Choosing a stallion

From: Betsy

Dear Jessica, I know that it's only September and breeding season doesn't begin for another four or five months, but I'm making plans to breed my mare. She is not perfect but she is nice enough that I would be happy to have another one just like her.

I have picked out two stallions that I really, really like a lot. They are Warmbloods and my mare is a QH. I've been reading and re-reading all of last year's "stallion issues" of my horse magazines, and I started out with nine stallions and have finally got the choice down to only two stallions. Now I feel "stuck" and can't decide between them, they are both so wonderful, so I hope you will help me figure out what to do.

They are both gorgeous and big and have great movement and their owners both say that they both have very sweet dispositions and are so gentle that they can be handled by children. There is a little difference in their stud fees but not enough to matter a whole lot. Both are available only through Artificial Insemination, but that is fine because my mare can't get hurt or kicked, and since I don't want to send her away somewhere I would have to use Artificial Insemination anyway! So both stallions are basically "even" in my judgement. The main difference is that one is much older, which is good because his videotape showed a lot of his foals, not just little foals but older horses too. He is almost 20 and still sound, they still ride him. The other one is only 6 so doesn't have very many foals for me to see on the video, and they are all under a year. He is not sound, he went for testing and got injured and couldn't finish the testing, so he isn't "approved" in his Registry. That doesn't bother me because I just want a foal for me to bring up and love and train and ride, he won't ever be for sale.

Here is my problem. I am worried that the older stallion might not have good "genetic material" any more(you know what I am talking about, but I can't use the right words because if I do, I worry that AOL won't let the message go through). One of my friends says that you get a better foal from a younger stallion and a younger mare. Since my mare is almost 14, I am worried about breeding two "old" horses together and increasing the risks of birth defects because all of their "genetic material" is old. So it would make more sense to breed my mare to the young stallion. BUT now my sister who used to work at a farm that bred Thoroughbreds (both of these stallions are Warmbloods, not Thoroughbreds), says that the older stallion should be fine and that he is a better breeding stallion because he is "proven" (because of all his foals) and because he did a lot of competing etc. and he is still sound, so he is a better horse than the younger stallion that was injured.

I can see her reasoning, but basically I'm just not sure that it's fair to condemn a horse and call him "unsound" just because he had an accident when he was very young and then couldn't be ridden or competed. Since he is younger and my mare is older, wouldn't that be a better bet, in terms of genetic material? I've heard that if I choose an old stallion, it could be harder for the mare to stay pregnant. Is that true? What do you think about these two stallions? Which one should I choose? Which one do you think that YOU would choose? I have been a HORSE-SENSE reader for five years, so I know that you will have some really good advice even if it's not what I expect. I learn a lot from HORSE-SENSE, I like how you make me work hard to keep up!

Thank you in advance, Betsy

Stallion-shopping is such fun, isn't it? I've`just been encouraging a friend of mine to plan to sit down with all of those "stallion issues" of magazines and spend her winter picking out the ones she likes best.

I can't tell you which stallion you should choose, but if I were you, here are a few things I'd be thinking about.

• Which of those two stallions is more likely to cross well on YOUR MARE? You're not buying the stallion or a small replica of the stallion, you're buying SOME (not all!) of his genes. If you aren't sure whether either stallion makes nice foals with mares that look and move like YOUR mare, now would be a good time to find out. You might send the stallion owners photos and a video of your mare, and ask them what they think. Reputable owners of stallions are always interested in breeding their stallions to attractive, sound, nice mares, but if they've had much experience, they know that their stallions do best with certain types of mares. If they're trying to build, or to maintain, the reputation of their stallion, they'll want to try to "stack the deck" (which is, after all, what breeding is all about) in their favour (and yours!) by breeding their stallion only to mares that are likely to be good matches for him. So your question, to each of those two stallion owners, should be "Here is my mare, do you think that your stallion would be a good match for her?" The best stallion owners I know WILL tell you "No" if they think the match isn't a good one. Some will even help you out by suggesting a different stallion - maybe another one of theirs, or maybe one that belongs to someone else.

• The age issue is a bit of a red herring, really. A healthy twenty-year-old stallion is going to be producing sperm that are just as "good" as those produced by a healthy six-year-old stallion. Their quantity may be less, but breeding to an older stallion isn't going to increase the probability of a foal being born deformed. Similarly, your mare's age isn't a problem in terms of the quality of her eggs - if she has some "bad eggs", they aren't going to create a deformed foal, they just won't be viable. Many older mares - much older than yours - continue to produce lovely foals year after year after year... Talk to your vet about mare management, not just during pregnancy but during the months before and during breeding season.

• AI is getting more straightforward all the time, but it may take you more than one cycle to get your mare in foal. Be prepared, financially and emotionally, for that possibility. If I were you, I would sit down and compare the terms and wording of the two shipped semen contracts. You may find that even if the stud fee itself is the same for both stallions, the details - collection fees, shipping fees, Equitainer deposit fees, collection dates, etc. - may make one stallion effectively much more expensive than the other - especially if the process takes more than one cycle...

• Before you put away your calculator, talk to your vet about who will DO the AI, and when, and where, and how much it will cost you. Successful AI is very dependent on successful, which is to say constant and accurate, monitoring of the mare's heat cycle and follicular status. This requires an experienced vet, so don't just assume that your vet will automatically be an equine reproductive specialist. ASK! During every cycle, there may be three or four or five days when your vet will need to check your mare twice daily by palpation, ultrasound, or both. This can be quite costly, and there's another ting you'll need to consider: board expenses! Unless your vet lives next door or just a few miles down the road, he's unlikely to want to schedule twice-daily visits to your farm - and even if he were willing, the cost would probably be terrifyingly high. It will probably cost you less to pay board for your mare at your veterinarian's farm or at another farm near your veterinarian, but these are all things that you'll need to consider in advance, and figure into your budget.

The question of choosing between the old, sound stallion with a performance record, and the young, unsound stallion with no performance record, can be complicated. Of course it's entirely possible that the young stallion just had terribly bad luck, and that his own body, movement, and genetic heritage had nothing at all to do with the accident that ended his performance career before it began. But it's also possible that there could be a genetic weakness somewhere in his body (or mind) that caused or precipitated or led to the accident. Let's leave the Warmbloods for a moment and talk Thoroughreds - you can discuss this with your sister. ;-) Out of any group of TB colts in racing training, some will never race (they'll be too slow, or too uninterested, or they'll sustain an injury whilst they're still in training). Some will race, sustain injuries, and - depending on the severity of the injury - retire or be sold, possibly to be recycled into other careers. A third group will race and remain sound - and some members of THIS group will also WIN races. Why? Better quality? Stronger? Luckier?

Warmblood colts will divide into similar groups - many will never make it to the stallion testing, some will get there but will be injured before or during the testing, and some will go through the testing process without injury and then embark on, or continue, their competitive careers. Again, why? Better quality? Stronger? Luckier?

Given a choice between a young stallion that had, for whatever reason, been injured, and another, much older stallion that had managed to remain sound through many years of riding (racing OR competition), I would personally choose the older stallion. I realize that when a young horse is injured in training, or early in its career, the injury may be the fault of the trainer or rider, and there may be absolutely NOTHING wrong with the horse itself. But your question was, what would I do in your place? As the young stallion has just a few foals on the ground, and none are tested performers of competition age, I couldn't be entirely sure that he had no inherent weakness (that a foal might inherit). If he were an older stallion and had sired many foal crops over many years, with no corresponding weakness showing up in his offspring, then his injury wouldn't bother me, and I might very well choose to breed to him. But if, as in your situation, an older stallion has proven himself not just by winning races or competitions, but by REMAINING SOUND for many years whilst racing or competing actively, I can be sure that I'm looking at an exceptional animal. Thus, your older stallion would move to the top of my stallion list - provided, of course, that I could be reasonably sure that he woulc cross well on the particular mare I was considering breeding to him! (See #1 above.)

I hope this helps you and doesn't just confuse you more. Talk with your vet, talk to the stallion owner(s) about your mare and their stallion(s), look closely at the contracts, and you'll make the right decision. Good luck!

Oh, and one more thing - consider the possibility that you may want to revise your list in a few months! Remember, you've been working from last year's "stallion issues", and unless you've allowed all of your horse magazine subscriptions to lapse, there will be a whole new group of "wish books" arriving in your mailbox in December and January... ;-)

Jessica

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