Bloodlines...

It´s a tricky business, breeding. Having an opinion on bloodlines can lead to heated discussions, but atleast then there is a discussion. What got me thinking is the lack of discussion and/or thought on the subject here in Sweden. You don´t hear much about peoples plan or ideas behind a certain cross.

I´ve touched on this in previous posts, but without a plan you´re bound to fail or atleast make things way more difficult. Mating the best with the best is one way to do it, regardless of the individuals or the bloodline they represent. I might not agree with that filosophy, but it´s still a plan.

A friend of mine mentioned in his blog that there has been a pretty good influx of solid, well bred cutting mares to Sweden lately. A very encouraging accurance. A breeding operations succes is closely linked to the quality of the mares. Now on to the burning question, once put in the broodmare band who will they be bred to? The neighbours pretty buckskin? The friend down the roads three legged bay who give breedings away?

I sincerely hope the owners of said mares have a solid plan inplace when the time comes. With the world closing in on us and the accessibility of good studs through AI, transported and frozen seemen we now have more or less the whole market to choose from. We do have some pretty interesting studs here aswell, albait a very limited few...

Remember it´s not the stud fee that makes or brakes your budget. Of all the costs involved in raising a colt from scratch to say, three years of age, the stud fee might be 1/8 to 1/10 of the grand total. Now, a stud fee here in the Swedish market ranges from maybe 10.000:- to 18.000:- (ca.$1000-2500) If you upped that amount somewhat, say in the $ 2.500-4.000 range, you would be able to breed to some of the most prominent bloodlines in the business. Giving you every possibillity of creating a program and sticking with a plan.

Now this doesn´t necessarily guarantee you a succesful colt, but you´re most definately heading in that direction.

Then there´s the question of training that royally bred colt to be a champion, solid contender or a deluxe ranch horse, but that´s a whole different can of worms....