by Christy Howard Parsons

 

            As the sales market for young horses becomes tougher, the decision about who to breed your mare to becomes more critical. While only a crystal ball can determine how any given foal will turn out from an individual cross, there are excellent tools available to the broodmare owner to help sort the facts from the fiction in stallion promotion.

            The most comprehensive tool is the Stallion REPORT on The Walking Horse Report Online (www.walkinghorsereport.com). The Walking Horse Report’s horse show database includes over 325 horse shows in 2007 from across the country including 25 states and Canada. Points are awarded to their sires based on how they performed (first place is 10 points at a single point show, second place is nine, etc.). Most horse shows are single point shows. Shows judged by a panel of three or more judges are double points. The Celebration is the only triple point show.

            Once the points from all the show horses in 2007 are tallied, the sires are ranked in a number of different ways. After tallying all the horses in all the classes, the sires are ranked for the overall category. José José led this rank for 2007 with 15,114 points earned by the 265 offspring that he had in the show ring in 2007. Those 265 offspring showed 1,417 times in 2007. Thus you can see that José José’s average points per offspring is 57.0.  You can also examine his average points per performance. On average José José’s offspring earn 10.7 points every time they enter the ring. Considering that first place awards 10 points at most shows, 20 at judging panel shows and 30 points at the Celebration, this is quite an impressive average.

            If you’d like additional detail, you can click on José José to get a complete breakdown of where his 15,114 points came from. First this will return for you a complete list of the 265 offspring that he had in the show ring and the number of points earned by each of those offspring. If you’d like even more detail, you can click on the individual offspring and see a breakdown of the individual shows where they performed and what ribbon they were awarded.

            There are many ways to review this overall category. You can click on the APG column (average points per get) and resort the list to see who had the highest average points per get. Removing the benefit of having lots of offspring in the show ring, this is a great way to analyze the consistency of how a stallion’s offspring are performing. This comparison does favor the stallions with a very small number of offspring who have performed well, particularly those who sired horses that show often. For example, All Skywatch sired Maybe I’m Maybelline who showed 45 times in 2007 to earn 647 points.

            Another means of analysis would be to sort the list by the number of get in the show ring, then analyze the average points per get.  If you move down the list to review the horses with fewer than 50 offspring in the show ring, you’ll find some outstanding sires that while they produce fewer horses, have wonderfully consistent results. Silver Design, for example, had 38 offspring in the show ring in 2007. But those offspring earned an average of 77.5 points. If you want to see the individual offspring that contributed to the point total, you can click on his name and analyze the results.

            So far, we’ve only been using the overall category for analysis. Another interesting category is the Emerging Stallion Results. This category only considers two and three-year-old classes in ranking the stallions to really highlight the up and coming stallions who are in the highest demand in the most recent breeding seasons.

            Or you can choose to break down the results by any of the high point categories. If you dream of owning the next World Grand Champion Tennessee Walking Horse, perhaps you only want to analyze the results in the Walking Horse Championship category. Gen’s Armed And Dangerous leads this category with 543 points earned by his 16 offspring that showed in Walking Horse Championship classes in 2007.

            Even in the weekly results online, the breeder can see the sire and dam of each of the horses when reviewing his show record. The Walking Horse Report Online and The Stallion REPORT are valuable tools for the broodmare owner. But after talking to breeding experts, the Walking Horse Report decided to further expand the tools available to the breeder in 2008.

            Coming in March 2008, there will be a new Sibling Search and a new Progeny Search. The breeder will be able to enter the bloodline of his broodmare, choose prospective sires, and review the recent show records of any full or half siblings.

            The Progeny Search will enable the breeder to enter the bloodline of his broodmare and see a list of how the different sires rank in the points with that individual bloodline.

            And when you find your perfect matches, the stallions will have easy access banners right beside the list where you can immediately get more information about stud fee prices, mare care, and more.

            Now making a better breeding decision is as easy as clicking on www.walkinghorsereport.com. These breeding tools are available free to Walking Horse Report subscribers who have upgraded to the complete online content. If you aren’t a Walking Horse Report online subscriber, you can become one by paying the $25 annual upgrade to your print subscription, or you can become a print and online subscriber for only $75. With the cost of breeding a prospective champion, it’s a smart investment in accessing the best breeding tools available in this industry.

            If you have additional questions about these breeding tools, or about subscribing online, please contact us at info@walkinghorsereport.com.