On 3/25/07, Karen Thomas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >>. To me, breeding is generally a crapshoot. > > I would say there is always "an element of crapshoot" to breeding, but if > there weren't a few certainties, we'd never had ended up with collies that > 99.99% of the time look like collies, and never look like Dachshunds. If we > pay attention to the good traits we're breeding for, I think it's safe to > say that the odds of getting really unexpected results is at least seriously > minimized.
Today I went to the farm and went with the old man to feed fox's old sire, Sandman. Fox's old dam died last year and I remember her clearly. She was old and swayback and spindly legged but to me she seemed very short. And today I was very surprised at how short sandman is. Fox is 16.2 hh and I havent taped him but he has gotta weigh at least 1300 pounds. Sandman looked to weigh around 900-1000, but Fox has his head, eyes and ears exactly, and altho his back looks different, I can spot the horses out of sandman a mile away because they all have the same fat wide back, not like sandman. How on earth can a breeder be sure when they buy a stallion what it will produce... there is sandman, boney backed, boney hips, every horse he's ever sired, literally dozens, have fat wide backs and almost no withers. He's short and small, all his offspring are huge and stocky. He is solid, but has a weird homozygousness in that every time he is bred to a spotted mare the offspring is spotted. every time. But all his offspring are known to be gentle natured and like the spots, seem 100% sound natural gaited ---according to the old man... Just makes me think jeez, I could have never looked at a horse and judged what his offspring would be like, never! Like Susan said, it is just a crapshoot even when you give it your best shot... Janice-- yipie tie yie yo
