Monday, December 21, 2015

Food for Thought...

In a recent e-mail exchange I had with Bret Jones of Airdrie Stud, I mentioned to him I started this blog because I am fascinated to no end with the genius of those pedigrees designed long before nicking systems but also because I have breeder friends out here who think it is best to solely "play the numbers" and the letter scores with free nicking systems that ignore more than half of the pedigrees of both the sire and the dam, and usually the most important half, the female lines of the sire and dam. I expressed to him that I just don't feel that these nicking systems are in the overall best interests of our breed and future production if we only breed for a runner for today (based on some over-simplified algorithm) but not a pre-potent producer for tomorrow. Validating my premise, Bret responded:

"Few things are more frustrating than a client that relies solely on the Nicks and closes their ears to anything that’s not an 'A-Plus.'  I’ve always been very proud of the fact that some of the best horses we’ve bred have been D or F Nicks."

Let this one steep for awhile. You are probably overlooking the best stallion for your mare because of an over-simplified score or letter grade that ignores the most important part of the pedigree of every mare and stallion.

If you want true pedigree analysis that covers the ENTIRE pedigree, you can either:

a) Contact me for mating recommendations and analysis for your mare based on time-tested linebreeding principles, taking into account geographical proximity, and more importantly, whether you plan to bree to race or breed to sell... all for a modest fee, or

b) Get the TrueNicks Key Ancestors report on stallions that you have to come up with, and pay an expensive $300 to download the report.

Or, you can keep doing things the usual free way and have a foal that becomes neither a runner nor a future producer.

You decide.

Thanks again to Bret Jones and Airdrie Stud for their encouragement and social media support of this outlet.

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