Eothain
Well-Known Member
Right! So I was a bit worried about my Classic Vision mare this year as I don't want to breed her to a Thoroughbred again for a while yet I had drilled it into my head that she hadn't enough blood for a Sport Horse stallion.
This got me to thinking about something John Watson said at a breeding seminar I was at recently and how to work the percentage of blood in mares and stallions and the resulting offspring!
The results were quite fascinating really.
I went back through the pedigree to find the thoroughbred crosses and especially on the Draught stallions to see which horses brought about the most quality. It was tricky to do in places because of the high level of unrecorded pedigrees but I think my results are pretty accurate!
I'll use some stallions as an example.
The King Of Diamonds is arguably the most famous ID stallion of all time! Yet he is genetically approx 32% TB breeding!!! He's by Errigal who himself is 14% TB approx and out of a mare called Ruby that is 50% TB. Now Ruby is by True Boy but because of missing pedigree info, he has to be taken as 100% ID. So taking the 14% or 14.0625% to be precise of Errigal and adding it to Ruby's 50% we get 64%. Divide it by two and we get 32% - the percentage of blood that is Ireland's most famous Draught stallion!!!
It turns out my Classic Vision mare is 52.4% TB! So I'm breeding her to the Cruising stallion Cougar this year and he turns out to be 81.25% TB. The resulting foal ends up at 66.825% TB. Enough blood for anything really!
So, if anybody is interested, I'll give you the blood percentages of some other stallions now. Finding blood percentages for Continentally-bred stallions is quite difficult. I took Trakenhers and Anglo-Arabs to contribute as much blood as actual Thoroughbreds. Right or wrong, I don't know but I won't give my approx results for them just in case I'm a mile out.
Cruising (Sea Crest @37.5% - Mullacrew @87.5%) = 62.5% TB
Classic Vision (Ginger Dick @39% - Lady Glen @~11.375%) = 25% TB
Laughton's Flight/Errigal Flight (K.O.D @32% - Highlight II @~57%) = 44.5% TB
Cougar (Cruising @62.5% - Rain Star @100%) = 81.25% TB
Flagmount Diamond (K.O.D @32% - Gowran Betty @~12.5%) = 22.5% TB
Puissance (Imperius @100% - Lady Marlene @47.5%) = 73.75% TB
I've a Duca Di Busted mare that is 79.875% TB. She's in foal to Puissance. The resulting foal will be 76.8% TB. On seeing that statistic, my fingers are now crossed for a colt who might grow up to be a stallion!
The Classic Vision mare is actually a daughter of that Duca Di Busted mare and she's in foal to the Thoroughbred stallion Sirillo. That foal ends up with a blood percentage of 76.2%
I'm not sure what that means going forward but, it's certainly something to consider. We say that the more blood, the better for Eventing but Showjumping needs blood too. Not in the same way of course. Going through the pedigrees of some International competitors, it seems that generally speaking, the straight use of Thoroughbred stallions is better for Eventing while for Jumping it is the culmulative effect of breeding blood mare to powerful jumping stallions that reap the most rewards.
It might just become a handy tool for breeders to use in the future. Obviously conformational traits and all that plays it's part too!
Anyway, enough of me rambling. I just wanted to share my results with people.
This got me to thinking about something John Watson said at a breeding seminar I was at recently and how to work the percentage of blood in mares and stallions and the resulting offspring!
The results were quite fascinating really.
I went back through the pedigree to find the thoroughbred crosses and especially on the Draught stallions to see which horses brought about the most quality. It was tricky to do in places because of the high level of unrecorded pedigrees but I think my results are pretty accurate!
I'll use some stallions as an example.
The King Of Diamonds is arguably the most famous ID stallion of all time! Yet he is genetically approx 32% TB breeding!!! He's by Errigal who himself is 14% TB approx and out of a mare called Ruby that is 50% TB. Now Ruby is by True Boy but because of missing pedigree info, he has to be taken as 100% ID. So taking the 14% or 14.0625% to be precise of Errigal and adding it to Ruby's 50% we get 64%. Divide it by two and we get 32% - the percentage of blood that is Ireland's most famous Draught stallion!!!
It turns out my Classic Vision mare is 52.4% TB! So I'm breeding her to the Cruising stallion Cougar this year and he turns out to be 81.25% TB. The resulting foal ends up at 66.825% TB. Enough blood for anything really!
So, if anybody is interested, I'll give you the blood percentages of some other stallions now. Finding blood percentages for Continentally-bred stallions is quite difficult. I took Trakenhers and Anglo-Arabs to contribute as much blood as actual Thoroughbreds. Right or wrong, I don't know but I won't give my approx results for them just in case I'm a mile out.
Cruising (Sea Crest @37.5% - Mullacrew @87.5%) = 62.5% TB
Classic Vision (Ginger Dick @39% - Lady Glen @~11.375%) = 25% TB
Laughton's Flight/Errigal Flight (K.O.D @32% - Highlight II @~57%) = 44.5% TB
Cougar (Cruising @62.5% - Rain Star @100%) = 81.25% TB
Flagmount Diamond (K.O.D @32% - Gowran Betty @~12.5%) = 22.5% TB
Puissance (Imperius @100% - Lady Marlene @47.5%) = 73.75% TB
I've a Duca Di Busted mare that is 79.875% TB. She's in foal to Puissance. The resulting foal will be 76.8% TB. On seeing that statistic, my fingers are now crossed for a colt who might grow up to be a stallion!
The Classic Vision mare is actually a daughter of that Duca Di Busted mare and she's in foal to the Thoroughbred stallion Sirillo. That foal ends up with a blood percentage of 76.2%
I'm not sure what that means going forward but, it's certainly something to consider. We say that the more blood, the better for Eventing but Showjumping needs blood too. Not in the same way of course. Going through the pedigrees of some International competitors, it seems that generally speaking, the straight use of Thoroughbred stallions is better for Eventing while for Jumping it is the culmulative effect of breeding blood mare to powerful jumping stallions that reap the most rewards.
It might just become a handy tool for breeders to use in the future. Obviously conformational traits and all that plays it's part too!
Anyway, enough of me rambling. I just wanted to share my results with people.
