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www.drivingdigest.com 22 Winter 2018 • Haflinger Horse
When I was asked to write this article, I first politely refused, then suggested that someone else might want to be asked. However, after acknowledging the successful, impactful breeders before us, I confirmed with myself that we are nonetheless mindful breeders who do have something to offer. We’ve had success as the breeder of the first American-bred gold classified stallion (Niagara YES) and other attractive, functional, and athletic horses. We’ve also produced “high hopes” horses whose form to function conformation may not have been 100% but who served as useful, trainable, athletic performance horses just the same. Any breeder who tells you they have never been surprised by the results of a cross is one who isn’t ready to share the whole story. I sometimes think back to a family I knew – human, not equine. Both parents as well as three of their four children had less than super model looks. The fourth child, however, could have been selected as the year’s sexiest man alive! It perplexed everyone how such a good-looking child could come of the same parents. As the years went by, the son began to look more like the dad and genetics held true, confirming a phrase we live by here on our farm – you plant corn, you get corn! That being said, a Gold Classified stallion crossed with a Gold Classified mare does not always result in a Gold offspring. And, while you may come close, chances are you’ll never get exactly the same horse in looks, ability, or attitude when breeding for full siblings. Our stallion selection process is first somewhat controlled by the availability of the semen via chilled or frozen
semen. We have used live cover on occasion, but have found our preference to be artificial insemination, so typically give those stallions preference. Next, we compare the mare and stallion pedigrees to check for signs of close breeding and eliminate stallions based on bloodlines that may be a little too close. Ideally, we like to see the stallion in person. Our horses are shown in the pleasure arena, so it’s important to us that offspring have long, ground covering strides as well as the hindquarter construction for a future in the hunter/jumper arena. Therefore, we like to look at stallions at a walk, trot and canter as well as from a standstill. Many times, this it’s done watching the stallion in the show ring and at liberty. I will never forget the relief I felt when I finally saw a potential stallion in person who I had seriously contemplated using, based solely off his beautiful ads. Like any photo, the picture told a thousand words, but it didn’t tell it all. That was a lesson learned – see the stallion in person whenever possible. Perfect horses are hard, make that impossible, to come by, so we pick and choose our priorities (i.e. nice head, good hindquarters, etc.) This is where Step #3 comes in – utilizing the AHR classification program as the useful tool it is intended to be. We’re lucky to be able to visit the AHR website free of charge and look up the scores for stallions anytime and then compare those individual categories to the scores of our mares. With improvement of the offspring being the goal, we typically will not use a stallion whose scores are less than the mares unless those areas are few and our mare’s score is substantial enough to at least meet at
