What are Breeding Values?
September 8, 2010A breeding vaule is an estimate of genetic quality.
How does it work?
Using Breeding Values is a way of calculating the likely genetic influence parents will have on their offspring, and sporthorse breeders use these as building blocks to keep improving theri horses over the generations so they produce horses with solid foundations enableing them to compete at top level sport and the lesser horses are able to compete at a reasonable level and therefore have a higher value.
How do we get the information?
There are three factors that are taken into account:
- The parents. (records of all family members i.e. brothers, sisters, grandparents)
- The evaluated youngstock.
- Performance & results.
For example – if you wish to produce a showjumper and have a mare of unknown breeding who can jump and you use a stallion who can jump but also of unknown breeding the likelihood of producing a good showjumper are chancy, but if you put that mare to a stallion of known jumping breeding whose ancestors all jump, and are known to produce offspring that jump your chances are greatly increased. If you use a mare with the three factors as well your chancees are increased again and if continue to pursue this policy through subsequent generations you increase your chances of producing top class horses.
Why grade?
By grading your horse with a recognized stud book you are able to compare your animal against the average and receive information as to suitability as a stallion or brood mare on the good and bad points of conformation, temperment and ability which all form part of the breeding values and will enable you to pick the best possible match for your horse.
The very top stud books maintain data bases of of the graded animals which enable you to compare the genetic quality of individuals when making your choice of stallion or mare this enables you to pick animals that are strong in areas that yours are not so good.
Whats Reliability?
As more information becomes available ,the breeding values become more reliable and when they are between 60% and 70 % it becomes much more likely that the youngstock that are produced will go on to become the dressage horses and show jumpers of the future.
What next?
As data is accumulated it will provide the information which will enable you to have a solid foundation of mares and stallions for the future. It will allow you to keep track of the progeny you have produced and registered and within five to ten years show you which of your animals are higher breeding horses producing better quality offspring with a reliability for dressage, showjumping or eventing.
This is a positve way forward to bring buyers to our shores, help widen the horse breeding industry in the UK and take us into breeding on a par with are overseas cousins.
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