I got a chesnut, a bay and a pinto bay from the exact same cross. All were / are excellent movers and jumpers but we were so shocked at the pinto we did a DNA test.
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Was their conformation at all similar?
I ask, because color seems to be a different mode of inheritance than are physical attributes (conformation), or the heritable tendencies that make a horse tend towards being a good jumper or having ācow senseā.
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Well, I think color is genetic like everything else, but itās not linked to athleticism or personality (despite all the jokes about chestnut mares). Color is also one of the few visible traits that have clear genetics that can be identified.
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Yes, of course color is genetic. The point being, that most educated breeders are looking to produce horses that have good basic conformation and the conformation that predisposes them to success at the sport for which they are being bred. Color (to most breeders ) is a secondary consideration.
My question was for @Pennywell_Bay, who had three different coat colors from the same stallion/mare cross, and were athletic animals. I am curious to know if the three get had similar conformation.
Kate Shearer seems to be breeding for flashy color or black. Conformation for sport doesnāt seem to be of much concern in her āprogramā and that is a losing proposition for any breeder.
Unfortunately the animals she is producing will suffer from their lack of careful breeding, just like all the other horses that are bred indiscriminately by people who either donāt know better or, as in Shearers case, seem to be trying to make a quick buck.
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Because her buyers likely have little knowledge about conformation and how it can affect performance, nor are they experienced enough to evaluate conformation in a foal or yearling, nor have they seen a plethora of foals and yearlings to have a good sense of what a healthy, well-bred, and well-cared for youngster should look like.
And she will explain to potential buyers that a youngster doesnāt look āgorgeousā at the moment because it was just weaned, or because it is a yearling and all yearlings look gawky, etc., or because she is keeping it a bit thin to reduce the risk of OCD, or blah-blah-blah. So her buyers have only one thing to go on when they see a foal - its color. And they will be over the moon because it is black or because it has chrome - their friends will be SO envious. /s
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Just out of curiosity, are any of the horses this breeder has produced old enough to be competing in performance classes?
I would expect that at those prices, if a couple of crops are old enough to be competing, some of them should have a successful record if she was actually producing anything close to the quality that she advertises she is breeding. Iād love to see pics of them grown up and going under saddle.
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Sigh.
People buying young stock will HOPEFULLY speak with more than one breeder. And look at a few different weanlings and yearlings.
There are many GOOD breeders who use nice mares, top notch stallions, and feed the mare and baby adequately up through weaning.
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Yeah but as Iāve seen time and time again, some people have more money than brains. And a large chunk of the population either has no eye, no education, or both. That chalks up to someone who can drop mid five figures on a baby and not even realize itās crap.
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I donāt think so. I havenāt followed her all along, but from what I can see on Facebook, she started with these warmblood jumper x DHH crosses in 2021?
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Same here. Iād wanted to ask earlier about how long sheād been at this - to me it looks like she started breeding and buying all this stuff and hemorrhaging money not too long ago. Now that the horses arenāt selling and making her some quick cash, she may be feeling the pinch through her fog of delusion.
The fact that she hasnāt popped back in to yell at us recently is unexpected tbh. I blocked her on FB, but is there any evidence of horses selling?
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Iāve seen no evidence the horses are selling. Which is concerning. Because they need feed and care right now, and it seems like a seller might be more likely to provide it.
From the social media trail, it looks like she began accumulating DHH mares around 2015 ish. And she might have bred some DHH x Arab crosses as well for some time from 2016-2020. I canāt quite tell, but she did have a 2023 DHH x Arab foal that was apparently a repeat cross.
But round about 2020, she seems to have gotten
serious about the idea of breeding DHH x warmblood crosses using top tier stallions and techniques like ET and ICSI. Iām not sure why she thought this would be profitableā¦ the up front veterinary costs make that profoundly unlikelyā¦ but this is the direction she went.
Itās really hard to tell how many babies she has produced and sold so far, butā¦
She posted on FB in March 2023 that her first DHH cross foal of the season had arrived, and she was waiting on 11 moreā¦
In April, she posted that she posted that 3 foals had arrived and she was still waiting on 6. And it had been a tough year, with one absorbing, one aborting, and one red bag. But she had bred 15 foals to begin withā¦
15 foals.
This woman doesnāt have her own facility, and seems to consistently have challenges with staff, and routinely hires people who seem to have somewhat limited experience/knowledge caring for equinesā¦
And she travels all the time for her braiding business.
Yetā¦ she bred 15 foals.
One wonders if she was doing any sort of foal watchā¦ or if the mares were just foaling unattended. Because I know of people who breed professionally and have well designed set ups at their farms (because they own and have built their own facilities), and have cameras on all their mares, and use foal alert systems, and have very experienced and professional full time staff onsite all during foaling seasonā¦
And they still frequently deal with 10 or less mares foaling out each year, because itās EXHAUSTING hard work. Especially when things go wrong.
So it makes me wonder what KS was doing. What sort of care were these mares getting when they foaled?
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I of course donāt mean that PREs are literally homozygous for every trait. I do mean that theyāre a closed studbook with a relatively uniform type. āBreed trueā means that you get what you expect based on the cross youāve made, with few surprises.
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Yeah, that makes sense.
I know what the definition of ābreed trueā is, I just canāt assume that an internet stranger means the same thing 
mostly because this thread made me lose even more faith in humanity 
I wondered that as well.
Seeing that poor mare who slipped her foal, thin and obviously not well (laminitic), in that filthy stall makes me believe her mare care is sub-par to say the least.
ETA Shearer apparently had no qualms taking this photo, which boggles the mind. Who would do that? That suffering mare, so thin and laying in filth, and an aborted foal covered in manure. Why would anyone but an animal control officer photograph that?
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If she bred 15 mares and lost 3 foals, thatās a 20% loss rate. That sounds high.
Edited to add: looked back to double check
But if she bred 15 foals and was down to 9 on the ground, thereās a couple more not accounted for.
Thatās 6 out of 15, or 40%. Assuming the 15 were confirmed in foal.
So 9 foals on the ground. Whatās shocking to me is that she managed to sell 4 of them (since there are only 5 for sale now in her āliquidation saleā).
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That IS high - barring something in the water.
Poor care isnāt āsomething in the waterā.
Ugh this makes me so sad. And you know the accidental call-out flew RIGHT over Kate Shearerās head.
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Yes, she replied to me na na na boo boo style that they were selling like hotcakes and everything was just fine. 
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I really wonder if foals have āsoldā in that they were traded to pay off accumulated debt, rather than being sold for actual cash. Because who tf is going to pay significant five figures for a starving foal out of a nothing mareā¦
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