[QUOTE=chai;6391154]
bluey, that was a really interesting post about the bloodlines. Genetics is fascinating. I didn’t know there was a general aversion to a bald face in the past, but I have always been concerned with light sensitivity in a blue eye/bald face.[/QUOTE]
The aversion to too much white and especially apron faces may be regional, due to our harsh semi-desert environment.
In other parts of the country, with less dust and wind and sun exposure, that may not be so much a concern, as it would not be on show horses kept mostly indoors most of their adult lives.
People around here still had those horses at times, they are flashy.
Breeders would not breed purposeful for them, in fact minimal white was preferred.
Some of it was the thought of white feet being less strong, that has been disproved.
One other paint breeder here had tobiano lines and some were APHA champions.
He too stayed away from too much white and definitely from blue eyes.
Genetics are so much better understood today, it is a whole different ballgame for breeders.
One advantage of years of breeding and being around all lines of horses performing is that you get an idea of what you have and what you may get when you breed.
I think anyone starting to breed should pick the brains of all that came before.
We have enough haphazardly bred horses out there today that no one has any use for, coming on a horse market that is more sophisticated and doesn’t want them.
Buyers are very picky any more.
I would consider seriously before keeping a horse a stallion, for his own sake, his life will be so much easier as a gelding.
Gelding is considered good management.
There are many fashionably bred stallions standing at stud with a performance record and their foals for sale.
That is how this horse happen to be born.
Not many of the sons and grandsons of proven stallions should reproduce just because their breeding somewhere back there has some proven, well known sires.
Breeding more horses into a world with too many already seems a bit selfish today, when anyone can buy another like that one easily.
Breeding should be more than an emotional decision, the “I love my dog so much, I want a puppy from her” sentiment, not realizing that there are already oodles of similar puppies out there.
Those are questions I would give serious consideration before keeping him a stallion.
Old time ranch breeders used a stallion for a few years and about ten, when they started keeping fillies off that stallion old enough to reproduce, they would geld it and they made great geldings.
The picture here, the palomino on the left is the son of the now 14 year old sorrel gelding, a son of Bill Cody, third from the left.
He was a super nice stallion and an even more awesome gelding.
He was gelded at ten and was a ranch horse, cutting and roping arena horse and pony horse at the track and helping starting colts:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a298/Robintoo/Scan677December272005.jpg
We raised four of those six horses.
The gray colt third from the right was sired by our Oklahoma Star stallion.
The other two grays, the little white one is a Hollywood Gold son and the filly on the far right is a daughter of Badger Mel.
John Wayne bought all the colts that neighbor produced for his cowboys.
Both of those gray horses were bred by neighbors.
The bigger sorrel four year old second from right was by our stallion that was a half brother to Doc Bar.
That was before Doc Bar became famous.
He was a stake winner at the track.
Reminds me of my senior stallion … I love a ‘headlight and chrome wheels’ 
