This message is from: ceacy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sorry guys,
I sent my last post to the wrong list!!! Obviously it was meant for the clicker training list, so if it didn't make any sense to you , that's why. As far as stallion evaluation versus mare evaluations, the Dutch and Norwegians do put a great deal of emphasis on the mares. But as is true in all livestock, the breeding male has the potential of producing more offspring in his breeding career than does the female, and thus the importance of selecting a breeding male that exhibits the qualities you are selecting for takes on a disproporionate amount of importance . It is more important perhaps in the big picture , as in your total program, but not on an individual basis. I have always believed that the mare contributes more to the offspring, but not genetically speaking, since as it is understood now, both parents contribute 50% of the foals genetic material. But the mare raises the foal and thus her qualities such as milking and mothering ability, her temperament, etc. will effect the foal in ways that the stallion cannot. What you are referring to in your comment about a mare that can be bred to any stallion and still produce a good foal, is called prepotency. An animal that contributes a trait very consistently is said to be prepotent for that characteristic. I would like to add however, that what you see, the phenotype, is only part of the genetic material an individual is carrying, the genotype. It is really very difficult to assign an origin of many characteristics in an offspring because although one of the parents may show those characteristics and the other doesn't, it does not mean that the parent that doesn't show the characteristic does not carry it in their genotype. The only way you can say anything about a stallion's prepotency in any given characteristic is to see many, many offspring, far more than any stallion in this country is likely to produce. Occasionally you will see a characteristic that will appear to be linked with a given stallion, and it is fair to look for those characteristics as possibly be connected and pay attention to it, but it is better to be cautious in assigning the origin of characteristics to one individual or the other.
