Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Breeding For Perfection

June 28, 2008

“Acorns don’t fall far from the tree,” the old saying goes. That seems to be especially true when it comes to breeding traits passed from stallion to son.

Over the years, stallion managers who have observed successive generations of sires perform in the breeding shed have noticed similarities in their breeding styles.

Fathers and sons commonly are observed to have similar temperaments, but these idiosyncrasies go much further, said Sue McDonnell, Ph.D., founding head of the Equine Behavior Program at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center. McDonnell has studied the behavior of successive generations of a herd of research ponies at New Bolton, and she often is consulted when a client’s stallion presents a problem in the breeding shed.

“The reason I think there can be a large component of sexual behavior that is genetically passed on is that you often see some very specific, quirky little elements of sexual behavior that occur exactly in the son as they do in the dad, and they’ll occur in many of the sons of a sire,” she said.

McDonnell noted one stallion and his sons that would kick out with one hind leg in the first stage of arousal. Another stallion passed on his vocalizations in the breeding shed to his sons. Other stallion lines are known for playing with a mare’s tail hair, a fondness for sniffing the mare’s udder as part of the mating ritual, or a preference for a particular-¬colored mare.

“And you’ll say, ‘Gosh, that’s just like his dad did when he first started breeding,’ or ‘That’s just like his brothers,’ ” McDonnell said.

McDonnell, who teaches a short course in stallion handling at New Bolton each year, said that even though the horse may have some inherited breeding traits, proper training and management can overcome the ones that become problems.

“A lot of a horse’s actual libido and performance is very much dependent on how he’s handled,” McDonnell said. “There are those stallions that, for example, if they’re handled roughly, will shut down. Or if they’re given a lot of good handling, they do extraordinarily well. So it’s kind of how they interact with people—¬either being predisposed for problems or predisposed to be very resistant to problems.”
McDonnell said the first few experiences in the breeding shed for a novice stallion are a very delicate period that can affect his future behavior either positively or negatively.

“I’m not usually involved until there is a problem,” she said. “But usually I’m not at liberty to tell the owners that it runs in lines. It’s a delicate thing. You can say things run in lines, and I’ve known stallions that every single son of theirs that I have met had some of these little quirks, but I’m sure there are lots of sons that don’t, and you don’t want to give a line a bad name or oversell a line and say that every one is going to be ¬problem-free.”

Interestingly, McDonnell said she also notices similar breeding behavior in mothers and daughters.

“If you know that the behavior is inherited, you can probably get good tips from people about what has made it better or worse, and make the most of what you have rather than to fight it,” she said. “They may have failed miserably [in coping with the problem], but you can learn from what they did.”

McDonnell urged those who must cope with challenging breeding behavior to consult an expert who may have overcome a similar problem with a stallion of the same lineage.

“They may not be able to reveal how they know that, but they may be able to give you some really good tips on how to work with it,” she said.

Ed Squires, Ph.D., professor of biomedical sciences at Colorado State University, said he has encountered lines of stallions that have had weak libidos and those that pass on aggressive behavior when bred.

“The tricky thing is trying to sort out what is heritable and what is man-induced by poor management,” Squires said.

On your toes

WinStar Farm General Manager Tony Cissell said when stallion handlers are aware of a particular trait that tends to be passed down through a bloodline, they need to be attentive so they can recognize the subtle signs that may lead to an undesirable situation.

“It’s just important that you stay on top of those kinds of horses,” Cissell said. “Knowing that the potential is there doesn’t mean it’s going to show itself, but you have to be on guard.”

Cissell added that some stallions that initially seem to be timid breeders might be reacting to previous training that discouraged sexual expression, so it is just a matter of retraining and reassurance.

“Young horses that come right off the track, they’ve been reprimanded for expressing sexual behavior, and now we’re asking them to express it, so it can be a little confusing initially for some of them,” he said.

With horses that naturally have a good libido, Cissell said it is easy to override previous training.

“Whereas horses that are a little bit shy or a little bit more timid will want things to be very smooth, as far as the whole process,” he said. “You want them to be more confident, so you want a mare that’s absolutely quiet, that’s not going to move and who’s going to allow them to gain their confidence. It does seem to me that as long as they’ve had some good experiences, that helps get them on the right track.”

John Sosby, retired general manager of Claiborne Farm, emphasized that all horses are intelligent individuals, and he said recognizing that fact is an important first step in gaining their cooperation.

“There’s a chapter or two to be written in the book of the many quirks you deal with,” he said. “You’re fooling with an animal that is just different, and, like humans, they all have a different personality. You have to be on top of your game and pay attention to what you’re doing.”