What to look for in a broodmare

Navalgem

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What is the most important things you consider in buying or deciding to breed from a mare?

How important is performance, pedigree, proven or unproven, conformation, soundness from say an injury rather than hereditary or conformation?
 
I would say first and foremost - conformation. You can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear no matter how good the pedigree might be. I would also almost never use an unproven stallion unless his conformation was good and complimented the mares conformation.
 
Conformation for the job you want, trainability/temperment. Though a bad temperment can be man made. I would prefer known breeding as you never know what throwback you might get! But have been lucky with 2 todate.

Competition record not bothered if they can perform at home & on practice days thats fine. Competiting is so expensive now, not everyone has a money tree available to them or the time. I also prefer straight movement with good use of hocks.

At the end of the day depends on the job you are breeding the offspring for. What one person things as unsuitable another wont, especially if you pick the right stallion. This is where known breeding helps. You can always check out what others have done. Noticed for instance (due to high usage) that there are a lot of Clover Hill mares put to Cruising.
 
conformation and temperment, its taken me four years to find my girls and i feel lucky to own them, all are sweet hearts, my 3yro son adores them and they him, i can trust them not to hhurt him, there breeding is also a plus, most bred to jump, celano, jus de pomme etc and dressage, diamond, pik senior.
 
Agree with Magic totally but for me, temperament of the mare is almost as important too, whatever you are breeding for but most particularly if it's for yourself, because if I have to deal with her, I want her to be a nice person to handle; it makes life so much more pleasant and manageable.
 
What is the most important things you consider in buying or deciding to breed from a mare?.......

I've typed out a whole diatribe, and then realised that the words "always", and "never" appeared far to often. I'll start again!!

I think that it's all a matter of balance, in our considerations, when scoring a mare, as to her desirability.

I would "tend" towards the following considerations.
1. Her natural ability to perform at the desired discipline. This would be age dependent.
2. Her willingness to give, when more is asked of her. Difficult one this. Again age dependent, but many mares who perform at the top level, will be quirky, and not everyone's ride. If a 3 yo was put in foal, and then backed, and proved to be impossible, then that would be chalked down to experience. On the other hand, she may well, in the right, or even other hands, improve in time.
3. Her pedigree, from an historical performance viewpoint? Not, in my view, the holy grail, but with a degree of well thought out history, then yes it would have some bearing. Many stud owners, with a band of brood mares, will put pedigree at the top of the list. They will probably accept success and failure, as part of their plans. The owners with small numbers, will be able to be a little more selective, perhaps. I know of an Advanced Eventing TB mare, who has no sport horse breeding to recommend her, but who has none the less produced some very useful youngsters.

I actually think, and it's an awful cliche, but it's about "ticking boxes", and balancing one quality, or flaw, against the other. It may also be true, that if you really are able to take an objective view of the mare, and if you really fancy her, then do it, regardless of her "scores"!!

At best, it's all something of a puzzle, and I suspect that dogmatic and entrenched views, will all to often select the less than successful, and discard those mares, which in reality would be ideal. There will be those who are highly successful, who will disagree with me. I suppose that we do what we think is best.

Alec.
 
Going off at a bit of a tangent here..... but I think it's curious that some horses are bred say from stallion Y and mare Z and compete, then the same cross is used purely for breeding, I wonder whether ET will decrease the incidence of this? For example Nadiminka is full sister to Oki Doki, she's gained the Keur predicate therefore had to pass a KWPN performance test - though to my knowledge she never competed.

Even with using same stallion and mare, the products might be different, even with known breeding?

I think for me pedigree and conformation are equal, then temperament then comp record and records of progeny if the mare is proven.

I do also agree with Alec, that no matter how good a horse is on paper or ability, if they are unwilling to work then they too are unsuitable.

I know someone with a fantastic mare, nice conf, well bred, excellent ability but she can be either brilliant or crap in her attitude. The owners want to use a sharp horse over her but then surely you could get a temperament of sharp and awkward which would be a disaster. Is it worth the risk and money?
 
I think what must also be added in addition to the above is that gut instinct which you cannot ignore of whether the mare is good or not (as with stallion). Besides all other things there should be something to make you feel like you WANT to breed from her.

As regards siblings....there are quite a few examples of full siblings not succeeding as well....Primmores Pride and Primmores Pioneer for one....also, one only has to look to Ireland to see perfect examples of stallions and mares with no performance and in many cases even grading records, that have proved to be great progenitors that have changed the face of some sports.

As regards your friend's mare Navalgem, I would certainly be looking for something with an even, willing temperament to go on her as the mixture of sharp and willful on sharp could be disastrous or successful but personally I would rather hedge my bets and find a stallion that might hopefully sedate her sharpness and add in the willingness to work.
 
1 good limb conformation. Thing like a bit long in the back etc don't worry me, but they must have good limbs and feet.
2 Good temperement
3 competition record or proven competiton blood lines.
4 Pick a stallion with conformation which may improve your mare's faults.

I can't believe the mares that some people breed with, poor conformation etc then the foal comes out with the same faults as it's dam. Even if a mare has the best bloodlines, it has to have good conformation and hopefully a better chance of breeding sound offspring.
Breeding isn't cheap and I've seen it all too often thousands of pounds spent to breed something very average and not worth a great deal.
 
as with another poster i go for conformation first, it is compatible with soundness and then it follows there will be outstanding movement, which combines ease of locomotion with agility, i want good looks, look at me attitude, a fighters way of approaching life, toughness mental and phyical, and brains put this all together with boldness and quality of tb type you have a mare better than most stallions
the problem for me is i don't like a lot of the competition horse stallions they lack in conformation, sheer type and are too big or have coldblood origins, the stud books confine breeders with regs when we should be free to use our own sense of judgement when selecting a sire, without prejudicing the future possibility of being able to compete, and confining the gene pool at the same time.
pieces of of paper are just that, if a mare is really outstanding the she must have inherited it from somewhere, nothing on the face of the earth would convince me to breed from a not too good mare however good its papers.
in my experience if the mare is outstanding the problem is finding a stallion good enough for her, she is the one to use for experimental crosses and take breeding into the future and one step further, this requires much thought and not following fashion, or breeding to sell, for me success in breeding is when what i breed i keep for myself because i know in my heart it is a special horse that i could not go out and buy elsewhere
 
As above, but I also rate fertility as a must in a broodmare! Ideally I want mares who take first time AI with frozen semen and need no sedation for the AI procedures/scanning etc. You'd be surprised at the amount of stress a good broodmare can save!
 
Conformation is important, however IMO knowing the confo and traits that bloodlines tend to throw is equally important. If you know the confo of the parents of the mare then that is a huge help. My mare for instance, is slightly offset through one knee and toes in slightly on the same foot, she is also ever so slightly tied in behind the knee. She has a fabulous shoulder and length of rein and one of the best walks you'll ever see and a very active hind leg. She's a little upright through the hocks, but will jump the moon. Neither of her parents had this front leg confo, though her sire was also a little upright through his hind leg. She has produced a County level winner in-hand and also a BEF Futurity Champion and also another who was county placed in it's only outing. I took a gamble in breeding from her and chose stallions proven to throw stock with good front limbs. I didn't breed this mare, but if I had, I doubt she'd toe in, as I would have had the farrier to see her feet as a youngster, which I know she didn't.

Aside from conformation, temperament is paramount. Temperament for me is attitude on the ground and when ridden, trainability and general amenability with humans and other horses. I would never breed from anything grouchy and grumpy lol I don't care what it's comp record might be like - no thanks.

Competition record isn't the be all and end all in mares. Most of the very best brood mares are never ridden.
 
Personally I want it all, conformation, soundness, trainability and bloodlines. performance record is the only thing I dont mind not having, as long as there is a reason there isnt one, like the mare became a broodmare early on. A good performance record is good to have, or I want to see it in the motherline.

But I think it is all relative to the market you are breeding for. I know that some of the horses I work with, would be too quirky or sharp for your average rider, but they can jump! and in the right hands are getting the training they need. I also know I wouldnt want that type of horse in my own stable, but I am not breeding Olympic show jumpers. And I see which bloodlines give you those quirks and therefore I would avoid them - thats where the knowledge of your horses bloodlines is important.
 
As I am currently on the lookout for broodmares I am finding this thread very interesting.

Firstly I would have to look for conformation & movement (even though it is well documented that the best competition horses don't have great confo)

secondly temperament as has been said it is no good having great looking mares if they aren't trainable

how easily she is to get in foal (if a proven mare), this can keep costs down and reduce stress if she is easy to get in foal but it isn't the end of the world if it takes more than one cycle to get in foal.

tbh good breeding is a bonus but if their confo was awful I wouldn't breed them.

performance record, grading is also bonus.

I'm looking for tb types, ID possibly, warmblood types am hoping to purchase good quality hannovarian filly this year.
 
I would say my first broodmare chose me! Walked upto me in a field as a two year old and put her head in my arms.
Seriously she attracted me to look at her first for her bloodlines, the family was already proving itself as very trainable and fertile, had a reputation for taking first time which in those days I felt was herditary to a degree (25yrs ago) and was winning in the show ring so conformation must be reasonable. She wasnt perfect, a bit short legged, but deep in the body a real old fashoned stamp and in my budget.
She did go on and have 6 lovely foals until sadly dieing on the last foaling, gave me my 1st stallion, 1st advanced event mare and was grandmother to my present stallion. Interestingly she took first time all bar one time, so economical to cover as well.
 
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