The Bottom Side

Top breeders have always paid close attention to the “bottom side” of a horse’s pedigree—a horse’s mare family—and with good reasons.

By CHRISTINE HAMILTON

ansas-born rancher K and horseman Garth Gardiner remembers the first yearling he and his wife, Amanda, sold at the National Reined Cow Horses Association Snaffle Bit Futurity® Sale, almost 20 years ago in Reno, Nevada. It was a filly by Gallo Del Cielo, aka “Rooster,” out of an unproven Docs Stylish Oak mare.

“I thought she looked great,” he recalled. “But I didn’t know anything about trying to market or sell yearlings.

“As we were at the stall, people would ask what has the mare produced, and I was like, ‘Why is everyone so caught up with what the mare has produced? This is a nice filly.’ ”

He remembers her selling well, but the experience made the Gardiners think hard on the broodmare side of the pedigrees of the horses they wanted to raise.

“I always thought a good individual, is a good individual,” said Gardiner, who now lives in Whitesboro, Texas. “Until we got into the business of selling

///// THE SIDES

DIAMONDS SPARKLE, largely through her son, Shining Spark (by Genuine Doc), and daughter, Sparkles Rosezana (by Zan Parr Bar), has had a huge influence on the reined cow horse breeding industry. Top side, sire line: In a horse’s bracket pedigree, the “top side” is the sire’s family. When breeders talk about the “sire line” they specifically mean the uppermost line of the bracket through the generations—the sire, paternal grandsire, great-grandsire, etc. For example, Diamonds Sparkle is by Mr Diamond Dude, by Blondy’s Dude, by Small Town Dude, by King P-231, etc. It’s also called the tail male line. Bottom side, mare line: In a bracket pedigree, the “bottom side” is the dam’s family. When breeders talk about a horse’s “mare line” or “mare family,” they specifically mean the bottommost line of the bracket. For example, Diamonds Sparkle is out of Pollyanna Rose (by Clabber Question), out of Irene Vee (by Bert Barton), etc. It’s also called the tail female line.

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SIRE MARE

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SHINEY TARI, a 2000 mare by Shining Spark and out of Tarizana, by Taris Catalyst, is the National Reined Cow Horse Association’s all-time leading dam by foal performance earnings. People often point to her as a prime example of Shining Spark’s success as a broodmare sire. However, it’s important to also consider her mare family.

Shiney Tari’s mare line goes back to Diamonds Sparkle, who is also Shining Spark’s 1979 American Quarter Horse Association Superhorse dam. Shiney Tari’s dam, Tarizana, is out of Sparkles Rosezana, a Zan Parr Bar daughter of Diamonds Sparkle. A top producer in her own right, Sparkles Rosezana’s performance titles include 1985 National Reining Horse Association Open Futurity Champion, 1988 AQHA Senior Working Cow Horse Reserve World Champion, 1988 AQHA All Around High Point Mare, etc.

A better summary of Shiney Tari’s pedigree might be to say she’s line bred on the top and bottom sides to the great performing and producing mare, Diamonds Sparkle.

And the mare line continues to produce. Shiney Tari’s 2012 daughter by WR This Cats Smart, Shine Smarter, was the NRCHA Top Dam of 2020 by produce performance earnings. Her daughter by Dual Rey, Selvarey, won the 2020 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Open Futurity.

Out of Shiney Tari, Smart Chic An Tari is the latest in a string of successful offspring. This 4-year-old mare is by Smart Chic Olena.

yearlings, I didn’t fully understand the importance of the broodmare in the pedigree. It makes them easier to market.”

How? Because the yearling’s genetics for success is proven on the dam side in addition to the typically better-known sire side.

“And when you have a mare that starts producing [performers], it seems to just snowball,” he added. “It’s very rare that you’ll have a mare that produces just one good one.”

SUCCESS IN MARE FAMILIES

That success runs in mare families is a fact, says Robin Glenn, director of QData, the American Quarter Horse Association pedigree and information service formerly known as Robin Glenn Pedigrees.

“In contrast, a mare is limited in the foals she can produce, even a mare that has produced multiple embryos. If she’s producing top performers every year, then that tells you that there’s a lot of strength on that bottom side.”

That’s why a standard horse sale catalog page focuses on the mare family, because it’s lesser known and holds the mare side information about a horse’s genetic potential. It offers buyers a detailed look at a catalogued horse’s mare family.

Glenn first began compiling reined cow horse data for the California Reined Cow Horse Association, which later became the NRCHA.

“I started out with blank pages [on the mares’ produce records],” she said.

Since she first began compiling performance and produce records almost 40 years ago, she’s seen the influence great mare families can have over multiple generations and across the Western performance disciplines.

What’s more, she added, if you simply look at the percentage of performers from numbers of foals, the odds of producing a performer out of a great mare can be greater than the odds of getting one by a great stallion.

“Percentage-wise, if you compare the produce records of sires and mares, you can see how much a mare can potentially contribute,” Glenn said. “Sires are capable of having 100 to 300 foals a year, and they might have one or two great ones every year.

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In Garth Gardiner’s opinion, SPARKING TRAIN is one great performer who deserves more attention as a producer from a strong mare family. A 1998 mare by Shining Spark and out of Sister Train, by Reminic, her accomplishments include earning the reserve Superhorse title at the 2007 American Quarter Horse Association World Championship Show.

Sparking Train’s get include Metallic Train, the 2018 NRCHA Stallion Stakes Open Champion; oddly enough, Sparking Train’s dam, Sister Train, was the 1992 National Reined Cow Horse Association Stallion Stakes Open Champion, further evidence of the mare line’s multi-generational strength.

“There wasn’t very much to say. All of the horses were showing under nicknames, and it was really hard to figure out who they were.”

As a whole, the Western horse industry now benefits from decades of detailed performance and produce records that have been compiled and shared across the disciplines and associations.

Glenn, with input from industry horsemen, also developed a “black type” system for the Western performance horse industry to use in produce records and sale catalogs similar to what the horse racing industry uses. A horse name listed in “black type,” or bold type, indicates show pen success, with highest level performers in all caps. It helps to quickly highlight significant performers in a horse’s record.

A more thorough view of a mare family comes through reports such as a fourgeneration dam’s produce record, which shows the performance and produce records of a mare’s female family for four generations, including the performance and produce records of her daughters, granddaughters, dam, sisters, granddam, aunts, etc. It uncovers the web of influence that great mares can have.

Glenn says both a sale catalog page and a four-generation produce record are important for breeders.

“[As a breeder], I’d want to know how [a mare’s foal is] going to ‘catalog up’ because that’s how I’m going to merchandise those foals,” she said. “I’d also want to run a [four-generation dam’s produce record] and study what sires that mare’s family had success with.

“You need to study the whole picture. Commercially, that catalog page is important because that’s how you’re going to market that horse. But, to pick your studs and decide what mares to buy, I would want the in-depth information

Above: Sparking Train, piloted here in the two-rein by Don Murphey, passed her athleticism on to her offspring. Left: Metallic Train (by Metallic Cat) has added her lifetime earnings of more than $155,000 to Sparking Train’s produce earnings of more than $428,000.

[four-generation] produce records give.”

In a career “built from mares,” she’s seen great mares continue to show up out of great mare families.

Nancy Crawford of Holy Cow Performance Horses, with programs in Santa Ynez, California, and in Weatherford, Texas, agrees. Through the years, she’s learned the power of a breeding program based on proven mare families such as Sheza Shinette (Shining Spark x Chicks And Chex x Smart Chic Olena) and Smart Crackin Chic (Smart Chic Olena x Kwackin x Dual Pep).

“[People] all focus on the stallions, but if it weren’t for the mares, the stallions wouldn’t be worth a dime,” Crawford said. “They’re the ones who produce them.”

SUCCESS IN THE RIGHT INDIVIDUAL

Glenn, Crawford and Gardiner all agree that the best broodmare genetics still

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SCR Crackalackin (a 2016 mare by Metallic Cat) took Todd Crawford to the 2020 NRCHA Eastern Derby Open Derby Champion title and added more than $26,000 to Smart Crackin Chic’s produce earnings, which are in excess of NRCHA earnings of $81,000.

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SMART CRACKIN CHIC, by Smart Chic Olena, and out of Kwackin by Dual Pep, the 2006 National Reined Cow Horse Association Snaffle Bit Futurity® Open Champion, is another mare whose daughters are in Nancy Crawford’s broodmare band based on the family’s multi-generational strength in cutting.

Kwackin’s direct mare line threads through her producing dam, Crackin (by Smart Little Lena); her granddam, Lynx Melody (by Docs Lynx), the 1979 National Cutting Horse Association Open Derby Champion who is in both the NCHA and American Quarter Horse Halls of Fame; to the family’s “taproot” mare, Trona (by Leon Bars).

Nancy Crawford points to SHEZA SHINETTE as a “monumental” mare in her breeding program. A 1998 mare by Shining Spark and out of Chicks And Chex by Smart Chic Olena, she was the 2002 American Quarter Horse Association Junior Reining World Champion with Sandy Collier, and also made the Open Finals at the 2001 National Reined Cow Horse Association Snaffle Bit and National Reining Horse Association futurities. The success of her produce has put her third on the NRCHA all-time leading dam list by foal performance earnings.

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KING FRITZ SUPER MAID have to come in the right individual.

“[A great broodmare] has got to be a mare with the right bone, the right hoof and the right heart to produce those great babies,” Glenn said, regardless of what her pedigree says.

And people look for different characteristics, Crawford added, weighing some things differently than others.

“[Picking a broodmare] is very individual,” Crawford said. “I’ve picked horses that have things that other people would have passed up. I’ve had mares with long backs, and I’ve had mares with necks that people said were too short, but it never bothered them in the arena.

“You have to look at the whole package and how she moves. I go more by what they themselves have done, before putting them into the broodmare band.”

Gardiner wants a broodmare to have “everything that goes into what strikes your eye as an equine enthusiast.” Simply put, she’s pretty.

“They have to have the eye appeal— all-encompassing quality, refinement, muscling and balance,” he said. “When we raise our horses, we want them to

Annie Reynolds showed her mother’s mare, Magical Lena, who earned more than $152,000 in reined cow horse, before seeing the mare produce offspring who have earned in excess NRCHA earnings of $567,000. MAGICAL LENA

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The 1995 mare MAGICAL LENA, by Little Lenas Legend, and out of Swayback Magic, by Early Tink, earned a spot in the National Reined Cow HOrse Assocation Hall of Fame as a performer and a producer. Her titles include 1998 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity® Non Pro Champion, 2000 NRCHA Non Pro Derby Champion and reserve in the 2001 NRCHA World’s Greatest Horseman.

As a broodmare, she’s fourth on the NRCHA all-time leading dam list by foal performance earnings. Her producing daughters include Very Smart Sweetheart, a 2008 mare by Very Smart Remedy, who is ninth on the 2020 NRCHA Top Dam list by produce performance earnings.

have that eye appeal and refinement. Combine that with a solid pedigree, and a show record if she’s got one, that just adds even more value.”

Some people “get caught up in color,” he added, but that’s never been a factor for him, pointing out that “some of our best horses were bays,” including Hes Wright On (Lenas Wright On x Shesa Lota Nic x Reminic) and Soule Jule Forever (Soula Jule Star x Forever Sparkled x Shining Spark).

“You want to look at what horses are doing well in the show pen, and look at who is winning with what,” Crawford said, pointing out that watching horseman Todd Crawford’s success with Smart Crackin Chic led her to buy the mare’s daughters.

“There’s such a wide array of things that have to go right in the breeding business,” Gardiner added, beyond picking the right mare and deciding what stallion to breed her to. “A lot of other things go into it. Including a lot of luck and having amazing customers who buy prospects and then get them into the right hands with trainers.”

SUCCESS IN THE PEN

“It’s a sturdy, strong horse with a lot of strength and stamina that’s required for the cow horse,” Glenn pointed out. “They’re not just in there for a couple of minutes. They have to do three different events, run up and down the fence, and work really hard. The event requires a really brave horse with a lot of heart.”

Gardiner believes that is what makes the reined cow horse so unique.

“They don’t have to be great at each event,” he said. “We’ve been in the situation where we’ve had horses that couldn’t mark a 218 out of the herd if they drew three puppy dogs and stood there and stared at them. But if they’d mark a 215, we’d still have a chance because they could rein and go down the fence.

He continued, “To me, that’s what makes the competition so great in the cow horse: You can’t put all your eggs in one basket.”

And that logic follows in breeding for a reined cow horse, he added: “If you’ve got the strong reining background and you combine that with a strong cutting background, in my opinion, you’ve got a perfect reined cow horse.”

Gardiner also offered this perspective on raising reined cow horses within the bigger picture of breeding in the Western performance industry.

“I’m not going to say the cow horse industry has had a huge impact on the Western breeding industry just because the numbers aren’t there,” he said. “I still think we are a relatively small faction of the equine breeding business.

“But I’d say we’ve done a better job of breeding horses that are going to make an impact on the [Western] industry [as a whole]. I do think that, as breeders in cow horse, we’ve done a good job of increasing the quality of the kind of horses we’re raising.”

And it takes paying attention to that bottom side, weaving strengths brought in from both sides of a pedigree.