning and highly selective breeding which needs to happen. First and foremost, the chosen breed needs to be of the absolute highest quality possible and meet all the necessary criteria. Culling of inferior horses from the breeding programme must be carried out. Mediocre Warmbloods and retired Thoroughbred racehorses with soundness issues which one came by as ‘throwaways’ are not what one should ever consider to use as an outcross!

Excellent linebreeding link : http://www.sport-horse-breeder.com/breeding-principles.html : all the articles at the bottom of the aforementioned page provide information on linebreeding in terms that the layperson can understand.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS:

Line breeding: Breeding related horses that have a common ancestor appearing at least once in the first three generations of both parent¹s pedigrees.

Out crossing: Breeding two horses of the same breed but of different types, strains or varieties.

Cross breeding: Breeding horses of two different breeds in order to create a hybrid.

<title>Appaloosa Sport Horses - Linebreeding, Appaloosa Sport Horse, Jg Appaloosa, Leopard Rock, Thoroughbred,</title>

LINE BREEDING

Firstly, consider this: The Thoroughbred as a breed originated from just three stallions. The Godolphin Arabian, the Byerly Turk and the Darley Arabian*. In fact, recent research found that, in 95% of modern Thoroughbred racehorses, the Y-chromosome can be traced back to this single stallion*!

Possibly the most important tool a horse breeder has at their disposal are the pedigrees of their breeding stock. After everything else has been considered (from conformation to coat colour and absolutely everything else possible in between!) - the intelligent and competent use of a pedigree is what separates a skilled horse breeder (i.e. a breeder with an ‘eye’ for a horse) and someone who simply breeds hoping the result will be successful. Please note that when referring to linebreeding it is assumed that one is linebreeding World Class specimens and bloodlines worthy of linebreeding, which have proven themselves over many generations. There is no other way, bar linebreeding, to set the desired recognisable phenotype and genotype one wishes to consistently produce.

The most respected and successful Thoroughbred breeders, amongst others, have throughout time employed line breeding of their finest animals as their key tool to create equine masterpieces. To this end, we have purchased three Sport Horse Appaloosa fillies linebred to Wap’s Spot to cross them to our stallion Many Moons, who is completely unrelated, who himself is prepotent and passes his exemplary traits on to his foals. A colt with the most outstanding pedigree and movement has also been recently imported so that we have both male and females similarly bred from this line so that we have endless options as to how to keep this unique bloodline alive and thriving for generations to come.

The purpose and point of line breeding is simple: to produce horses who can pass on their [superior] traits i.e. homozygosity. One line breeds in order to set the desired characteristics by increasing homozygosity, which allows a horse to pass on their traits generation after generation. Line breeding sets the ‘type’ (i.e. phenotype) and genetic material (i.e. genotype) thereby allowing the horses to reproduce themselves accurately and reliably. This entrenches (by doubling up or tripling up - depending upon the extent of the line breeding) the desirable traits when one is developing a breed or a type for a specific purpose. In our case, that is for the Olympic equine sport disciplines of dressage, show jumping, eventing as well as in hand showing (conformation classes).

A word of caution: This should only be practiced with superior quality animals [such as in the case of the stallions Wap’s Spot 2 and Reflection exhibit in themselves and their extended pedigrees] with no conformational defects or heritable abnormalities and that, in the case of a sire, he is prepotent and his offspring bear all his good attributes. It goes without saying that one uses both the conformation of the said animals as well as the pedigree when making breeding decisions. It is not sufficient to go simply by pedigree alone, or by phenotype alone. The two are inseparable.

It is a fact that to breed a great horse one needs great parents. Of absolute equal importance are the grandparents and their parents, and so it goes on. Every horse in the pedigree is important—the closer up it is, and the more it is line bred to, the greater the importance. That is why we have researched our horses’ pedigrees to the Nth degree to ensure that we are breeding with the best sport horse type [and purebred Appaloosas] available in the world. Apart from requiring a very high standard of conformation, our horses have excellent temperaments and an abundance of talent for the various Olympic disciplines, which are characteristics of this particular line (due to the line breeding), and of our stallion Many Moons.

The Darley Arabian Byerly Turk The Godolphin Arabian

All of our horses trace back to all three of the Arab stallions pictured above - the founders of the Thoroughbred breed.

Website design and maintenance Leopard Rock

Leopard Rock Sport Horse Appaloosas

South Africa

Tel: 082.714.5811

International: +2782.714.5811

E-mail: info@LeopardRockSportHorseAppaloosas.com

Nearco, the Italian Thoroughbred , who was himself linebred, and described by Thoroughbred Heritage as "one of the greatest racehorses of the Twentieth Century" and "one of the most important sires of the century." He is the most important Thoroughbred to appear in Warmblood pedigrees. He appears too in the pedigrees of Mamma Mia, Lexy and Diana. In the case of Legacy, Nearco’s sire Pharos appears both top and bottom. Wap’s Rolls Royce dam, Sweet Colin xx (Fergie) is herself triple bred to Nearco.

Nearco is quadruple bred and our stallion Many Moons is eight times bred, to the great St Simon, one of the most influential Thoroughbred stallions of all time, unbeaten in his race career : http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/st+simon

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