This message is from: "Birgit Mortensen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Re: Digest no 269, 272 and 273 For those of you interested in breeding, what follows is a little about the 'all important' index-figures, i.e. the figures computed from the success of a stallion or mare's progeny, and the evaluations in the family. This figure gives a common standard throughout our country to guide potential breeders and set standard to when a stallions breeding license can be taken away and when a stallion and a mare can be entered in our Elite-studbook. Now that this years index-figures have arrived from 'the big computer' we can see that out of the 52 licensed breeding stallions in 2004 only one has lost his breeding license due to the index-figures. The stallion in question is the last active Rei Halsnaes-son, Caesar Halsnaes. Caesar Halsnaes is 27 years old and has been semi-retired as a breeding stallion for some years. But he will not be forgotten. We have 63 evaluated son and daughters of his in our database and 154 grandchildren. He has also been licensed in Germany, so there will be offspring of his there too. 13 years ago his index was 135. Today it is 118. Breeding is about improving, and when that happens, the younger stallions rise up the lists, and the older ones get pushed down. Several of you have mentioned on the digest how much you thought of Rei Halsnaes (born 1971), and he was the 'super-stallion' in his time, today his index is 123. He is registered with 107 evaluated sons and daughters and 521 grandchildren, and there is no doubt that the family has kept his index up. Number one on today's list is Knast Halsnaes (grandfather Caesar Halsnaes), who was sold to Sweden about 12 years ago. His index is 142. I suppose you don't know many of the Danish stallions, but some of you might have heard about number 5 on the list Kastanjegaardens Fernando (grandfather Knast Halsnaes), who since 2001 has been standing at Green Valley Farm in Illinois. His index is 137. The index-figure is always mentioned in combination with another figure, which indicates the certainty of the index. We actually receive two stallion-lists, the abovementioned one for the older stallions, where the certainty level starts with 0,70 and the other for the younger stallions (where only a few if any offspring have been evaluated) and where the certainty level starts at 0,56. We receive lists every year with index-figures for the foals with evaluated parents. A foal-index is meant to tell you of the breeding potential of the individual, and is simply an average of the parents index-figures, and the certainty-level is low. It is not always that a young stallions with a good initial index-figures will get a breeding-license or that he will keep it at his second or third evaluation. When the colt has attended his first evaluation the certainty-level goes up to 0,56, but it is still to be remembered that he might have inherited his good index and may not be able to pass the qualities on to his offspring. So what really determines the certainty level (for good or for bad) is the number of evaluated offspring and the results of the evaluations. And not to forget: we have also received the 2004 index-figures for more than 3000 evaluated mares, 3 years and older. Hope I haven't bored you. If you were to ask me, if all our members are interested in BLUP, the answer is 'no'. Many have fjordhorses because they like the life with them, they enjoy the sight of them and the foals on the pasture and they like to ride and drive. But another group studies the index-figures and the evaluation-descriptions, because they want the very best if possible. Through the stallion-evaluations we try to secure a group of good breeding stallions available for everybody (interested in BLUP or not). Should you be interested in having a look at this years breeding stallions, you will find them on www.fjordhest.dk, click the Danish flag in the middle, and then click the left-corner below stallion Rosendalsborken (who by the way would now be over 100 years old, having been born in Norway in 1863). In less than a month next years stallion directory will be published, and there is a lot of changes due to sales to abroad and various other factors. Best regards from Denmark Birgit
