I have Arabian Horses Does anyone have any tips on Breeding them?

Question

Both have Egytptian and Polish Blood Lines, and no lie I am for real. Look for Jasmine Haj Lyn in the American Horse Registry....

Just looking for tips we are going for a Baby this years first. Ages are 7 and 6.

Thanks Karin I have a stallion already....Abus Aladdin JEU he is my stallion....beautiful Grey. All the perfect traits, and Jasmine Lyn has all the atributes of strength.

Answer 1

When you're contemplating the possible matings, the important thing is to look at the physical issues that your mares have rather than looking at the bloodlines. You want to breed to a stallion that "fits" your mare in the sense of complementing her physical strengths and weaknesses. E.g., if your mare has less-than-perfect legs, you don't want to breed her to a stallion that has the same problem.

Norman Dunn, who was head of the Arabian Horse Program while I was there, and who knew a thing or three about breeding Arabians, was opposed to breeding horses that were extremely dissimilar in physical type, because he felt that this tended to produce offspring that were a physical hodgepodge. E.g., he didn't believe it was a good idea to breed a small, very light-boned, physically refined mare to a big, big-boned, less refined stallion in an attempt to get an offspring that was somewhere in the middle of the characteristics. He would go along with the physical type the mare had, only less extreme in the characteristics you wanted to improve on.

There are some people who hold with the concept of "nicks", which means breeding horses of certain bloodlines because those bloodlines seem to cross well. Some breeders swear by this, and it's true that if certain crosses seem to work well it certainly behooves looking closely at that option. But you still have to look at the physical individuals involved-- a horse cannot pass on what he/she doesn't have, and you can't improve on a characteristic if the breeding stock you're using is uniformly deficient in that characteristic.

If I were you, I would start with getting an objective evaluation of the mares you intend to breed. This means someone with good credentials, who has no stake in the mares, either emotionally or financially, taking a hard look at them and assessing their strengths and weaknesses. (I say this because when you own a horse, it is sometimes hard to be objective about the weaknesses that horse has. We tend to be more forgiving of faults and flaws in animals we love than in animals we aren't involved with, and this is not a good thing when planning matings.)

Then take a look at the stallions available to you: are you going to breed only to stallions within a certain distance of where you live, or are you willing to travel further? Will you consider transported semen and artificial insemination as an option? How much are you willing to pay for a stud fee?

Once you know the answer to those questions, you will know what your "long list" of stallions to choose from will be. Then you need to ask further questions, such as: do you intend to keep the foals, or do you intend to sell them? If you intend to sell them, are the progeny of the stallions you are looking at well-received by the market? (If you intend to sell, you need to know that in most cases, however much you pay for a stud fee, the value of the resultant foal will not exceed the value of the mare-- in other words, if you breed a $1,000 mare to a stallion whose fee is $15,000, most likely the foal will only be worth about $1,000.)

If you intend to keep the foal yourself, you need to think about what you want to use the foal for, and try to select a stallion whose progeny do well in this area.

I would advise you, once you're narrowed down your list of stallions, to try to look at as many of the stallion's progeny as you can. If the stallion is unproven and you can't look at his progeny, then look at his near relatives-- other offspring of his dam, of his sire, and so forth. Trust your eyes rather than what looks good on paper. You cannot make good mating decisions just by going with what looks good on paper. You have to look at the individuals involved.

Last factor: Arabians as a breed have a problem with an inherited lethal disease, Combined Immunodeficiency Syndrome. There is a test for carriers. If you don't know your mares' status with regard to this disease, then have them tested so you know whether they are carriers or not. Also make sure you know the status of any stallion you are considering, even if your mares are not carriers-- if you breed to a carrier, you stand a chance of producing a carrier, and you don't want to do that if you have a choice.

Good luck.

Answer 2

Study the blood lines. There are Egyptian and Polish Arabs. Arabs are used in Western, English and general pleasure. Genetics is a big thing, so make sure that you are breeding for what you want.

Answer 3

lies