Pedigree Assignment - How To Get Started

[pookaa]

Many of our ABMHA members are involved in "pedigree assignment" or "PA" - developing bloodlines for our model horses. It can be a fascinating part of model horse collecting and can let one learn about different breeds, color genetics and real horse bloodlines.

One of the best resources I have found for PA is a club called IPABRA (International Pedigree Assignment and Bloodline Research Association). Their introductory page by Daralyn Wallace is a wealth of knowledge:

www.ipabra.org/intro.php
(UPDATE: link broken. :-( )

She covers color genetics, age factors, using real or model horses as parents, and how to set up your own sire/dam list and offer your models as parents.

Those are the basics - if you have questions, feel free to post them here! ;D

Cheers,
Kay

[Rebekka]

good topic Kay

[freedomequestrian]

it'd make things way easier for building your own horses pedigrees good idea!

[lindar]

Wow, this pedigree assignment stuff looks like a lot of fun, but a bit intimidating! How do you figure out what year your mare and studs are "open?"

[Courtney]

Depends on your personal preference. Some people "breed" their mares and stallions at 3 years of age, or stallions at 4 years and mares at 5 or some combination of that. So once you determine your mares year of birth (say 2000), her open years would be 2003-now (at 3 years) or 2005-now (at 5 years).

Again, the year they stop breeding is up to the owner as well. Some people choose 20 breeding years, or til the horse is 30, or something else, for whatever reason. (I have my general horses stay open for 20 years past their year of birth, so they are open for 15-16 years, but my "best" horses can stay open longer).

Hope that helps!

Edit: Also, there is the question of what to do with your model once it reaches the end of its breeding years (mostly for the "old" horses). Some people have that model born from itself, with a different name, so the model will constantly be "alive". Others just permanently retire their horse once the breeding years run out (nicer way to put it than "dying").

[pookaa]

I generally make my stallions available at age three, my mares at age four with exceptions (racing TBs, QHs, etc). Studs will usually sire foals crops up to age 25 - mares are allowed 18 - 20 foal crops. At that point, I will pension the sire/dam.

Between ages 10 and 15, I will breed a replacement for each horse, so that when the sire or dam is retired, I have an I.D. ready to be used for that model. If the retiring sire/dam still has available years I will keep their open years available after retirement.

In addition to my current and pensioned models, I can also make available my older breeding stock.

Cheers,
Kay

[lindar]

Okay, that all makes sense. But I choose not to have "aging" horses, so does that complicate things? Wouldn't my studs and mares be open all the time?

[Courtney]

Hmm...I dunno how they do it on that side of the fence lol

[Rebekka]

nope you deside age and it stays at it but you still can make just one foal per year to mares.
we say mare is desided to be 15 years old.. you have bred her since she was 3 so she can have 12 foals only

[Courtney]

But that means she can have indefinite foals as the years go on? In 20 years in the future, she will be 15 still, but have had 15+ foals?

[lindar]

Yeah, I don't quite understand it, either. I guess maybe it's easiest for pedigree assignment if your horses are aging, huh?

[Courtney]

I think so

The only downside for me is the foal molds--their picture will always be as a foal and never be grown up. There is a way to avoid that, though, but it limits your # of horses--pair foals with "grown" molds, so that when they grow up, they become that model, and all your breeding stock will be adults. I don't do it because I'd rather the foals all be their own horse, but it's doable.

Aging, for me, seems easier to keep track of. You can choose when you want your horse to "retire/die/end", and if you want to continue the model on as another identity. They have a set number of years, foals, and its easier to find parents when you know the exact year of birth of your horse.

[lindar]

Yeah, that makes sense. I haven't gotten into the pedigree assignment stuff yet; I just got into models last year, so I'm learning a lot, and as I go :-) But I do think that this is very fascinating stuff (what horse-crazy girl doesn't dream of having her own breeding farm!), and that I will likely be getting into it. I would like to get pedigrees for all of my SMs I own.

And I do see what you mean about the foals. I only have two SM foals so far, and might not get too many others.

[lindar]

I also have a quick question about the naming of models. I tend to come up with names that I think fit each horse, and they don't adher to any breed standards. I plan on having a part of each name of the sire or dam in the foal's name, though, to help keep track of who his/her parents are. Would this count against my horses being registered with model clubs, or in being used by other people for pedigrees? Just curious. Thanks!

[Courtney]

As for your own breeding farm, you can have certain rules that require outside foals to carry a specific prefix (aka your sire's name, dam's name, farm's name, etc) in their names, if you wish. Some people do this so they can easily recognize a foal bred out of their farm.

But, keep in mind this may deter some people from using your horses. (I personally don't like being "forced" to use a word in my horse's name when I have found the perfect name for it already, for example).

I'm not sure on other model clubs and their naming rules--I don't belong to any model breed registration ones, so I can't answer that aspect of it!