>>> We spent a ton of money on a stallion from Iceland...it was a big financial risk...it paid off and then some because he fixes the mares issues every time, and blends well with them...
Uh, I don't think you can say that. How many gene pairs in every mammal - isn't it maybe 20,000, 30,000, or more? And each baby gets exactly 50% of his/her genetic makeup from his/her mother, and exactly 50% of his/her genetic makeup from his/her mother - that's just the way it is. If what you said were literally the case, you could breed just any old plug mare to some hypothetical Super-Stallion and be guaranteed of wonderful babies. (And of course, some people do exactly that, but I don't see THAT many perfect babies!) What on earth do you mean by "mares issues" anyway? Are you guaranteeing that all "mare's issues" will be recessive? Granted, some traits are more dominant than others, but no matter how you cut it, the baby WILL get 50% of his/her DNA from his mom. If you think about it, with 20,000+ genes in the mix, we can't literally see the influence of each gene - we see the obvious, superficial traits like color, conformation, etc., but we have to remember that there are many other traits controlled (or influenced) by genetics too, which may be invisible...like a possible genetic predisposition to cancer or other diseases...? I say that because at one time, QH stallions Poco Bueno and Impressive were considered virtually "super stallions" - before their incidental links to genetic diseases were found... >>> Sometimes you can not look at a stallion to see what he will produce, sometimes it goes back a generation or so..... Yes, and many times people see exactly what they expect to see, or what's convenient for their egos. When my daughter was born, my family thought my daughter the spitting image of our side of the family, but my husband's family thought her the very image of theirs...until she did something wrong, and then the "other side" was always to blame! Karen Thomas [EMAIL PROTECTED]
