Getting your mare ready for the Breeding Season

The process Breeder’s go through to pick the right stallion.

There are a number of questions that need to be answered before a breeder sends his or her mare to the breeding shed.

Some basic things need to be considered before looking at the list of prospective stallions. Is the goal to sell the foal or are the intentions to race? Will the foal be pointed to a state-bred program or a national program? Is there interest in future breeding stock development? Answering these questions will help narrow down the list of possible stallions. Some stallions have commercial appeal and tend to produce horses that show well and sell well at auction. Obviously important for sellers and not as important if the foal will be a homebred in the breeders racing operation.

Another piece of the puzzle is pedigree. How compatible is the broodmares pedigree to the stallions? A number of factors including sire line compatibility (nick), inbreeding patterns, dosage and so on form unmistakable patterns in the pedigrees of successful racehorses. Breeders have plenty of options with respect to pedigree analysis, nicking reports, computer programs and professional pedigree analysts just to mention a few.

With that in mind the goal is to breed a certain individual. The breeder needs to be honest about the mare’s faults. If there is a weakness in the mare’s conformation then the stallion prospect should have very correct conformation in that area. Example, if the mare is offset in the knees the breeder will look for a stallion that is very correct in the knees. Looking at the sire’s close family tree to know what traits they pass down is also important. On the flip side, a stallion may not have perfect conformation in one area where the mare is built very well so that stallion may still be considered if he matches up well overall and does not have a history of stamping his faults on his offspring. Understanding the dominant traits of the mare’s family is equally important, some families are very flexible and others throw the same traits generation after generation.

So this coming January it all starts again, the hopes and dreams of breeding a champion. And you never know when it will happen… Blinkers On Racing Stable purchased Love the Chase for the relatively small price of $30,000 at auction to race for our horse racing partnership. After her racing career with Blinkers On she was sold and eventually bred to a California stallion by the name of Lucky Pulpit for $2,500. The foal was California Chrome, winner of two legs of the Triple Crown.

Blinkers On

Blinkers On Racing Stable, a leader in thoroughbred horse racing partnerships, brings together the finest in thoroughbred horse racing expertise with the best in business know-how, and above all, a team of people you can trust, to manage your investment. We are committed to helping you experience the joys of thoroughbred horse ownership. For more information on thoroughbred partnerships visit our website or request an information package about our partnership. Keep up with horse racing in California by reading our Blog, finding us on Facebook, following us on Twitter, checking us out on LinkedIn, or visiting our YouTube Channel!