HGG Community Forums

Not sure that I'll have the right answers but here's my understanding of things. Hopefully, it makes some sense to you.

1. Depends, as I understand it each stud/mare can throw foals in a range that goes anywhere from worse than them to better - which is what breeding comparison tells us. So it could be that your blue mare just threw high to the top of her range and the gold mare threw to the bottom of hers. I think you would need to do a few more breedings to have a better idea or do some more comparison testing of your mares. I would guess you are right though and your stud is probably a low star since his sire is a star out of blue/A parents and this stud is only as good as his sire. Hard to say where that blue mare sits, have you compared her to her dam?

2. To pass SBA the foal needs to be the same as or better than its parents. This foal, even though it was best in pasture, must have been lower scoring than one of it's parents. I would guess that, if you did ungeld it, you might find that it gets a better comparison test vs the other foal.

3. This totally depends on what you want to do and what your breeding goals are. If it were me I would say no, this foal is worse than its parents and therefore I wouldn't use it, I want to continue getting better horses, not taking a step back.

Thank you, @Ren and Ammit.

I would normally want to breed for improvement, but I think in this case I may ungeld him because he will reflect the most improvement of my colts for that generation. I don't have many 8th gen horses yet, and not all my 7G mares are gold yet. I think it's work comparing him to future colts from that pasture that do pass SBA. Next season I may get a Best in Pasture that passes SBA, but I'm not sure it makes sense to penalize him for having a superior mare than the second foal. I don't necessarily think it will be taking a step back in breeding quality using Foal 1 rather than Foal 2. It would be best (for my program, not in general) to get a third foal that passes SBA and tests aga or better than Foal 1. Maybe next season.

Yeah, I'm not surprised that both tested worse than that boy - Deputized has a lot more star/golds in his pedigree. :) Good luck with your lines. I need to hurry up and finish my own breeding for the season, this was a good reminder that I better do it. Haha