Brood Mares: Are They As Valuable As Stallions?

[phippsie62]

This question comes from my perspective as a longtime rider and peruser of sport horse-centered magazines, but a complete ignoramus about breeding. I see many ads promoting stallions as transmitters of various desirable qualities in their offspring, but no mention is ever made of mares, who are responsible for half the genetic make-up of a foal.

Hence my question: Are mares campaigned in sport, as stallions are, to establish their value in a breeding program? Do breeding programs ever buy mares who’ve been injured out of sport but may pass on desirable qualities to their offspring or compensate for some perceived weakness in an otherwise great stallion?

[Scribbler]

@phippsie62

This question comes from my perspective as a longtime rider and peruser of sport horse-centered magazines, but a complete ignoramus about breeding. I see many ads promoting stallions as transmitters of various desirable qualities in their offspring, but no mention is ever made of mares, who are responsible for half the genetic make-up of a foal.

Hence my question: Are mares campaigned in sport, as stallions are, to establish their value in a breeding program? Do breeding programs ever buy mares who’ve been injured out of sport but may pass on desirable qualities to their offspring or compensate for some perceived weakness in an otherwise great stallion?

Yes. It is of course standard in racing.

I think the difference is that a stallion can sire hundreds or thousands of foals in his lifetime whereas the average mare can have what, maybe 5 to ten maximum? Also stallions are being marketed to the general public for stud fees so there is a lot more promotional language involved.

The predicament with mares is that if you get a great performance horse you may not want to pull her out of competition to breed at a timely age, and you don’t want to risk her first foal at say age 17 after she’s retired. That might be a good case for a surrogate birth.

As far as injury, you really want to be sure the mare isn’t injured because of conformation problems or slow developing DSLD and that her injury won’t be exacerbated by carrying a pregnancy.

A good breeder is obviously very careful and picky about the broodmares and even if the mares don’t have competition records the breeders will seek out mares who are from strong competition lines. Obviously yes you would look at the whole horse to see how good a match it was to any stallion.

Anyhow the relatively short competition life of top race horses allows both mares and stallions to campaign and be retired to breed at a young age. I get the impression that most of the “war horses” that keep racing for years are geldings. Obviously the goal for race horses is different than for sport horses but the top winning mares have eagerly awaited foals.

However racing breeding is a sobering reminder of how tricky breeding is. You are only after one major trait, speed. And it still isn’t that easy to reliably get top speed even out of ideal breedings. Sport horses need a combination of talents which come out unequally distributed even in full siblings

So yes good brood mares are as valuable as stallions in producing a quality foal. They aren’t nearly as valuable in cash terms as the equivalent stallion however because a good stallion is a money earner in stud fees especially if you ship frozen semen around the world.

[BeeHoney]

Agree with much of what @Scribbler says. Quality, SOUND broodmares are vital to a breeding program. You can’t breed lame, injured, or otherwise unsuitable mares to fantastic, top quality stallions and expect to end up with good results. I would say that the mare is probably a bigger part of the equation than the stallion. However, IRL, the average mare does not produce many offspring. The cost of developing a broodmare in sport is hefty. The cost of taking a mare that is successful in competition out of competition and turning her into a broodmare is also great. So the real world situation is that many people do not compete their broodmares first. I would avoid a breeding program that was using mares that had failed out of sport due to physical unsoundness or other issue of suitability. People commonly cover up injuries as “pasture accidents” to try to ascribe the injury as not being the fault of the horse, but from experience I am very wary of that as well.

[Scribbler]

It’s my understanding that DSLD, which is inherited, proggressive,and horrible, will first show up in suspensory injuries that get attributed to pasture accidents or training stress. It is not uncommon in some lines of WB but isn’t well documented yet. I would be very wary of a brood mare who had shown suspensory injuries at an early stage of training.

[JB]

@BeeHoney

You can’t breed lame, injured, or otherwise unsuitable mares to fantastic, top quality stallions and expect to end up with good results.

Sure you can You just have to understand why they were injured, what the injury was, and look at their age when it happened. There are also top quality stallions who has little or no performance record because of an early injury, but whose pedigree all but guaranteed they’d produce well, and they did (and are).

Yes, the mare line is very important. But there are only smaller segments of the professional breeding world who openly discuss that - racing TBs (I would assume racing QH and racing Arabian but I know nothing of that world), some WB registries (Holsteiner for example), and a few other breeds with actual breeding approval processes.

It’s also common in the WB world to “breed the best, ride the rest” when it comes to the mares. So, the best mares don’t get a performance career, they go straight to breeding. Then, if their first couple foals don’t turn out as high quality as hoped/expected, they go into performance if it’s that type of operation, or get sold as a performance prospect.

There are definitely “otherwise unsuitable” situations though - the suspensory injury at a young age, as Scribbler mentioned. Even then, it’s a gray area - what do the feet look like, what were the circumstances around the injury, etc

It should never be an automatic “rats, she’s injured, might as well breed her”.

[TKR]

Good/great broodmares MAKE your breeding program. Those that don’t value great broodmares shouldn’t be breeding.

[skydy]

@TKR

Good/great broodmares MAKE your breeding program. Those that don’t value great broodmares shouldn’t be breeding.

That is what I was taught.:yes:

The breeders that I have known and worked for, “small time” as they were, kept (and culled) their mares very carefully.
At auction or private sale, stallions that have earned their place in the breeding shed are more expensive to purchase, but good mares in a breeding “program” are prized by their breeders whom have bred the tail female line, often for generations, and those standouts are kept by their breeders, not sold.

[TKR]

The most important purchase a breeder will make is a VERY good broodmare - based on pedigree, production - hers and her damline’s, conformation, mechanics and temperment. So many “new” breeders fall in love with a stallion and then just buy “a mare” to use with him which will probably lead to a disappointing foal. If you love a stallion - take the time to find a very good mare that matches well with him and be sure he is worthy of such a BM. JMHO