by Farrell Henry
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This three-part series on "planned Appaloosas" is being printed to reiterate to many Appaloosa owners the importance in which the basic fundamentals of heredity plays in the present, and especially the future, of our beautiful spotted breed, the Appaloosa.
Since everything your horse possesses - or lacks - is because he inherited it from his ancestors through his parents, without some very well thought out plans, the Appaloosa breed could fall into the category of a color breed instead of being accepted as a true breed. After all, the object of breeding horses is to improve the offspring - with each generation being better than the previous one.
Only by planning a breeding program - or by carefully choosing a stallion to breed your mare to - will we continue to improve our breed in the years to come.
The writer has sought to delve into the future of the Appaloosa breed by compiling the following articles on "Ancestry", "Genetics", and "Planning". Good Appaloosas today for better ones tomorrow - that's what the majority of us want, isn't it?
The following group of excerpts are taken from THE HORSE, by D. J. Kays, copyright 1953, published by A. S. Barnes & Co.:
"BREEDING has been defined as an attempt to regulate progeny through the selection of the immediate parents. Any constructive breeder aims to maintain or else improve the levels of excellence already attained in a herd.
"Two great forces are involved in breeding livestock: Heredity, by means of which characters are transmitted from generation to generation; and variation, the agency through which new characters are introduced.
"The natural tendency in reproduction is toward variation or the production of unlike individuals, with heredity acting as a brake, or check, opposing variation. The more intense the hereditary force, the less marked the variation.
"The strength of the hereditary force, so far as the specific character is concerned, is determined by the extent to which that character is represented in the ancestry. The greater number of individual ancestors which possess it, and the greater the degree in which it it possessed, the stronger the likelihood of its being transmitted.
"HEREDITY, therefore, is not a matter which involves only the individuals mated; it involves all the ancestors of the individuals. The science dealing with heredity and the origin of individuals in general is called GENETICS.
"The ‘Germ Plasm', which is the union of the two sex cells, is the physical basis of heredity. It represents not only the characters of the ancestry which are dominant in this generation, and will therefore be manifested by the individuals developed from the germ plasm, but also the potential characters of the entire ancestry, which may remain recessive in this generation and may not be manifested in this particular individual, but may, in the next succeeding generations, become dominant, some in one individual descendant and some in another. Thus, the unlikeness of brothers may be accounted for.
"Transmission is, therefore, not from the individual parent, but from the ancestry through the parent. The individual displays but a part of the characters which he inherits; consequently, he is capable of transmitting characters which he apparently does not possess. All the possibilities of transmitting can be learned only by a study of the ancestry.
"Because unknown individuals in the ancestry introduce unknown possibilities into the progeny, the purebred parent, the known excellence of whose ancestry is established, has another advantage over the grade parent. A superior, but short-bred individual, may happen to manifest all the good qualities of his ancestors, but transmit none of them. A lack of uniformity in the ancestry is sure to result in a miscellaneous progeny.
"Therefore, a pedigree is but a record of the ancestry, and the value of the pedigree, provided it is complete in recording all ancestors of the first five or six generations, depends upon the merit of the individuals recorded."
And, genetically speaking, although a bad gene or trait cannot be removed entirely, it can be changed from a dominant to recessive by breeding away from this undesirable trait. Because there are so many factors involved, the elimination of one trait can also bring out others equally as undesirable.
It is for this reason that a horse breeding program cannot be based on random matings. The chances of this mating to reproduce itself with any amount of consistency are pretty slim. Therefore, we should stick to the tried and true principles of genetics. In other words, like begets like, and we must always breed up, never down. Each generation should be an improvement over the previous one.
We now agree that due to ancestry and the important part in which it plays, our breeding herd should be of registered stock - well-bred Appaloosas, outstanding individuals of other recognized registered breeds, or even grades of highest quality with known breeding. By doing this, it insures the breeder of a little more consistency in the offspring from his carefully planned matings. As you know, the use of unknown breeding stock introduces many unknown traits, colors, breeds, and characteristics which usually doesn't do anything to improve the breed.
What is a breed? It is a group of animals related by descent, and similar in most characteristics; and that each breed has certain definite, easily distinguishable characteristics. Appaloosas not only have their coat patterns, skin, eye, and hoof that sets them apart as a distinct breed, but also consistency in disposition and many conformation traits, such as sparce mane and tail, etc.
Why are there variations within breeds? Within any one breed, there are apt to be several different strains, or families, each with its own characteristics, or type. The reason why the necessity of these different types obviously is because there are differences of opinion as to what a horse is expected to do, or to look like, or act like, and, therefore, differences of opinion as to what type is desirable.
The ideal type is, always has been, and always will be, a matter of personal preference. And not only do we, as individuals, have our preference, but the general public does also. This is partly natural, partly due to our tendency to "follow the leader" and partly due to "breed promotion".
What is Heredity? It is the name we apply to the familiar fact that offspring tend to resemble their progenitors. The strength of the hereditary force, so far as the specific character is concerned, is determined by the extent to which that character is represented in the ancestry. Because of this, heredity is not a matter which involves only the first generation, it involves all the ancestors as well. Therefore, the purebred parent has many advantages over the grade parent in a breeding program.
What is Genetics? The science dealing with heredity and the origin of individuals in general is called Genetics. Genetics can become extremely complicated and far too involved for most of us. However, the basic fundamentals are simple enough. For instance, we know that in the reproductive cells of animals there are microscopic bodies called chromosomes, and these chromosomes contain all the genes, or character-determining factors of the animals. Genes determine size, shape, color, disposition - in fact, the entire makeup of the animal.
The following five terms - heterozygous, homozygous, dominant and recessive characters, reversion, and phenotype and genotype - should be explained briefly, as all of them play important parts in heredity.
If an animal has a heterozygous condition for some characteristic, coat color for example, then when mated, it will transmit to its offspring almost any combination of those genes, because the heterozygous individual develops different classes of germ cells.
When genetically heterozygous animals are mated, we cannot predict with any amount of accuracy, how the offspring will look or behave.
If a pair of animals are reasonably homozygous for most of the characters (less variety in their genes), they will transmit with much more uniformity and consistency.
Therefore, the greater number of animals possessing the same gene, such as for Appaloosa color, and the greater the degree in which it is possessed, the stronger the likelihood of its being transmitted to its progeny. We then have what we call a pure strain or an established type.
Dominant - a character from one parent which manifests itself in offspring to the exclusion of a contrasted character from the other parent.
Recessive - a character from one parent which remains undeveloped in offspring when associated with the corresponding dominant character from the other parent.
For example, when a black and white mouse is cross-bred, the resulting young are all black; that is black is dominant and white is recessive. However, if individuals produced in this way are then bred together, the two characters will then be set apart again in a definite ratio - 3 dominant to 1 recessive (The "Mendelian Discovery"), which shows that in the second generation, while only one color, black, was visible, nevertheless, the factors (or genes) which determine both colors were present, and in a segregable condition.
It is because of this ever-present 3-to-1 ratio that a bad gene or trait cannot be removed entirely. But it can be changed from dominant to recessive by breeding away from the particular undesirable trait. This only goes to point up the importance of a sensible, well-planned breeding program, because this generation of breeding will affect many subsequent generations.
In horses, crosses of the trotter with the pacer, trotting is dominant; black is dominant to chestnut, bay to either black or chestnut; and GREY seems to be dominant to all other colors!
Incomplete Dominance - dominance does not always occur with such a definite division; in some cases a degree of intermediary of Incomplete Dominance results. For example, in man, curly hair incompletely dominates straight hair with the result that offspring have wavy hair. And, in many plants, a red variety crossed with a white variety yields offspring with pink flowers. If a solid grey horse is bred to a black blanket-hipped Appaloosa, the offspring may turn grey, yet retain black spots on the rump. In any event, if two such individuals mate, typical segregation (3 dominant - grey - and 1 recessive - Appaloosa spots) occurs in the succeeding generations.
On the recessive side, the occasional black sheep in a white flock is an "extracted" recessive since white fleece is dominant to black. Similarly, a red and white Holstein is an "extracted" recessive from the black and white type. In such extractions, both parents must obviously have carried "unlike genes" for color.
When the offspring resemble some remote rather than immediate ancestor, this "throwback" in a noticeable degree to that distant ancestor is known as reversion.
Reversion is especially likely to appear in cross-bred forms. Such reversions are probably due to a recombination of certain genes. The most common are "throwbacks" to the grand-parental types.
It is for this reason that heredity is not a matter which involves only the individuals mated, it involves all the ancestors of the individuals as well! Each individual displays but a part of the characters he inherits; and he is capable of transmitting characters which he apparently does not posses.
Phenotype - individuals which are alike in appearance irrespective of their genetic makeup are said to be of the same phenotype since they look alike. This explains why some Appaloosas which look the brightest, color-wise, sometimes cannot reproduce the color as well as others. The Appaloosa which most often breeds true to homozygous (like genes) for the trait in question, and the other which does not transmit the trait with much consistency is more likely to be heterozygous (unlike genes).
Genotype - individuals of similar germinal makeup are said to be of the same genotype. Therefore, the Appaloosa which constitutes "like genes" for color, muscular hindquarters, long necks, etc., is genotypically different from the Appaloosa which carries "unlike genes" for these traits, because one will be able to manifest itself and the other will not.
It is the genotype that is of significance in breeding Appaloosas.
From the fact that any organism is the expression of a host of independent genetic factors (or genes) it is evident that any particular animal chosen from random is practically certain to carry "like genes" for some characters and "unlike genes" for others.
A simple way to determine whether an individual which displays a dominant character is homozygous or heterozygous for it, is to make what is known as a back-cross with the recessive type. Again we will use a black mouse (dominant) and a white mouse (recessive) to illustrate. If such a back-cross should have offspring in which 50% show the dominant and 50% show the recessive trait, it is evident that the individuals being tested is heterozygous (unlike genes).
If the tested individuals were homozygous (like genes) for black (dominant) then all the progeny of this back-cross with the recessive white would have been black.
Since there are so many genes involved (the number is astronomical), it is quite a job to get homozygosity in our livestock. So by going along with the old axiom, "When in doubt...don't!" - don't introduce the wrong kind of blood or traits into the breed, therefore, there will be no need to breed them back out again. Because in order to accomplish homozygosity, many generations of animals must be produced, and every animal showing an undesirable character must be destroyed (which is economically unfeasible for the greatest majority of horse breeders), as far as reproduction is concerned. Only through uncompromising selection can we, in time, eliminate undesirable genes. And since there are somany factors involved, the elimination of one trait can also bring out others equally as undesirable!
The importance of striving for a high degree of homozygosity in our breed is apparent. Without it, we cannot reproduce, with consistency, the type of animal we want. And, the unfortunate fact about Appaloosas is that no matter what other characteristics it possesses, without that precious color, the Appaloosa would be "just another horse". By carefully planned programs and matched-matings, the Appaloosa will continue to improve - as a true breed should.
With each spring, anxious owners and breeders all over the country await the results of last year's planning. Last year, the oil in many midnight lamps burned low before the final selection was made for a mare's breeding. Unfortunately, not enough midnight oil was burned in the case of many mares who were simply bred to the nearest Appaloosa stallion available, or to the first blanket-hipped or leopard they located (depending upon their color preference).
And, as their foal, they are able to see their triumphant plan (or thoughtlessness), again owners everywhere will be faced with the important questions: "What to breed my mare to?"
Breeding must be done with a purpose.
Are you breeding for a specialized market? For showing? For stock working? For fox hunting? Are you keeping a group of broodmares with a stallion to serve them? Or, do you keep mares only, and take them to a desirable stallion each year?
The broodmares represent 50% of the foal, so your mares should be carefully examined to insure the best of the planned offspring. Though the mare contributes 50% of the foal, she will produce a very few foals when compared to the number a stallion can sire, therefore, it is evident why it is so important to choose your broodmares carefully.
Select your stallion for type, disposition and from the colts which he has sired. If he is unproven, by carefully studying the young stud's pedigree, you can often determine the potential that he should be able to develop into.
Within each breed certain bloodlines seem to produce good results - often referred to as a "nick" - so a better understanding of bloodlines will help you when purchasing breeding stock.
After studying your mare's conformation and pedigree, you must make up your mind as to what points you want to "breed out" or "breed into" the expected foal. It is difficult to plan the next year's foal crop - to find a stallion that will improve the lesser points of your mare, while at the same time, the best points being dominant transmitted to the foal.
And, if you are breeding with a definite intention of raising horses to sell, or selling the foals at weaning time, by studying the current market - the show results and sales across the country, almost all of the top winning or top selling horses were, indeed, "planned" to be just that!
By studying the pedigree of your mares, as well as those of the stallion which you either own or have chosen to breed your mares to, you can sometimes determine what factors or horses (or combination of horses) in the pedigree are responsible for their good points and their faults.
If these individuals were well bred, can any plan or "nick" be detected such as successful Linebreeding, Inbreeding, Close Breeding of certain blood which produced the outstanding qualities?
Perhaps a brief clarification of these terms would be good at this time:
LINEBREEDING: A stallion on his grand-daughters, or on every other generation matings, or less close matings, is referred to as Linebreeding.
INBREEDING: A father-daughter, son-mother, sister-brother mating would be considered intense Inbreeding.
Both Linebreeding and Inbreeding represent a degree of close breeding, the mating of related animals - with Inbreeding, the mating of closely related animals and Linebreeding, the mating of less closely related, but related animals. Both Linebreeding and Inbreeding, like fire, contribute much if properly used; uncontrolled, they can be disastrous!
The Appaloosa Horse Club strongly recommends that breeders avoid Inbreedin g. Inbreeding, or even Linebreeding, results in a loss of vitality, a loss of fertility, and a loss of disposition. In addition, any conformation defects or soundness weaknesses become more obvious and more dominant. A very small percentage of outstanding horses result from Inbreeding. Few horse breeders can afford to dispose of the undesirables resulting from Inbreeding.
CLOSE BREEDING creates nothing new. It merely concentrates the blood of an individual by mating distantly related individuals of similar type, or individuals of similar breeding. Genetically speaking, it increases homozygosity in our herd. But we can increase the homozygosity for undesirable characteristics, as well as for desirable ones. Therefore, the breeder has to use good judgment when he Inbreeds, Linebreeds or even Close Breeds.
Example: Let's suppose we have a well-bred herd sire of desirable type. From one of our better mares we get a typy daughter, which we breed back to her own sire (Inbreeding). The chances are that the offspring of this mating would be of good quality; it would have a high degree of the sire's blood, and his characteristics should be dominant. There is also a good chance that we will lose some size. The animal may be smaller, is likely to be more refined, more delicate appearing than either the sire or the dam.
Now, for convenience, we'll assume that this is a filly. We mate this Inbred filly to an unrelated, or more distantly related stallion of similar type, and also reasonably homozygous (Close Breeding), we will retain the desirable characteristics which we are breeding for, and will also regain size! This happy phenomenon of regaining size is called "Hybrid Vigor". It is a difficult thing to explain or understand, but nevertheless, one of the factors involved in genetics that is highly dependable.
OUTCROSSING: Some breeders feel that outcrossing is necessary to refine the breed, but after the first outcross to a Thoroughbred, Quarter Horse, Arab, Morgan or similar recognized breed, they should then breed back to the Appaloosa to keep the color strong, as well as the basic Appaloosa conformation, though refined, still individually Appaloosa.
In this way, we are able to keep the Appaloosa as a breed instead of converting him into other breed-types with spots.
When outcrossing, breeders should breed to blacks, bays, chestnuts and browns in order to retain the darker, more desirable color-contrast markings. Breeding to greys introduces the "greying gene"; breeding to buckskins and palominos introduces the "dilution factor". (See pamphlet "Crosses That Will Kill Your Color" - an Appaloosa Horse Club brochure.)
If you are attempting to plan your breeding program, it is not advisable to outcross to common grade stock. Now, there are many fine quality grades - ones which are Quarter Horse-Thoroughbred crosses which have failed to meet the performance requirements of the AQHA - but unfortunately there are more that are not of this high caliber. Unknown individuals introduce unknown possibilities into the offspring, and since the Appaloosa Horse Club's registry requirements are "open", they cannot draw the line between the quality-bred grades of known parentage and the grades of unknown parentage. Therefore, it is up to each breeder to breed the best - with each generation an improvement over the previous one.
These "unknown"-bred grades can sometimes carry Pinto, Albino, or any type of undesirable blood which can be transmitted to the future generations, although it doesn't seemingly show up in the particular animal you might want to breed. Since there is no hard and fast rule in genetics, and since there are cases where a very distant ancestor played an important part in the current animal being studied, the more that is known about the animal's ancestry is all the better.
Every breed of livestock has both good and bad, high priced and low priced individuals. And the Appaloosa Horse Club has found that the most effective control to what is bred is price. When second-rate Appaloosas sell at a price that is not profitable, people will discontinue producing them, and second-rate stallions will be gelded.
The price of horses sold at auction tends to indicate that people purchasing Appaloosas are becoming increasingly Quality Conscious and are putting a great deal of importance on the quality of the individual, its performance, show or racing record, or the record of its sire and dam. An Appaloosa cannot be expected to bring a high price simply because it is an "Appaloosa".
Assuming that you have only broodmares and take them to the services of a stallion, sometimes you are fortunate to have the stallion which you are looking for close in your area - then again he might be out of state. Remember, taking your mares several hundred miles to breed to the right stallion could increase the value of the foals. If your mares can be bred to stallions who have earned a name for themselves and their owners, then the reputation of the foals the mares carry will grow rapidly before they are even born! However, if it isn't a good match, the reverse is then true, because no matter how talked about the sire is, remember that your foals must stand alone for what they are and if they areinferior, the public will always say, "Just not a good ‘nick'. Not one of his better colts."
In considering the color factor, do not let it dictate the ultimate breeding of your mares unless the "color choice" stallion also fills the mare's conformation requirements in every other way. An outstanding horse, even though not your favorite color, will catch your eye and hold your attention because he is a good horse in every respect.
By planning your breedings, you will be able to establish the type of horse you wish to produce. Within any one breed, you will find several different strains, or families, each with its own characteristics, or type. The reason for this is that there are differences of opinions as to what a horse is expected to do, or to look like, or act like, and, therefore, difference of opinion as to what type animal is desirable.
The average horseman will not want to inbreed, but he can linebreed with care. He can take advantage of breeding stock that has been closely and carefully bred. In this way he can achieve uniformity; he can get that desired type, and keep it. Random mating will seldom succeed. You may get an occasional individual that you like, but the chances of that individual reproducing itself with any amount of consistency are pretty slim.
This isn't to say that it doesn't ever happen. Once in a while, an animal will emerge, somehow, out of nowhere, seemingly; it may have many outstanding qualities, and also have the ability to reproduce these qualities. This animal would be called, appropriately enough, a GENETIC SPORT. Justin Morgan was such a horse. He arose almost accidentally, it seems, became famous in his own right, and had the ability to transmit his fine qualities, generation after generation, so that he actually became the foundation of a distinctive breed. But we can't base a horse breeding program on the hopes of finding such an animal. The odds are so overwhelmingly against it ever happening again that we must stick to our well thought out breeding plans and the principles of genetics - with our main objective being to improve each generation bred.
So, since we agree that a Planned Breeding Program is an absolute necessity if we are to produce the kind of Appaloosa we want, we should also decide what type of Appaloosa suits us best and stick to it. We should really be thankful for the fact that among us there are individuals who have the time, the inclination, the means, and the courage, to set up long-range breeding programs in order to perpetuate not only the breed itself, but also the various types within the breed.
(Editor's note: This article, although 30 plus years old, sounds like it could have been written today. It is right on time! And, as you will notice, it is written by Farrel Henry. Has anyone out there guessed who Farrel Henry is, yet? Well, just so no one hurts themselves trying to figure it out, I am going to tell you. Farrel Henry was the Pen Name given to Mary P. Hare by Don Walker, Editor of the Appaloosa News at that time. Words cannot express the appreciation we have for the incomparable Mary P. Hare. We are so fortunate to have her permission to publish her tremendous volume of works that took many, many years of dedication and love for the magnificent Appaloosa breed horse. Thank you Mary...our best to you always.)