Looking for the one-shot answer to combat your mare’s estrus cycle? Dr. Patrick McCue walks you through the estrus cycle and how to battle it.

Estrus suppressing vaccines offer great potential for blocking estrus or inducing contraception in mares, however, they could also lead to some serious future reproductive issues.

By Dr. Patrick M. McCue in The American Quarter Horse Journal

Mares come into heat or estrus due to rising estrogen levels produced by developing ovarian follicles. Mares typically do not show heat during the winter when they have small, inactive ovaries. Heat is also not exhibited after ovulation when mares have a corpus luteum producing progesterone. Ultimately, expression of behavioral estrus occurs in the presence of estrogen and the absence of progesterone. Absence of estrus is a function of low estrogen levels and/or elevated progesterone levels.

The development of follicles and ovulation are initiated by hormonal signals from the brain. Gonadotropin-releasing hormone is produced by the hypothalamus and secreted in pulse into the bloodstream. The anterior pituitary gland near the base of the brain receives the hormone signals. The pituitary secretes a follicle-stimulating hormone that stimulates follicular growth and a luteinizing hormone that causes follicle maturation and induces ovulation.

What is so special about The Doc Bar Bloodline? Find out in AQHA’s The Doc Bar Bloodline report.

Attacking the Hormone

Vaccines have been developed that target the initial player – the gonadotropin-releasing hormone – in this cascade of events. A vaccine is typically used to stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies against one or more specific infectious disease agents. However, vaccines can also be developed against other substances, including hormones. Vaccination against the gonadotropin-releasing hormone results in production of antibodies that bind to the hormone circulating in the blood stream and block the biological activity of the molecule.

As a result, the lack of bioactive gonadotropin-releasing hormone results in a reduction of follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone production by the anterior pituitary and, ultimately, a reduction of ovarian follicular development. The absence of follicular growth is associated with estrogen levels that are insufficient to cause behavioral estrus.

Roll It!

Do you know what to look for when your mare is foaling? Dr. Pat McCue gives advice over the signs of foaling.

One commercial vaccine, licensed in Australia, is designated “for use in the control of estrus and estrus-related behavior in fillies and mares not intended for breeding.” The vaccine is administered as a two-dose series. Research shows that vaccinated mares develop an antibody response that peaked approximately two weeks after the second vaccination. Immunization resulted in a reduction of ovarian activity. Vaccination also was associated with a reduction in estradiol levels and a decrease of behavioral heat.

Vaccination

Most mares had an increase in ovarian activity and a return to estrus as the concentrations of antibodies in circulation decreased over time. Live foal rates were similar between mares receiving a placebo treatment and vaccinated mares in subsequent years after the effects of the vaccine had disappeared.

However, some young mares vaccinated against the hormone when they were in training failed to develop follicles or ovulate when their performance career was over. The incidence rate of this issue has not been determined.

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The Australian vaccine is clearly labeled for fillies and mares not intended for breeding. Holding to that principle would negate any adverse effects on ovarian function. However, the use of a horse can change over time as horses are bought and sold. In addition, one cannot predict the end of an athletic career and the start of a breeding career.

In summary, vaccines against the gonadotropin-releasing hormone offer great potential for a medically safe and straightforward means of blocking estrus or inducing contraception in mares. However, there might be serious issues regarding future reproductive performance in a limited percentage of vaccinated fillies or mares. Currently there are no vaccines against gonadotropin-releasing hormone approved for horses in the United States.

Get your American Quarter Horse paperwork done cheaper! AQHA is extending its offer of reduced registration fees for horses 3 and older. Check it out!

Barrel racing and flat racing are seeing more crossover in the sale ring and breeding shed.

In barrel racing, half-second or even a hundredth of a second makes a huge difference, which is why barrel racers are looking to cross their mares with race-bred stallions.

By Denis Blake in The American Quarter Horse Journal

This is the second of a two-part series. Need to review Part 1?

Dual-Purpose Stallions

The barrel world can also be a new territory for established racehorse stallions.

“Dash Ta Fame is a perfect example,” says Jeff Tebow, general manager of the Oklahoma City-based Heritage Place sale company, about the veteran First Down Dash stallion. “He has been a great sire of racehorses, but there are many people who also look at his offspring for barrel racing. His racing offspring have earned about $15 million on the track, but he has also been a top barrel futurity sire for years.”

Another example can be found in Royal Shake Em, a stallion who sired the earners of more than $8 million on the racetrack and who stands at Ronnie and Bonnie Stewart’s Double S Farm near Holland, Texas.

“To be honest, the barrel end of this just fell into my lap,” says Ronnie. “A lady pulled up here one day named Kelly Yates with a mare named Firewater Fiesta. I didn’t know who she was or who the mare was, so she was telling me about her mare and how she wanted to breed to a stallion with an excellent mind. So she ended up breeding to Royal Shake Em.”

It turns out that Kelly was a champion barrel racer and Firewater Fiesta was the 2000 and 2001 Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association-Women’s Professional Barrel Racing Association horse of the year.

“Then all the top barrel people started breeding mares to him,” says Ronnie, who adds that Royal Shake Em’s first crop of foals from matings with barrel mares are 4 years old this year.

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Although Royal Shake Em’s barrel-bred horses are just getting started on their rodeo careers, some of his older race-bred offspring have already been successfully transitioned into barrel racers, and that has led to increased demand for his breeding services.

“Barrel racing probably makes up 25 percent of our whole breeding program,” Ronnie says. “If his first foal crop (of barrel-bred horses) does real well, it could easily turn into 50 percent of my business. I’ve been keeping track of the mares bred to Royal Shake Em, so I try to find out where those offspring are and then try to find a secondary career for them, possibly in barrels.”

Ronnie points out that, with the exception of an elite few, most stallions lose a little bit of their commercial luster with age as breeders tend to look toward younger stallion prospects. So marketing to barrel breeders is one way to supplement a racehorse stallion’s book of race mares.

Impacting the Sales

Heritage Place has always been a venue for selling racehorses, and that’s not likely to ever change. But that doesn’t mean that there’s not room for barrel horses and barrel horse buyers at the auction.

“I think we are seeing more of an impact from the barrel racing people, whether they are buying (race-bred horses) as yearlings or buying them at the mixed sale,” Jeff says. “I had a guy tell me that you can’t get to the top of the barrel racing game anymore without some of the speed you are going to get from racehorses. A half-second or even a hundredth of a second makes a huge difference, so it’s obvious why they are looking for race-bred horses.”

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Check out 1997 AQH Hall of Fame inductee and racing legend Dash For Cash.

Jeff says it’s hard to quantify the exact impact of barrel horse buyers on the sale, but he thinks it’s still “fairly low” in the big picture. Even so, he stressed that barrel horse buyers are an important part of Heritage Place sales, and the company is entertaining the idea of sponsoring or creating a barrel horse futurity and derby, similar to what it already does on a much larger scale for racehorses, with the Heritage Place Futurity and Derby at nearby Remington Park.

“To have a successful auction, you need to have several buyers competing for a horse, and ultimately that’s good for the industry,” he says.

While more buyers make for better auction results, there can sometimes be pushback from racehorse breeders who hope to see their horses on the track and not in the arena.

“There are some breeders who are disappointed when a barrel racer buys their horse,” he says. “If they are commercial racing breeders, they would love to see their horse go into race training and win a Grade 1 futurity because that adds value to their mare or stallion, but we’ve also seen that if a horse goes into the barrel world and is successful, then that can also increase the value of a mare or stallion. It would be nice to hand-place your horses and handpick your buyers, but that’s just not the case.”

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Working Together

There has always been some hesitation on both sides to embrace the other. There are racehorse breeders who don’t want to see their horses on barrels, and barrel racers who prefer to preserve their sport’s traditional bloodlines.

“Some old-timers will say maybe the racehorses are a little too ‘hot,’ but you have to have that speed; barrel racing is just a controlled runaway,” says Jud Little, who stands seven stallions at his Jud Little Ranch near Ardmore, Oklahoma.

While that resistance might never disappear entirely, it might be inevitable that flat racing and barrel racing become even more intertwined in the future.

“You can either get on the bandwagon now or you can be behind the eight-ball when things really start blooming,” Ronnie says. “The fastest-growing part of the racing industry right now is the barrel industry.”

The purse money in barrel racing might not compare to the multimillion-dollar jackpots of racing’s rich futurities, but there is significant money to be won in the sport. That means its participants, including the 23,000 members of the National Barrel Horse Association, have money to spend at sales and on stallion breedings.

“To me, it’s like a right-hand, left-hand type thing, and both industries should recognize that,” says Mary Ellen Hickman, president of Future Fortunes Inc., a stallion incentive program for barrel horses. “We used to never see a straight barrel horse in the Heritage sale, and now we are starting to. In times like this, it helps to have more than one avenue to sell a horse. As long as we work together, it can help both sides.”

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Barrel racing and flat racing are seeing more crossover in the sale ring and breeding shed.

Speed is the name of the game whether you are running down the track or around the barrels.

By Denis Blake in The American Quarter Horse Journal

It’s easy to say that barrel racing and flat racing are similar in that the fastest horse wins, but on the other hand, the two industries can sometimes seem worlds apart. In recent years, however, those two distinct worlds have come closer as barrel racers seek to add more speed to their bloodlines, and racehorse breeders and stallion owners seek new revenue streams. While hard numbers are difficult to come by, the fact that a barrel horse sold for $50,000 at this year’s Heritage Place Winter Mixed Sale – one of racing’s biggest auctions – is a good indication that the level of crossover between the two industries is on the rise.

“I’ve seen an increasing number of barrel trainers at the January Heritage Sale that are buying straight racehorse prospects to make barrel horses out of them,” says performance horse breeder Jud Little, who stands seven stallions at his Jud Little Ranch near Ardmore, Oklahoma. “They are making a very significant impact on the racehorse sale industry.”

Not only are barrel racers making an impact on the sale industry, they are also having an impact on the breeding industry. Jud, who has been operating his ranch for more than 35 years, has long been an advocate of bringing racehorse blood into barrel racing. And he’s not alone.

Whether you’re a newcomer to the excitement of Quarter Horse racing or a seasoned participant, you’ll appreciate this in depth look at horse racing history in AQHA’s “The Story of American Quarter Horse Racing” DVD.

“The competition in barrel racing is so fierce now,” says Mary Ellen Hickman, president of Future Fortunes Inc., a stallion incentive program for barrel horses. “Maybe the dam is more of a working-bred horse, but they go to a racehorse sire to get some more speed in there.”

After all, speed is the name of the game whether you are running down the track or around the barrels.

“I’m all about that speed; it makes up for so many other things,” Jud says.

Racehorse Stallions for Barrel Racing

Racehorse breeders might not recognize many names in the pedigrees of Jud’s stallions, until they get to No Mas Corona. The 6-year-old stallion is by First Down Dash’s son Fishers Dash and is out of the winning Sizzle Te broodmare of the year Sizzling Lil, who has produced racing champions Corona Chick and Corona Kool. According to Jud, No Mas Corona flashed brilliant speed in morning workouts until an injury stopped his racing career before it even started.

“We are primarily marketing him to barrel horse people, and they have really accepted him wonderfully. His first crop is now 2-year-olds, and we really like them.”

But unlike with a racehorse stallion, where you can at least get an idea of his chances for success at the end of his first crop’s 2-year-old season, it takes longer in the barrel racing world where the majority of horses don’t compete until age 4 or 5 and sometimes don’t achieve success until they approach double-digit age.

“It takes five years (to prove a barrel stallion), and it’s a painstakingly exhausting kind of thing to wait that long, but it’s just the nature of the beast,” Jud says.

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Jud has noticed that other barrel horse breeders are also adding race-bred stallions to their rosters. Many others are breeding to established race-bred stallions, and broodmares with racehorse blood have long been successful in barrel racing.

“(All American Futurity winner) Bugs Alive In 75 has been a leading maternal grandsire of barrel horses for years,” he says. “It’s a matter of picking and choosing the right bloodlines. I’ve identified six or seven lines of horses, both Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse, that might not suit on the first or second line of pedigree but I might like to see them on the third line. I constantly tinker with it.”

Stay tuned for the second part of this series.

Fillinic gave us generations of great horses.

Fillinic, above, saw a great deal of success in the show pen and the breeding shed, and so did her 10 foals, including her last colt, Reminic.

From America’s Horse

Back in 1961, Greg Ward of Tulare, California, was the stereotypical struggling young horse trainer. At 26, he had two horses for which he was being paid $75 a month to ride, a wife, a kid, a car and not much else. He’d ridden up to the neighbor’s to help doctor cattle, and as he rode back home, he could see the dust stirring up by the barn.

As he rode closer, he found the source of the dirt cloud: a lathered little chestnut mare someone had left tied to the fence.

“She had pawed and pawed until she was standing in a hole you could have buried two or three horses in,” Greg said. “I thought, ‘Oh, boy. What a rinky-dink this is.’ She had wire scars on her nose and big ol’ wire scars on her back legs. In those days, when you halter broke your horses, you didn’t want to hurt their hackamore nose, and here she was with this big scar across hers.”

The unbroken 4-year-old belonged to Frank Maitia, a Basque businessman from Bakersfield, who told Greg she’d come in on a carload of horses from the Clovis, New Mexico, sale yard.

But she had papers, he assured the trainer. Her registered name was Fillinic.

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“I went to riding her and, in three days, it seemed like she just wanted to do everything,” Greg said. “She was light, real sensitive – could just feel you breathe. She just wanted to be great.

“I’d be bragging on her to someone, and they’d just grin at me when I’d tell them how she was bred. Nobody’d ever heard of her sire, Arizona Junie, or Alouette, her mother, who was by a Thoroughbred named Master Boss.

“I got to bragging to her owner, telling him how good she was and he said, “Let’s sell her. What’s she worth?’ I said, ‘I bet I can get $3,000 for her.’ We’re talking 1962, $3,000 for a green, unproven mare with no breeding.”

G.D. Turnbow, a multimillionaire, started expressing some interest in Fillinic.

“The closer it got to him paying for the mare, it scared me, so I borrowed the money from my mother at 6 percent interest, and I bought her,” Greg said. “I didn’t have 50 cents, but I had Fillinic. I was the richest guy in the world.

“She just won and won and won and won, Salinas, the Cow Palace. And I didn’t know anything. I was just as green as a gourd. But I figured she was so great I’d just stay out of her way. I think she’s the only horse to ever win the Cow Palace in a hackamore and then win it in the bridle two years in a row.”

Fillinic passed many of her traits to her 10 foals, especially her super sensitivity.

“They were just like little deer,” Greg said. “Some said I was probably the only one who could have ridden them, that I was the only one who would put up with the insanity. You know how they say, ‘Genius borders on insanity?’ Well, that’s kind of where I put them, right there on the edge.”

Roll It!

See what made the inuagural Battle in the Saddle a unique show that brought some of the biggest names in the horse industry together for a week long competition.

Riding descendants of Fillinic, Greg won the Snaffle Bit Futurity, the premier reined cow horse competition, three times outright. He also rode six reserve champions in the event, all who traced to Fillinic. Her offspring also excelled at cutting. They took Greg to the finals of the National Cutting Horse Association Futurity and Super Stakes.

Fillinic’s daughter, Sugarnic, won a number of California Reined Cow Horse Association events, then produced Sugar Remedy, by Doc’s Remedy. Sugar Remedy produced Peppy Remedy, who foaled Reminics Pep, aka “Magic,” who won $128,500 in National Reined Cow Horse Association earnings.

Greg and Magic’s performance at the 1998 NRCHA Futurity – their last performance together – brought the crowd to its feet. Greg died of cancer only a few weeks later.

Wininic produced Master Remedy, who won more than $175,000 in reined cow horse competition and more than $145,000 in NCHA competition. Master Remedy sired Otoe Master, who won the 1990 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity; No Mo Master, who won the junior tie-down world title at the 1993 AQHA World Show; and Master Checks, who won the Snaffle Bit Futurity in 1991 and the 2003 NRCHA Novice Non-Pro Bridle Championship.

Mare and stallion owners will benefit from this step-by-step look at cooled, transported semen in AQHA’s “Artificial Insemination with Cooled Shipped Semen” DVD.

Reminic, Fillinic’s last colt, earned more than $80,000 in NCHA competition. Of the 926 foals he sired, there were seven open, amateur and youth AQHA world champions and four open, amateur and youth reserve world champions. The world champions included Tuckernic, Chex A Nic, Reminikit, Ima Train and Reminic Moon Shine.

Fillinic’s last foal was her namesake, Fillynic, who earned more than $40,000 in cutting and working cow horse competition.

In 1983, Fillinic was euthanized due to a broken leg. She was buried in Greg’s front yard.

“I can look down through the barns here, and Fillinic’s in all these horses,” Greg said. “She’s responsible for this whole place. The best way to explain how I feel about her is written on her tombstone: ‘A man is lucky to have one great horse in his lifetime. She gave us a lifetime of greatness.’ ”

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As the unwanted horse problem continues, responsible breeding is a must.

To combat the unwanted horse issue, horse owners should only breed the very best to the very best.

By Dr. Thomas R. Lenz in The American Quarter Horse Journal

The unwanted horse continues to be a major issue in the U.S. horse industry. The economic downturn has only served to make the situation worse, as many people can no longer afford to keep their horses or find qualified buyers.

AQHA and the Unwanted Horse Coalition are focused on finding homes, alternative careers and additional options for horses that are no longer wanted. But if we’re going to solve the problem, we must also decrease the number of unmarketable horses we are producing through responsible breeding practices.

There will always be some unwanted horses because horse will grow old, sustain career-ending injuries or not meet their owners’ expectations, but we can minimize their numbers through responsible breeding.

In my opinion, the days of “let’s breed ol’ Dobbin to see what we get” are over because it is unfair to the resulting unmarketable foal, as well as our industry. You need only visit one of the lower-end horse sales or the local sale barn to see the impact of producing poor-quality horses that are selling for only a few hundred dollars or less.

Making Good Decisions

To minimize risk and maximize the likelihood that you will produce exactly what you want, it is always a good idea to rationally think through:

1. Which mares you want to breed and why?
2. What stallions you want to breed them to and why?
3. What you want to do with the foal?

AQHA’s “Equine Insemination with Frozen Shipped Semen” DVD includes information about processing semen for freezing, tips for successful mare insemination and much more. Order your copy today!

Here is a brief checklist to aid you in that process:

• Is the mare from a good bloodline and has she excelled in the show ring, on the track, on the ranch or on the trail? If she cannot do the job (too slow, too stubborn, unattractive, etc.) don’t pass those genes on. Remember, the mare will provide the foal with half of its genetics and often the majority of its personality.
• Has she been tested to ensure she is not carrying the genes for hereditary equine regional dermal asthenia (HERDA), hyperkalemic periodic paralysis (HYPP), polysaccharide storage myopathy (PSSM), malignant hyperthermia (MH) or glycogen branching enzyme deficiency (GBED)? Genetic tests are available for all of them.
• Has she produced great foals in the past or have her siblings or half siblings produced great foals?
• Does the stallion have a phenotype similar to the mare’s? Too often, people select stallions based on word of mouth or an advertisement. It is always a good idea to research the stallion’s bloodlines as well as his performance record to determine whether it nicks with the mare’s.

Roll It!

Hereditary equine regional dermal asthenia (HERDA) is genetic skin disease. Dr. Kenton Morgan hosts a three part series to explain this devastating disease which causes skin on a horse’s back to lift and peel away from the body.

• Is the stallion a carrier of any of the above genetic conditions? If he is carrying any of them, what is the probability that the foal will be affected?
• If you’re interested in color, what will be the probable color resulting from this mating? You can always download AQHA’s FREE Coat Color Genetics report to help you find the answers.
• Do you have the resources or time to raise and train the foals(s) properly?
• How are you going to market the foal(s)? Have you nominated them to a futurity or Incentive Fund to enhance their value?
• What will you do with the offspring if it does not meet your expectations? Will you retrain it for another job, donate it, euthanize it or drop it off at the local sale barn?
• Would you be better off buying a horse rather than breeding your mare?

Order AQHA’s “Equine Insemination with Frozen Shipped Semen” DVD today. It’s an excellent educational resource for students and breeding barn help as well as any mare or stallion owner.

These are just a few of the many factors you should consider before breeding your mare or standing a young stallion at stud.

We all want to produce better horses and protect the integrity of our breed. The best way to do that is to be informed, organized and sensitive to the potential repercussions of breeding anything other than the very best to the very best.

For more information on keeping your horse healthy, consult an American Association of Equine Practitioners-member veterinarian in your area.

“Rabicano” is a little-known term for a fairly common white marking.

The 1953 stallion Go Man Go, registered as a roan, was a sorrel with rabicano markings.

By Andrea Caudill

Commonly called “ticking,” “coon tail” or “skunk tail,” and appearing as white flecking, rabicano (rah-bih-KAH-no) is commonly mistaken for a roan coloration, but it is a marking caused by a different gene.

Rabicano is a specific set of white markings that usually affect the base of the tail, flank and belly of a horse. In its most minimal form, it will show only white frosting at the base of the tail, often called a coon or skunk tail because of the striped appearance. A medium expression will have the white tail base, plus white hairs interspersed over the horse’s flanks, creating a roan appearance.

In its most extreme manifestation, a rabicano can appear almost like a true roan. It will carry the coon tail and have roaning on the body, concentrated on the flanks and under the elbows, and also have vertical strips of white on the barrel called rib barring.

Take a walk with The American Quarter Horse Journal’s Richard Chamberlain as he provides a personalized view of some of the fastest horses in history in AQHA’s Quarter Paths report.

Rabicano can be confused with another white pattern called sabino. Sabino is another gene that causes a roan effect over the flanks and body. The easiest way to tell the difference is to remember that rabicano always affects the base of the tail, while sabino does not. Sabino does, however, almost always involve facial white with a spot of white on the chin and white socks on the legs, in addition to the body roaning. It is possible for the horse to carry multiple genes, for example, to be both rabicano and sabino.

Rabicano is not an official AQHA color, but a marking that can be noted on a horse’s registration certificate.

Quick Color Facts

• Rabicano horses are not roans. A true roan horse’s white extends evenly over all parts of its body except for its head and legs, which remain solid. Rabicano markings, at their most extensive, can appear almost like a roan but always show a “coon tail.”
• If a horse has rabicano markings, it should be registered as its base color. The white markings should be noted in the marking section as “roan hair” or “scattered white hair.”
• The 1953 stallion Go Man Go, registered as a roan, was a sorrel with rabicano markings. Legendary western performance stallion Smart Chic Olena, born in 1985, is also a sorrel with rabicano markings.

Read anecdotes of the fastest horse on earth – the racing American Quarter Horse. Order your copy of AQHA’s Quarter Paths report today.

Live in Region 5? There’s still time to enter AQHA’s Region 5 Championship July 22-25 in Lexington, Virginia. Go to www.regionfiveexperience.com or call Rick Shiffler at (717) 269-8611.

Testing continues for contagious equine metritis.

The USDA has initiated the testing of breeding stallions to demonstrate that the U.S. equine population is free of CEM.

Provided by Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

The USDA has initiated the testing of breeding stallions around the United States for the bacterium that causes contagious equine metritis. The testing is being carried out to help demonstrate that the United States equine population is free of CEM or, if CEM exists here, it is only present at a very low level.

The testing effort will continue until August 2010, so there is still time for owners of active breeding stallions to participate. USDA will pay the shipping and diagnostic laboratory testing costs for one set of samples, if stallion owners pay the costs associated with collection of those samples by a USDA-accredited equine veterinarian.

To participate, stallion owners need to get the approval of the USDA-APHIS area veterinarian in charge, or the state animal health official (e.g., state veterinarian), for the state in which the stallion is to be sampled.

AQHA’s detailed Equine Breeding Techniques and Foal Health Tips report will guide you through the entire breeding process, from mare care and first-hours foal care. Order your copy today!

To date, no stallions have been found positive as part of this national testing effort, and there is only a very small chance that any stallions will be found positive. However, if a positive stallion is found, USDA will pay all costs associated with treating and re-testing that stallion until he is confirmed to be CEM-free.

To learn more, check out “USDA to Test Additional Stallions to Detect Contagious Equine Metritis” and “Questions and Answers: Testing of Additional Stallions for Contagious Equine Metritis.”

From the first-time breeder to the experienced individual who wants a refresher course in mare care, AQHA’s Equine Breeding Techniques and Foal Health Tips is a great resource for any horse breeder.

Considering your stallion’s social needs when you handle and house him pays you back with a happier horse.

AQHA Featherlite Trailer All-Around Amateur Karen Evans Mundy usually stalls her stallion, The Article, next to his gelding companion when they travel to horse shows.

From The American Quarter Horse Journal

This is the last of a three-part series. Need to review Part 1 and Part 2?

Breeding and Showing: Mutually Exclusive?

Many people don’t think breeding stallions are good in the show ring. Sue McDonnell, an equine behaviorist who has spent much of her career working with stallions, disagrees with this theory. In Sue’s experience, younger stallions especially benefit from a dual breeding and show schedule, as long as it is balanced. She has noticed that younger stallions who haven’t begun their breeding career are more on edge in the show ring and often spend more time looking around at other horses than paying attention to their handler.

Craig Haythorn of Haythorn Land and Cattle Co. in Arthur, Nebraska, echoes this: “We breed our 2-year-old colts to a few mares. Then we start showing them at 3. They seem to have more respect for both their handlers and the mares, and they perform better.”

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AQHA Featherlite Trailer All-Around Amateur Karen Evans Mundy says her stallion, The Article, successfully maintains a breeding and show schedule. He spends the breeding season with Rick and Heidi Cecil and then moves to Karen’s barn for shows. This arrangement gives him a natural distinction: When he’s with Karen, it’s time to go to work, but when he’s at the Cecils, he can think about breeding. This added a challenge, Karen says.

“We had to carefully schedule breedings around his show schedule, but the mare owners have always been very understanding.”

Karen says showing a breeding stallion does offer some difficulties, even with one as well-behaved as The Article.

“You always have to be aware of your surroundings and who is stalled next to your stallion. The Article travels with his gelding companion, so I often put him on the end stall with the gelding next to him. But there have been a few times I had to ask mare owners if they would mind switching stalls to put a gelding behind him. Everyone at shows is pretty accommodating, and I haven’t had any trouble.”

Karen adds that knowing the show grounds helps.

“When I know the facility, I can ask the organizers for a stall at the end that backs up to a wall, and they’re happy to work with us. If the show stalls don’t have solid walls, then I know to bring plywood to tack up so he cannot see the horses next to him.”

Roll It!

Take a look at the 1993 AQHA Best Remuda winner, 6666 Ranch of Guthrie, Texas.

Riding Stallions

Karen says one of the most important things to remember when showing a stallion is to pay attention to what’s around you.

“The entire time I’m on him, I have to be aware I’m riding a stallion. I pay attention to what’s going on, and I stay away from other horses. I never sit back and relax on him and chit-chat with others, and if his attention strays and he starts talking to mares, I have to discipline him right away. You just cannot tolerate him focusing on the mares. I also make sure others know I’m riding a stallion.”

Karen says it’s important to know your stallion’s triggers. The Article is really interested in the reining and cutting mares, as they look different from the pleasure mares: they have full manes, don’t wear fake tails and often aren’t clipped like pleasure mares. So Karen avoids them at shows.

Dealing With Aggressive Stallions

Even the best stallions can have bad days, and some stallions have more than their fair share. Craig has a solution for misbehaving stallions.

“If I have a horse up in the barn to show or train and he starts getting grouchy or hard to handle, I just put him out with a bunch of geldings who won’t take anything from him. They remind him he’s not so great, and he calms down and starts behaving.”

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This method might not work for everyone, but Craig finds that it sorts out his stallions quickly so they can focus on their work.

Owning a stallion is a huge responsibility. You are taking an active role in creating the next generations of American Quarter Horses. You owe it to your partner – your  stallion — to provide for his mental and physical well-being. When you do that, he’ll pay you back by being easier to handle and with better performance. You create a situation where everyone wins.

Considering your stallion’s social needs when you handle and house him pays you back with a happier horse.

The most natural way to house your stallion is in a herd with his mares. Ignoring a stallion's social needs often results in a stallion that is difficult to handle or doesn’t know how to interact with other horses.

From The American Quarter Horse Journal

This is the second of a three-part series. Need to review Part 1?

Socializing a Mature Stallion

Not everyone raises stallions the same. Ignoring their social needs often results in stallions that are difficult to handle or don’t know how to interact with other horses. If you’ve acquired a stallion like this, it isn’t too late. You can still socialize him, although it might take some time and planning.

If your stallion doesn’t respect people, fixing that needs to be a priority, and you might need to skip a breeding season to reform him. The loss of income from the missed breeding season might prevent bigger losses down the road, because stallions that don’t respect their human handlers create a liability for your farm. If you aren’t an experienced stallion handler, seek professional help from someone who is.

If you have stallion handling experience, start retraining your stallion now. Establish good behavior on the ground through re-teaching him to lead, stand tied, give to pressure and longe. Keep training sessions short in the beginning to keep his attention, and start with small goals so you can succeed. Turning him out in a paddock when you aren’t training helps him burn off excess energy so he’ll pay more attention during training sessions.

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Although many owners like the idea of letting their stallions live with other horses, they worry that the stallions won’t adjust to herd life and will end up injured. Sue McDonnell has spent much of her career as an equine behaviorist working with stallions. When asked how to integrate a stallion into a herd, Sue says, “In my experience, most spontaneously adapt within hours if simply turned out with other horses.”

Initially, your horse might squeal, run or kick at other horses. Mares may kick at him if he tries to mount them when they’re not in heat. But if you give him time, he’ll adjust.

Housing To Provide Social Contact

Traditionally, many stallion owners house their stallions together in barns. Lucky stallions also have runs off their stalls or paddocks next to other stallions, separated by an alley to reduce fighting.

However, research conducted on feral horses by Wayne Linklater, a professor and researcher at the University of Wellington in New Zealand, suggests this method of housing stallions might be counter-productive. Wayne observed groups of feral stallions and found that the dominant stallion in the herd kept the submissive stallions from mating with the mares. Sue has also observed that stallions breed more willingly and successfully the more they’re around mares.

The most natural way to house your stallion is in a herd with his mares. When a stallion lives with mares, he watches out for them and their foals, and he gets plenty of exercise. However he can become very protective of mares, making it hard for you to remove a mare from his herd.

Roll It!

Watch eight time AQHA Sooner Trailer All-Around Amateur Champion Karen Evans Mundy in action at the 2009 Bayer Select World Show.

Craig Haythorn of Haythorn Land and Cattle Co. in Arthur, Nebraska, prefers stallions on pasture, but he also houses them with other stallions. Craig says he keeps aged show stallions in pastures when they’re not on the show trail. Craig often keeps the stallions in groups of two or three, but he has had as many as eight in a group. He says it all depends on which ones get along.

“We have stallions who are nice, happy and easy to handle. I think that’s because the way they live is more natural,” he adds. “I’m not saying the way we do things is right or the way someone else does it is wrong, but what we do works for us.”

Every stallion owner needs to do what works for that owner and his or her stallions. If you aren’t able to house your stallion on pasture but still want him to interact with other horses, you have a few options:

• You can keep your stallion in a paddock by himself alongside your mare pasture. This way, he can see and interact with the mares over the fence.
• House your stallion in a paddock alongside a paddock with a mare or gelding he gets along with.
• House your stallion in a barn away from other stallions along with some of the mares he’ll be breeding.

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Eight time AQHA Sooner Trailer All-Around Amateur Champion Karen Evans Mundy keeps her stallion, The Article, next to a gelding companion who also travels with him. The two get along and provide each other companionship, and it helps The Article adjust to life at shows.

Stay tuned for the last part of this series.

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Considering your stallion’s social needs when you handle and house him pays you back with a happier horse.

Social interaction with other horses will teach a young stallion how to behave with other horses and make him easier to handle.

From The American Quarter Horse Journal

The Article is the type of stallion everyone wants to own. He’s handsome, talented and behaves like a gentleman in the training barn and show ring. He and owner Karen Evans Mundy of Cedar Hill, Tennessee, have developed a great partnership, winning many honors.

Karen knew he was a great horse when she bought him as a colt but says if he hadn’t behaved, she would have gelded him.

“I believe if a good colt is quiet and acts like a gelding, he deserves the chance to be a stallion. If he acts like a rowdy stallion as a colt, he needs to be a gelding,” Karen says.

Raising a Stallion Prospect

Creating a quiet stallion starts when he’s a colt, long before he’s ready to go in the show ring or old enough to breed mares. Since stallions are surrounded by people when showing and breeding, teaching them to respect humans when they’re young is important. Otherwise the extra precautions necessary with unruly stallions can increase your farm’s liability, cost you additional manpower and necessitate changes to your facility.

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When asked about her method for handling stallion prospects, Karen says, “Never give him the opportunity to learn he can hurt you. That has worked for The Article, and now you can discipline him with just a raised voice.”

Establish ground rules for behavior when colts are young. When a very young colt tries to bite, kick or strike, discipline him by walking away and ignoring him. This behavior mimics a mare’s treatment of her foal. If poor behavior persists, push him away from you or thump him on the rump, again mimicking mare behavior. Treating him like this isn’t cruel; it’s crueler to allow colts to behave poorly when they’re young as you may need stiffer punishments to eliminate bad habits later.

Roll It!

The Haythorn Ranch Company wins the 2009 AQHA Best Remuda award.

Sue McDonnell has spent much of her career as an equine behaviorist working with stallions, and she says colts need additional handling as they mature. In her experience, yearling colts often become touchy about having their mouths, legs and genitals handled, so plan on spending time desensitizing a colt to this again as a yearling.

When he’s 1½ to 2 years old, he’ll be able to breed. At that time, as his hormone levels increase, so does his energy. Increasing his training schedule and housing him with other colts he can play with helps him burn off excess energy, making him happier and easier to handle.

Although teaching a colt to respect humans is important, it is also important to give him plenty of social interaction with other horses to teach him how to behave with other horses and make him easier to handle. One of the best ways to do this is to house stallion prospects with other colts, which is what Craig Haythorn does at Haythorn Land and Cattle Co. in Arthur, Nebraska, winner of the 1992 AQHA Best Remuda Award.

In AQHA’s Horse Reproduction report, you’ll learn how to evaluate your mare’s reproductive conformation and what it means for your breeding plans.

“We keep our colts on alfalfa pastures after weaning. Then when they’re yearlings, we separate out the colts we want to keep and let them continue living together on pasture,” Craig says. “It is more natural than keeping them in a stall, and in my experience, they grow up to be easier to handle.”

Letting your colts live together on pasture works because it mimics feral horse behavior. Before feral colts reach sexual maturity, they leave their dams and join bachelor bands that consist of other colts and mature stallions. Bachelor bands provide protection and social contact for their members. The colts stage mock battles during which they not only learn to defend themselves, but also how to moderate their aggression so they do not seriously injure others. This early interaction can lead to adult stallions that get along better with other horses.

Stay tuned for the second part of this series.

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An incredible genetic circumstance creates a unique DNA puzzle.

Dunbars Gold, a 1996 brindle stallion by Two D Nine and out of Outa Chiggers by Outa Utopia. Genetic testing has shown the horse to be an extremely rare chimera, an individual with two DNA types.

By Christine Hamilton in The American Quarter Horse Journal

This is the second of a two-part story. Need to review Part 1?

Chimerism

In genetics, a chimera is an individual formed from two different cell lines. Scientists believe that it happens when two nonidentical twin embyos (fertilized eggs) fuse into one embryo very early in their development.

The embryo develops into a normal, complete individual that has two different DNA types. He or she might have kidneys that developed from one DNA type and a heart or skin cells from the other type.

Extremely rare, chimerism has been documented in other species, including cats and humans.

“Dunbars Gold has one cell line that is female and one cell line that is male,” explains Dr. Cecilia Penedo. “The cell lines have slightly different DNA types, but both qualify to his sire, so there’s not a parentage issue involved. It’s almost clear that there were two embryos produced, and they fused.”

Although chimeric in his skin and hair, Dunbars Gold’s reproductive organs were apparently formed by his male DNA type.

“It’s an interesting biological development event. He went on to develop as a completely normal male,” Dr. Penedo says.

The lab has tested several of his foals, and they were all produced by his male cell line.

When Dr. Penedo turned her attention to Sharp One, she again made note of the rare brindle coat pattern the mare had in common with Dunbars Gold.

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If Dunbars Gold was chimeric in his skin and hair, could there be a link between the equine brindle coat pattern and chimerism? What if the problem the lab was having qualifying Sharp One as the foal’s dam was also due to chimerism?

Like Dunbars Gold, Sharp One’s DNA type had also been initially established from mane and tail hair samples. However, according to Dr. Penedo, there was no evidence of chimerism in those hair samples.

“I wondered if she could be the opposite of Dunbars Gold,” Dr. Penedo says. “If she might show chimerism in her blood but not her hair.”

When Sharp One’s blood was tested, that’s exactly what Dr. Penedo found: two different cell lines (and DNA types) in the mare’s blood. But both of her cell lines were female.

The lab then tested Sharp One’s body hair taken from the darker and lighter areas of her brindle pattern.

“We were able to identify the two cell lines in the different (body hair) patches,” Dr. Penedo says.

When the lab compared the 2004 foal’s DNA type to Sharp One’s 2003 foal (her only other living foal so far), it found that each came from a different female cell line.

“Unlike Dunbars Gold, she is chimeric in her (reproductive organs),” Dr. Penedo explains. “She is producing two different types of eggs; they can be from one or the other cell line, which is a very interesting situation.

“Once we put the puzzle together, we were able to qualify the foal without any problem,” Dr. Penedo says.

Roll It!

Learn just what is done with the hair samples sent for DNA typing at the University of California at Davis lab.

The Pieces Fit

“We now have evidence of chimerism from two different brindle horses,” Dr. Penedo says. “We think that the brindle pattern in some horses could be explained by this very rare event, where two embryos fuse early on in their development and go on to make just one, single individual with different cell lines.”

Dr. Penedo is quick to point out that there is evidence of a type of brindling pattern in horses that appears to be inherited, linked to a coat pattern gene, as it is in dogs and cattle.

“We can’t say that it is always embryo fusion that leads to the brindling pattern in horses,” she says.

“But for the very classic, clear brindling pattern like we see in Dunbars Gold and Sharp One, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was caused by chimerism,” she continues.

“If it results from embryo development, then there is no genetic control, and you can’t really breed for it. Unless there is a gene controlling something that makes it more likely for the fusion to occur, such as something that increases the likelihood of a twin pregnancy.”

Dr. Penedo thinks you would only see outward evidence of chimerism in the coat pattern if the two embryos that fused had genes coding for contrasting coat colors.

“For example, if two bay embryos fused, or two chestnuts, you wouldn’t see anything,” she explains. “I think you’d see the brindle pattern if you had a combination of a base color with one dilution gene. In this case, it was the dun gene. Both Dunbars Gold and Sharp One have dun in their background.

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“It’s been a great learning experience,” Dr. Penedo adds. “It is shedding a little bit of light on the brindling pattern.”

Denise Charpilloz named her foal Sharp Barcoder, aka “Deuce.” Deuce is a solid sorrel, and there’s nothing chimeric about him. But he is the occasion for an incredible genetic coincidence: If Denise hadn’t been trying to breed for the rare brindle coat pattern, these even rarer chimeric individuals would never have met. And geneticists worldwide would not have had this once-in-a-lifetime chance of studying their DNA. What are the odds of that?

An incredible genetic circumstance creates a unique DNA puzzle.

Dunbars Gold, a 1996 brindle stallion by Two D Nine and out of Outa Chiggers by Outa Utopia. Genetic ttesting has shown the horse to be an extremely rare chimera, an individual with two DNA types.

By Christine Hamilton in The American Quarter Horse Journal

“Excluded.”

For the second time Denise Charpilloz had sent in hair from her 2004 foal out of her mare Sharp One for DNA testing and parentage verification. And for the second time, the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at the University of California, Davis, had excluded not only the stallion Dunbars Gold as the foal’s sire, but also Sharp One as the foal’s dam.

Every now and then, people make mistakes when they submit mane (or tail) hair samples for DNA testing on a foal. It usually happens when people accidentally mix hair if they’re collecting samples from more than one horse. Although very rare, sometimes mares can actually switch foals or the wrong stallion’s semen is unintentionally shipped and used to breed a mare.

All those scenarios result in a DNA test that “excludes” a mare or stallion as a foal’s parent. Usually it doesn’t take long to figure out what went wrong.

But “I saw it being born!” Denise says. “I didn’t mix it up with any other foals; there were no other foals!” And Dunbars Gold’s owner, Carole Dunbar, had only one stallion to ship semen from.

AQHA’s registration department turned back to the lab’s geneticists: could they please give the case another, much closer, look?

Puzzling Pattern

The case landed on the desk of Dr. Cecilia Penedo, the lab’s associate director of service and genomic research and development.

Dr. Penedo immediately noticed that Dunbars Gold and Sharp One are brindles.

“It’s a very rare coat pattern in horses,” she says, though it is common in dogs and cattle. “People have not been very successful reproducing this pattern through breeding, and we’ve never really had much information on the genetics of it because it is so rare.”

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In fact, of the more than 4.7 million American Quarter Horses registered with AQHA (excluding appendix horses), the registration department has a list of only 15 horses who have exhibited some form of the brindle coat pattern.

Dr. Penedo began reviewing the lab’s testing on the horses.

“When I looked up the stallion, Dunbars Gold, I found that we had tested him three times before we established his (DNA) type,” Dr. Penedo says.

The first two tests the lab ran were on mane and tail hair samples.

“At that time, there was something odd about his type,” she continues. “It looked like the hair samples came from two different animals, like the hair had been mixed together. We requested a second sample and had the same problem.”

Convinced the hair samples were getting contaminated, for the third test, the lab requested a blood sample from the horse.

“When the blood sample came in, we got a perfectly good type that would be consistent with one animal,” she said.

The blood test results also had some things in common with the hair results.

The lab used the DNA type obtained from blood for the parentage verification on Sharp One’s 2004 foal (the first of the stallion’s foals to be tested for parentage verification).

But in her review, something else caught Dr. Penedo’s attention.

“The oddest thing about the stallion’ blood sample results was that the DNA types for sex-linked markers were typical of a female and not a male,” Dr. Penedo says. “There was no evidence of a Y chromosome.”

Penedo decided to retest Dunbars Gold.

“We went back to the original hair samples and used a single hair for the DNA test,” she says. “And we performed several of these single-hair tests.

“Some of the tests yielded a perfectly good type for a male individual and some a good type for a female individual.”

Some of the results also showed two DNA types within a single hair root.

“At that point, I thought, ‘This horse is chimeric,’” Dr. Penedo says.

Stay tuned for the last half of this story.

You’ll learn to name all 17 recognized American Quarter Horse colors, be able to pick each of them out in a pasture full of horses, and better yet, you will know how each color is genetically derived. Learn all of this and more with AQHA’s Quarter horse Coat Colors report.