Reaching out of the Box

STALLION SECTION FEATURE
A shrinking gene pool within some lines of
the Quarter Horse has breeders searching
for fresh blood to restore size and integrity
to their performance equines.
By Annie Lambert
T
oo much of a good thing — it’s the
American way.
Modern Quarter Horses have
become outstanding athletes and very
specialized at their jobs through linebreeding. But
when the “Super Size Me” mentality leads to the
demise of genetic integrity, it’s time to regroup.
Cutting horses, possibly due to the very specific
nature of their sport, have been crossed over and
narrowed down to a mere handful of pedigree lines.
The desire to improve the definitive traits that create a phenomenal cutting horse have caused the
interbreeding of closely related individuals.
Some breeders realize they have painted themselves into a corner, genetically speaking, and have
opted to pour fresh genes into the pool. In the process, they hope to retain athletic prowess and regain
some characteristics that have been lost, while mini116 QUARTER HORSE NEWS
• January 15, 2006
mizing the negative effects of inbreeding.
Over the Line
A cutting horse shrinking in size, with poor conformation and soundness issues, particularly in the
hocks and stifles, has sounded an alarm to breeders.
Dr. Jerry Black is involved with performance
horse breeding through his and his wife Melinda’s
Valley Oak Ranch in Oakdale, Calif. Dr. Black,
however, also sees the extended results of inbreeding on the other end of his practice at Pioneer
Equine Hospital.
“We are not breeding for conformation, we’re
not looking at the other developmental problems,
we are only looking for performance,” Black, 2006
president of the Pacific Coast CHA, opined. “The
number one problem we have is developing orthopedically. That could include a club foot or osteo-
Buffalo Ranch’s Thoroughbred
Woodford Cat showed intent focus,
cowiness and presence as he
tracked a cow in the round pen.
chondrosis lesions and certainly conformational
defects and those types of things. The whole group
is considered genetically influenced.”
The genetic defects themselves are becoming
more and more prone, according to Dr. Black,
including the very disconcerting skin disorder HERDA (Hyperelastosis Cutis), GBED
(Glycogen Branching Enzyme Deficiency) and the
possibility of other debilitating diseases which have
not even surfaced yet.
“I think we are on a very difficult track here,”
Black concluded. “As we seek higher performance
we’re losing sight of good, basic breeding. With the
popularity of some genetic lines, we’re headed on a
very slippery slope.”
Scoop Vessels, a recent past president of the
American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA)
and a breeder at his Vessels Stallion Farm, Bonsall,
Calif., sees another problem with the segregated
breeding happening within the Quarter Horse
industry. He would like to see the Quarter Horse
come back to its roots as a more versatile, allaround animal.
“We’ve boxed ourselves into a corner in all
aspects of the Quarter Horse business,” said
Vessels. “Our (Quarter Horse) became so good at
certain things that breeders started going off in
tangents. We have diversified and have not only
diversified for what we can do, but we’ve diversified
ANNIE LAMBERT
Reaching
out of the Box
“It is prudent of our breeders to understand that
we have a problem first of all. Sometimes it is hard
for us to admit it. We still are the same (Quarter
Horse) horse. We have diversified and bred enough
now where we are evolving into some things and
some diversifications that we don’t like. I think it
is important for all of us to remember little things
like, Doc Bar was a race horse.”
-Scoop Vessels, Vessels Stallion Farm, Bonsall, Calif.
Genome Genre
Phil Rapp, Weatherford, Texas, is one mainstream breeder, trainer and rider who has seen the
problems approaching and realizes it is time for
action.
“For years we’ve been speculating that the cutting horse industry needs an outcross,” said Rapp.
“You can’t keep breeding these relatives. I do it, but
the tighter you breed these horses the more problems you’re going to come up with.”
“I’ve got some babies out here that go back to
Doc Bar eight or nine times,” Rapp added. “When
you start looking at those animals you say, ‘Where
do I breed this horse?’”
Rapp and his wife Mary Ann have partnered
with Jim and Carolyn Ware of Western Bloodstock
and Dave and Clare Capps, Millsap, Texas, in half
ownership of a Thoroughbred stallion. The other
half of the potential outcross sire is held jointly
by T.L. “Johnny” Jones, their point man in the
Thoroughbred industry, and the 6666s Ranch in
Guthrie, Texas.
Rapp and his partners thought if they could come
up with a legitimate outcross that most of the cutting horse industry would get behind them. And,
Rapp pointed out, horsemen from pleasure horses,
halter horses and other disciplines that have their
own set of genetic problems are also looking for an
outcross and might be interested in such a horse.
Thoroughbred Ketchum Cowboy, a 2003 son of
Salt Lake out of Snowmass by Kingmambo, was
purchased as a yearling and made one start as a 2year-old under the direction of D. Wayne Lucas in
Kentucky.
Anxious to evaluate his prowess as a cutting
horse, the colt was sent to Curtis Bass, Seymour,
Texas, who rode him through last summer and put
him on cattle. The group would ultimately like to
put some NCHA earnings on their Thoroughbred.
Rapp, who has also considered buying a
Thoroughbred mare to breed to a cutting horse
sire, is open to all options in the search for a viable
outcross or near outcross. The Ketchum Cowboy
partnership has given the subject in depth thought.
“Cutting horses all basically come from race
horses anyway with the sons of Doc Bar and Three
Bars (TB) and that,” Rapp explained. “We looked
at how many generations it might take. I thought it
was going to be important to have the influence of
Smart Little Lena in that foal somewhere, probably
on the maternal side, because the resulting horse
would look like what we’re used to seeing in today’s
cutting horse.”
Rapp figures it may take two, three and possibly
more generations to get the horse they are looking
for.
“I had a couple of different ideas,” Rapp said.
“Potentially you could breed a Smart Little Lena
mare to one of these (Thoroughbred) race horses
and then, if you got a stallion, breed him back to a
daughter of Dual Pep or something like that to get
that next generation stallion.”
Another option, said Rapp, would be to breed a
mare, possibly something along the lines of a Dual
Pep, Dual Rey, etc, to the Thoroughbred. A son of
that combination would then be crossed back onto
a daughter of Smart Little Lena. The main objective would be to free up the gene pool while retaining the popular cutting horse look with a little
added size and soundness.
“We’re worried about the look,” Rapp admitted.
“Our business right now has such a definite look
that everybody wants. When you introduce a larger
horse with a gait much longer that is going to have
a different style … My feeling is that we’re going
to have a little bit of Smart Little Lena in there
just to make sure we have a similar product that is
marketable.”
Down the road from Rapp’s at the DLR Stallion
Station, Chris and Vicki Benedict are working on
some new bloodlines. They found a Thoroughbred
stallion they like at the nearby Scarlet Hills Farm.
“Relagate is gorgeous with lots of bone, good
feet and good minded,” Vickie said.
“Chris commented that you wouldn’t know this
horse was a Thoroughbred, he looks like a good
Quarter Horse. We had one of his sons on our
AquaTred and it was flat beautiful.”
The Benedicts purchased an egg from Kelly
Yates’ champion barrel racing mare Firewater
Fiesta, according to Vicki. They plan to breed her
to Relagate. Because all of the mare’s siblings are
cow horses, Chris will try cutting on the foal, but if
it doesn’t cut, they plan to send it to a barrel horse
trainer. It will be, Vickie pointed out, “fresh blood.”
“We need some outcrossing on these cutting
horses,” Vickie said. “Horses you want to breed
to are all Doc O’Lena or Smart Little Lena bred.
I have a Doc O’Lena mare out of Doc N Missy,
named Autumn Dream. If you get too linebred,
you end up with stifle issues, bad hocks, OCD
(defective cartilage) … all kinds of problems.”
Pete and Marilyn Bowling, owners of Oasis
Ranch, Herald, Calif., will be experimenting with
a double-registered Thoroughbred/Paint stallion this year. Before The Bell (American Paint
Horse Association (APHA) name Smokin Streak)
is a royally bred son of Danzig (TB) out of the
Affirmed mare, Buy The Firm (TB), a race earner
of nearly $750,000.
“I think we need more bone, foot and substance
on these horses,” said Pete. “Losing size is one of
the negatives to all the linebreeding. Each successive generation gets smaller and frailer.”
Bowling also likes to make sure every animal he
raises is of the size and quality to be marketable in
some area. If his homebreds are not successful in the
cutting pen, he needs them to be strong and sound
enough to be competitive in other disciplines, much
like his former stallion Hobby Doc’s get.
“When Hobby Doc got done, he had colts that
had won 17 different performance events,” Bowling
said. “If I raise one, I want him to be the best he
can be for somebody, somewhere. We can’t afford
to waste one.”
Bowling added that he is not convinced that
Thoroughbred lines hold the entire cure for
inbreeding problems within the industry.
“There has only been one Thoroughbred horse
in history — Three Bars — whose colts have
crossed and his daughters have produced,” Bowling
said. “From Depth Charge (TB) to Swift Solo
(TB), there has never been another Thoroughbred
horse that has had a significant impact in the second and third generation.”
January 15, 2006 • QUARTER HORSE NEWS 117
KATIE TIMS
within our own breeding ranks.”
The Vessels family has always outcrossed their
running Quarter Horses using Thoroughbred
blood. Vessels is now crossing that racing blood,
which is often 7/8 Thoroughbred, back onto some
cutting bred mares.
“The word is getting out that people are looking
for an outcross,” Vessels said. “They realize the outcross they are looking for is probably within their own
breed, they just have to look next door a little bit.
“In other words, I think that if we just started
breeding across these lines once again, to get back
to that one horse that can do all these things, we’d
be much better off. We’d be much healthier in the
years to come.”
California horseman
Scoop Vessels, past
AQHA president
STALLION SECTION FEATURE
“Hybrid Vigor on the first cross is outstanding,”
he added, “but that cross doesn’t produce. I’m still
not sure that we’re going to find an outcross with the
Thoroughbreds that will work, but we’ve got to try it.”
Bowling feels an individual free of Doc Bar
genetics may be a better answer. Oasis stands two
stallions, Master Jay (Colonel Freckles x Missy Jay
x Rey Jay) and Cutters Smoke (Bright Smoke x
Cutter’s Lucky x Cutter Bill) specifically because
they have no Doc Bar blood.
“I think this is an alternative,” Bowling said of
sidestepping Doc Bar’s genes. “If you breed a stallion with no Doc Bar to mares that have no Doc
Bar, then those colts are potential outcrosses from
the Doc Bar-bred horses. If you could find one of
those that work, you’ll have fewer problems with the
hybrid vigor situation because you’re not going out
of the breed to come up with a different bloodline.”
An Individual Fit
118 QUARTER HORSE NEWS
• January 15, 2006
ANNIE LAMBERT
Veterinarian Dr. Glenn Blodgett from the 6666s
Ranch agrees that linebreeding has taken physical substance out of the modern cutting-bred Quarter Horse.
“They naturally breed a winner to a winner,” Dr.
Blodgett said of competitive horsemen. “All of a
sudden 15 years down the road, we’ve got about
four bloodlines that we’re crossing back on one
another. One of the things I see happening is a
trend toward these horses becoming more unsound.
They are finer boned, have smaller feet and are
just more fragile horses. Some of that is coming
through genetically.”
Popularity has made the smaller horses prevalent
at cutting competitions, which is accented by the
natural tendency of linebred horses to lose size.
Dick and Brenda Pieper, who stand Playgun in
Marietta, Okla., preach that correct conformation
is what allows a horse to be quick and agile, not
solely a petite stature. Larger horses with a proper
build, they said, can be just as athletic as smaller
equines. Dr. Blodgett agrees.
“In the show pen, a horse is sometimes showier
when he can hop twice instead of hopping once,”
Blodgett said. “It looks like he is doing more, but
he’s really not. It is just flashier if they hop twice.”
The 6666s has used Thoroughbred stallions and
mares for years under Dr. Blodgett’s direction.
“The Thoroughbred has had a big influence
on the geldings we ride on remuda at the Four
Sixes,” said Blodgett. “I’m constantly experimenting
around with different Thoroughbred bloodlines.
“We’re still focused on raising good ranch horses,
which we think are just a good, all-around Quarter
Horse. They are something you can go cut on
when you need to; they have the size and stamina
to go do any job you need them to do. We are real
cognizant of these feet and legs that they’ve got
and the amount of bone they have.”
Bobby Lewis has been showing Sixes Country
for the 6666s in roping. The 7-year-old stallion, by
Salt Lake (a Thoroughbred that is also the sire of
Ketchum Cowboy) out of a Tanquery Gin/Peppy
San Badger-bred mare, qualified for the World
Show in Heading. Because the stallion has good
feet and legs, a short back and good withers, he
may eventually be added to the stallion roster at
the 6666s.
“The wither is something we’re real conscious
of on these horses,” said Blodgett. “We like a deep
heart girth too; it is a big indicator of how much
stamina a horse has. These guys nearly have to cut
Phil and Mary Ann Rapp with son Ryan loaded up on their foundation broodmare Playboys Ruby.
“It is an interesting concept that we’re excited
about. We could have this conversation 10 years
from now and say we were way off or we could
have this conversation and say what a miracle
it was — it was a success.”
-Phil Rapp, Weatherford, Texas
STALLION SECTION FEATURE
Relagate is a very Quarter Horse-looking Thoroughbred,
according to Chris (above) and Vicki Benedict who operate
DLR Stallion Station in Weatherford, Texas.
Master Jay, Colonel Freckles x Missy Jay x Rey Jay, has no Doc Bar in his pedigree.
• January 15, 2006
David & Shane Plummer from Buffalo Ranch.
ROBERT EUBANKS
120 QUARTER HORSE NEWS
GLORY ANN KURTZ
some of the (cutting) horses in two with the girth
in order to keep the saddle on their back. We just
can’t have that kind of horse working on a ranch.”
Dr. Blodgett has also looked toward running
Quarter Horse sires as well as stallions in the reining and cow horse worlds to unclog the genetics.
“We have tried Wimpys Little Step (Nu Chex
To Cash x Leolita Step x Forty Seven) and I’m
pretty pleased with what I’m seeing,” Blodgett said.
“(Wimpys Little Step) is a smaller kind of horse,
but his pedigree has a lot of outcross potential.”
David Plummer, owner of Buffalo Ranches in
Farmington, Utah, and Fort Worth, Texas, along
with his son Shane, realizes the pitfalls of an
inbreeding trend.
The Plummers, leading commercial breeders
in the Thoroughbred racing industry, are breeding a Thoroughbred stallion, Woodford Cat, to
15 of their best performance-bred Quarter Horse
mares this year. ‘Woody’ is a Quarter Horse-looking 4-year-old by Tale Of The Cat (TB) out of
Conquistas Jessica (TB) by Boundary (TB). A
winner in his first start at 3, the brown stallion
sustained a career-ending knee fracture his second
time out.
“We picked him for genetic reasons, for conformation reasons, for temperament and athletic ability,” said Shane. “Thoroughbreds are probably the
most intelligent horse of them all. They lack the
absolute athleticism of Quarter Horses, which have
been bred to turn on a dime, but by crossing the
two, you can get a superior animal that has soundness, intelligence and everything. We’re trying to
strengthen the (Quarter Horse) breed; we believe
there is a demand for that.”
Shane and David have researched genetics extensively in their horse business and also for their passion of raising racing pigeons. The pigeon’s shorter,
18-day gestation period, Shane said, has helped
him learn from the birds how linebreeding influences genetics. Plummer learned there are three
main theories when breeding animals:
Leading cutting horse breeders Jack & Susan Waggoner.
“If you’re not breeding competitive horses
it is no fun to raise them. They are so special
and cutting is what they are bred to do.
If they can’t do it then they are not something
you want to continue to use.”
-Jack Waggoner, Waggoner Ranch, Weatherford, Texas
One is a pure heterozygous cross. Taking two
completely non-linebred/outcross horses and
breeding them together. Sometimes that fairs well,
Shane said, and sometimes it doesn’t.
In another theory, a heavily linebred horse on top
and a completely heterozygous horse on the bottom are mated. The third concept is to cross two
extremely homozygous animals — animals that
are extremely line bred on the top and bottom line,
but related through different families. (i.e. different
sons or grandsons of Doc Bar).
“We believe the best way to find an outcross
is using an extremely homozygous Quarter
Horse, one that has extensive linebreeding in the
STALLION SECTION FEATURE
“It is really unfortunate, but by the time you get
enough credibility of any type in this business,
you’re too old to have much of an impact. If you
take the Thoroughbred route, it’s going to be at
least four years before you know if it worked. In
four years one of us is going to be pushing 60.
–Pete Bowling, Oasis Ranch, Herald, Calif.
ANNIE LAMBERT
122 QUARTER HORSE NEWS
• January 15, 2006
Leading Cutting Horse Breeders and owners of
the popular cutting sire High Brow Cat, have
looked toward the running Quarter Horse lines for
their own outcross solution.
Having worked on his outcross project for about
seven years, Jack said he has found the first generation did not produce the results he was looking for.
“We bred a Smart Little Lena mare to Royal
Quick Dash (First Down Dash x Harems Choice
x Beduino (TB) and got a filly,” said Jack. “She was
a nice, sound horse, but she wasn’t very cowy. We
then bred that mare to Pretty Boy Cat and have
got a really, really nice 2-year-old. That’s the oldest
second generation we’ve got.”
Waggoner is also breeding Call Me Dana, a
race-bred Quarter mare by Call Me Together out
of Danas Honey by Doc O’Vegas Boy. Call Me
Dana, an earner of over $30,000 at the races, is
double-bred Dash For Cash on the top and has
Doc Bar in the fourth generation on the bottom.
“You can’t breed way out because we have sophisticated our cutting horses so well,” Jack said. “To
compete, they have to be able to move, they’ve got
to be smart, they’ve got to do a lot of things that 20
years ago they couldn’t do. You’ve got to keep using
(somewhat) the same lines. When the horses get
small, you can fit in something from outside to get
some size and soundness. I think that is what we’re
trying to do with the race horse mare.”
“It’s too bad they aren’t more like guppies,”
Waggoner added. “We could find a faster solution.”
Waggoner went on to say that foundation-bred
Quarter Horses crossed with Thoroughbreds produced running Quarter Horses, which ultimately
put the sting in our modern cutting horses. John
Ward, Kingsburg, Calif., agrees with those origins,
but doesn’t feel the need to bring an outcross into
his breeding program at this time.
Greg Ward, John’s father once said, “The only
thing wrong with Thoroughbred in a horse is not
enough of it.” John remembers his dad’s fondness
for Thoroughbreds, but reminded that Greg’s comment was made during a different era in the evolution of the cutting horse.
“Greg loved the Thoroughbred in there,” Ward
confirmed. “But back then the Quarter Horses
he was talking about were too small, too chunky.
He was talking about Poco Poco and they were all
slugs that were little old tanks.
“My dad said breed ‘like to like’. He liked horses
with more gas, more sting. He didn’t like the foundation, raw-boned Quarter Horse. He was more
A CONGENITAL ABNORMALITY is a defect
of structure or function that is present at birth.
Defects can be caused by environmental factors
that interfere with normal developmental processes or by abnormal genes.
GENETIC DISEASES are broadly categorized as belonging to one of three groups:
Chromosomal abnormalities are eliminated before
they can be observed or studied because they are
associated with the loss or rearrangement of a
large number of genes – a situation incompatible
with life.
SINGLE-GENE DEFECTS are confined to one
breed or to breeds with similar origins. They
include skeletal and muscular disorders as well as
those of the central nervous system, skin, circulatory and immune systems.
POLYGENIC (MULTIPLE-GENE) DEFECTS
– Because most physical traits are influenced by
more than a single gene it is easy to include an
undesirable gene in the package. Polygenic traits
may exhibit a “threshold effect,” so that breeders
may not be aware of the accumulation of problem
genes in the selected breeding stock produces a
phenotypic abnormality.
*UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine Book of Horses,
A Complete Medical Reference Guide for Horses and Foals,
edited by Mordecai Siegal.
ANNIE LAMBERT
first three to five
generations, and
have an extremely
homozygous animal on the top, say
a Thoroughbred
like Woodford
Pete Bowling
Cat,” Shane said.
“Woodford Cat has
two shots of Northern Dancer and two shots of
Mr Prospector and that all occurs in the third and
fourth generations, which is extremely linebred for
a Thoroughbred.”
Because they have chosen the types of individuals they feel complement each other, Shane hopes
the first generation will produce the right animal.
“By breeding Woodford Cat, a horse we believe is
going to give you the athleticism, to the right kind
of mares that historically have a lot of cow in them,
we’re hoping first generation.”
David Plummer’s first success with horses came
in Quarter Horse racing. So when he wanted a
race-bred Quarter Horse mare to breed to his performance stallions, he looked up one of his own
championship bottom lines.
“Two years ago, we found a mare that is bred
extremely Plummer,” Shane said with a laugh. “We
bred the mare’s sire and dam three generations
back. We bred her one time last year to Meradas
Blue Sue and that baby is due in 2006. We are anxious to see what we get.”
Thoroughbreds are regulated by The Jockey
Club, which does not allow embryo transfers or
artificial insemination in that breed; all matings are
consummated by live cover. And the Plummers’
Thoroughbred mares are commercially too valuable
to pull from the racing industry to be bred to performance horses. But because the older mares are
often difficult to get in foal via a live cover, Shane
plans to select a few older, barren mares to cross
with their stallions like TR Dual Rey and Meradas
Blue Sue for embryos.
“The average Thoroughbred stands about 16
hands, so we don’t want to get something too
large,” Shane said. “We have to find the right
kind of mare that can complement the stallions.
Woodford Cat is the right size to be bred to like
Quarter Horse mares. We have to find the right
Thoroughbred mares that are the size of Woodford
Cat, in the 15 to 15.2 hand range, to cross onto
some of these Quarter Horse stallions.”
Jack and Susan Waggoner, No. 2 Lifetime
Big Words
Woodford Cat and Before The Bell both exhibit desirable
conformation traits as outcross stallions on cutting
bred mares – solid withers, short backs and deep heart
girths, without being weighty in the front end.
into the refined, agile athlete, which tended to
be more Thoroughbred. Now, we’ve got Quarter
Horses that have come that way.”
Ward thinks the industry could use a little more
horse sense when it comes to breeding Quarter
Horses. Common sense and knowing the individuals within your program, he said, might have eradicated the need for an outcross.
“A lot of people go off money won and it doesn’t
always mean much,” Ward said. “You have to know
your individuals. Was that horse great? Did it run
STALLION SECTION FEATURE
Example of a Thoroughbred Pedigree
Woodford Cat (TB)
NORTHERN DANCER
STORM BIRD
SOUTH OCEAN
STORM CAT
SECRETARIAT
TERLINGUA
CRIMSON SAINT
TALE OF THE CAT
RAISE A NATIVE
MR. PROSPECTOR
GOLD DIGGER
YARN
HONEST PLEASURE
NARRATE
STATE
NORTHERN DANCER
DANZIG
PAS DE NOM
BOUNDARY
DAMASCUS
EDGE
PONTE VECCHIO
CONQUISTAS JESSICA
MR. PROSPECTOR
CONQUISTADOR CIELO
K D PRINCESS
CELESTE CIELO
CZARAVICH
RUSSIAN LEGEND
STIFF BREEZE
and drag its butt? Did it lie down in front of a
cow? Was it quick-footed? Was it kind of cementfooted? Did it luck out and win a few things?
You’ve got to know your individual horses if you’re
a breeder.”
“We try to keep outcrossing (within our lines),
but you can’t go too far outside the box,” he added.
“If you reach too far they are not marketable individuals so what is the point?”
Most breeders feel that the Thoroughbred is the
only breed outside the box that is practical to use
as an outcross due to the fact that the offspring can
be appendix-registered with the AQHA.
“I think if this is going to be a success, you have
to keep your AQHA registration,” Rapp said.
“I know people have discussed the Spanish cow
ponies in Spain and Portugal. But, now that we’ve
addressed the problems with the multiple embryo
registry and got that all straightened out, it is
going to be very, very important that a horse have
AQHA registration.”
NEARCTIC
NATALMA
NEW PROVIDENCE
SHINING SUN
BOLD RULER
SOMETHINGROYAL
CRIMSON SATAN
BOLERO ROSE
NATIVE DANCER
RAISE YOU
NASHUA
SEQUENCE
WHAT A PLEASURE
TULARIA
NIJINSKY
MONARCHY
NEARCTIC
NATALMA
ADMIRALS VOYAGE
PETITIONER
SWORD DANCER
KERALA
ROUND TABLE
TERENTIA
RAISE A NATIVE
GOLD DIGGER
BOLD COMMANDER
TAMMY'S TURN
NIJINSKY
BLACK SATIN
NEVER BEND
BREEZE-A-LEA
Gene Jockeys
Cutting horses have been specifically bred for
over 50 years. Through that selective breeding,
their cow sense and athletic abilities have been
greatly refined. But as with most purebred animals,
those favorable traits came with a price tag in the
form of size, soundness and genetic disorders.
Breeders and Mother Nature may soon be getting some additional help in cleaning up their
genetic problems with scientific assistance in identifying individuals with issues.
The “gene jockeys” are off and running when
it comes to mapping the equine genetics code,
said Doug Antczak, D.V.M., Ph.D., director of
the James A. Baker Institute for Animal Health at
Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine. There is
now an international collaborative effort to map the
genome of the horse according to Cornell’s veterinary research website.
An intense interest in equine genomes by
breeders has helped push the 10-year-old study
into fast forward recently. There has been enor-
“People need to use more horse sense. If you’ve got
a little horse and you breed it to another little horse
most likely you’re going to have a littler horse. Then
you lose a bunch of size, they lose a lot of foot and
they have a lot of issues with lameness.”
-John Ward, Ward River Ranch, Kingsburg, Calif.
124 QUARTER HORSE NEWS
• January 15, 2006
Woodford Cat has a double shot of Mr. Prospector, Northern
Dancer and Nijinsky, making him very linebred for a
Thoroughbred.
mous progress in the gene mapping of horses.
Antczak reports that a stunning discovery in
Sweden two years ago gave the horse genome project “a fantastic boost,” when it was discovered that
the patterns between humans and horses are very
close. That ensures that much of the human gene
mapping can be applied to equines.
The genes determine all the traits and characteristics that are passed down from parents to
offspring, such as coat color, athleticism, conformation, courage or genetic defects that trigger inherited diseases.
Researchers already have been able to develop
genetic tests to identify carriers of three enormously important equine diseases: severe combined
immunodeficiency disease (SCID) that runs in
Arabians; hyperkalemic periodic paralysis (HYPP)
in Quarter Horses; and lethal white disease that
can afflict the offspring of overo Paint horses.
With gene mapping data, researchers are also
learning how multiple genes act together. In the
not-too-distant future, this information should
allow breeders to not only select for particular
traits that are linked to single genes, such as coat
color, but also to multiple genes like fertility and
performance.
Microsatellite markers, “anonymous but variable
bits of DNA that can be used as markers to identify regions on chromosomes that contain important
genes that control traits or functions,” can be used
to provide more precise estimates of inbreeding in
horses. This can be particularly useful for choosing
matings in certain horse families or in breeds where
the total number of individuals is limited.
With the molecular tests now in place for
three of the most serious genetic diseases the Horse
Genome Project is no longer futuristic. But science
and those fellows in the white lab coats can only do
so much. Quarter Horse breeders realize it is time
to save themselves.
“If breeding animals was an exact science, we’d
be winning the Futurity every single year,” Shane
Plummer concluded. “But breeding is more of an
art form. You can make the best educated guess
that you can. You just never know where that
next great horse is going to be. Through time and
through making the best educated decisions, you
can stack the deck in your favor, but there is never
a guarantee.”
Reach Annie Lambert at 559.539.7325 or e-mail
[email protected].