Personality characteristics of closely related horses.

Meowy Catkin

Meowy Catkin

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I know that this is quite obvious in a way, as we breed for physical characteristics all the time and of course closely related horses are bound to inherit personality traits too.

Anyhoo - I was looking at the ads again (I enjoy browsing them) and read an ad for a young ridden arab. I thought 'he sounds just like my gelding' and then I looked at the photos closely and thought 'he may be a different colour, but he looks like an older version of my gelding.' Low and behold when I looked at the breeding, they are by the same sire.

If anyone's looking for a horse that just loves, loves, loves doing stuff and is really, really uber keen all the flipping time, then click here. :p
http://www.horsedeals.co.uk/horses-for-sale/allrounder-horse/Sahir-Forever--Cody-__26-11-13-126562
 
I owned full brothers once. They couldn't have had more different personalities!

They were physically dissimilar too, except for their heads, which were an identical shape.
 
You find this alotin TB's on the racing front. From my own experience Quws horses are leathal and not in a good way. Dancing High's have a reputation for being nutters, Supreme Leader's are either natural jumpers or they really aren't, no middle ground. Saddler's Hall's are gutless - if they win they win well, if they get headed they give up. Sadler's Wells have a fun side. Beneficials are as genuine as they come.

This is just a few of the horses that we have had from the same sires. We have had a few from the same dams with different sires and they are the same, share chracteristics.
 
There's a mare at the yard who is identical to her sire, she has his head even though her mums a TB and whorls on the same spots etc and the same personality. Everyone always thought he was the way he was because he was a stallion but shes the exact same, really in your face, same habits and nothing phases her:)
 
Having run a biggish stud farm (Trakehner dressage horses) for a long time and breeding many foals that were by the same stallions/out of the same dams I have to say that only a very few, super stamping horses could be said to have produced very similar personalities. There were some traits that could be identified in families; trainability (or not) being most prominent. I think in TB breeding traits are easier to identify because they are so close bred and have been assessed for such a long time under testing conditions.
 
we have 2 4YO by the same stallion, the lady who schools them for us says they are very similar in some ways, both bold and confident & large striding. ( very similar in terms of colour and markings too) and they both have a very similar technique over a jump.

The mare is faster, and quicker thinking, and sharper. So although they share some personality traits, they are very different to ride. My gelding just seems to take things at a slower pace, which is fine by me:)

Lovely looking horse on the ad:)
 
I've got a full brother and sister aged 3 and 4. They are about an inch apart in height atm but I expect the 3yo will catch up with his sister. They are by a sec A out of a Shettie x miniature horse (not my idea to breed that combination). The mare looks like a sec A x Shettie but the gelding is a little bit finer, I think that is the miniature horse coming through. The gelding loves cuddles and scratches, the mare is fine to be groomed etc but isn't impressed by any cuddly stuff. The gelding is naturally more spooky than the mare, things like loading in the trailer and walking out in hand on the road the mare does without a second thought but the gelding made quite a big deal of them in the beginning.
 
Alflora seems to really stamp his offspring- Reg is almost identical to him, and this summer was in a RoR class against another Alflora gelding, and the only real difference in their appearance was Reg was about 6 inches taller. They also appear to have quite similar personality traits- slightly neurotic but if well managed very easy to handle, and very sweet horses.
 
Cortez said:
Having run a biggish stud farm (Trakehner dressage horses) for a long time and breeding many foals that were by the same stallions/out of the same dams I have to say that only a very few, super stamping horses could be said to have produced very similar personalities. There were some traits that could be identified in families; trainability (or not) being most prominent. I think in TB breeding traits are easier to identify because they are so close bred and have been assessed for such a long time under testing conditions.
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I would agree. I've worked on quite a few breeding farms (including a Trakehner one) including a couple who stood their own stallions and so had a large pool of closely related horses, and with a couple of sport studbooks. I'd say you do see patterns in families and there are a small number of very prepotent mares and even fewer stallions, but siblings are no more likely to be similar than in humans. Like cptrayes, I've had full siblings to start that were almost complete opposites, even when they were obviously related. Breeding is a numbers game, about fixing characteristics within a population, but that doesn't mean every individual will be predictable.

That said, there are lines/horses that pique my interest because I can see they are prepotent for characteristics I like, but that requires a large sample size to even begin to recognise. I think more often people meet two or three horses with a common ancestor and extrapolate conclusions that would not stand up to wider observations.
 
One has since sold, but I did have a pair of full sisters. They look completely different - one looks like their dam, the other like their sire. They are, however, so similar in their personalities and share lots of little quirks.
 
Think about it: are you similar in personality to all of your full siblings (if you have any)? My sister and I share a few traits, but we're really very different in most ways. We're certainly physically very different!

My new mare is the full sister (1 year older) of the Spooky Pony's best friend from his old yard, with whom he has done quite a few endurance rides. So I know her brother pretty well, having watched him be brought up from a yearling (he's 6 now). They share many physical characteristics in terms of colour and conformation, but she's a lot beefier (and a bit taller) than he is. Mentally, they're both "freeze-and-stare" types, but I'd say she's probably sharper than he is. Their upbringing is very different, so no idea how that has influenced things! The biggest similarities I've noticed are subtleties of facial expression and body language. For example, both of them do a weird sort of stretch with one hind leg at a time, very cat-like and unusual-looking. First time I saw that, I thought, "Yup, that's the Normally Grey Pony's sister all right!" :D (She, too, is normally grey. :p )
 
My two foundation mares stamp their stock heavily. Every foal they've ever had has clearly been theirs. The foals all have similar looks and are always of identical type and movement to their mothers and the most noticeable trait they all hold is their natures are identical to each other. Doesn't seem to matter which stallion I put these two girls to, the foals are always heavily influenced by these two mothers.
 
I ride full sisters. The eldest one, J if she was a person would be wearing to much make up, staying out late, rolling up her skirt and doing her homework at the breakfast table. P would be Head girl, straight A's. Always on time and homework handed in early. No make up, knee length skirt and sensible shoes :biggrin3: they look very similar from a distance and I have had trouble telling them apart but close up P is about 2 inches bigger than J.
 
My boy looks identical to his sire and really stamps his stock both in terms of looks and temperament. Only had one foal so far that looked more like the dam. I find it fascinating :)
 
Ive had 3 welsh c's (cheshmere stud) in the past all very closely related but all totally different in personality though looks wise very similar
 
Had 2 fillies by the TB stallion Afzal out of the same mare, really spooky, nervy horses, there half sister by Buzzard's Bay was a dope on a rope, those two fillies must have taken after their father lol
 
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