My Analog Broodmare

I'm the epitome of what's known as a "small breeder." I have one broodmare, a Quarter Horse, purchased a couple of years ago so I could raise a foal or two for my personal use. I love everything having to do with young horses and decided I'd rather have a way to control their health and upbringing from conception on, rather than worry about what happened to a youngster before it came my way.

When hunting for the future mother of my next prospects, I began looking from the ground up--literally. Instead of starting my hunt by typing the name of a contemporary brand-name sire into the search function of an entity like www.equine.com, www.dreamhorse.com, etc., I reviewed--in person--the stock owned by a breeder with far more experience than mine. Fifty years' worth, to be exact. With every mare shown to me, I began my look-her-over with an old-fashioned, learned-it-from-Grandpa, study of her feet and legs.

Quite frankly, I'd about had it with trying to find weanlings and yearlings that didn't have hoof/leg problems bred right into them. Grandpa, who grew up farming with horses, knew what kind of underpinnings a horse has to have in order to stay sound with regular work. Too bad his generation is gone now, as that kind of analog knowledge seems to be in an increasingly abbreviated supply in our digitized world. (He'd have found today's message-board horse trading, with its naming of sale horses by sire initials only, to be a real tsk-tsk situation. "Nice mare by ZCC, out of IO daughter." Say what??)

Next on my mare-review list: the rest of what goes into good conformation, including balance, good withers for holding a saddle, a well-formed neck, and an attractive head. While the saying goes that "you don't ride the head," I have to feed it and look at it every day and don't care to own a pig-eyed moose. Also key: a kind temperament, the better for me to remain in one piece while handling her, and experience at the broodmare job. Since this was going to be my first go at raising foals, I figured I needed a mare that knew more about the whole business that I did at that point. No maiden mares for me just yet.

Finally, we got down to pedigree. Did I end up with something trendy? Nope--no ZCC, IO, ZMGB, BH, or PI. Instead, I went analog in that department, too, with a daughter of an AQHA Champion, whose dam was by an AQHA Champion. That title may not be the gold standard anymore, but it does mean something to me. A horse can't earn that title without winning at halter and performance both, and that takes an above-average mind as well as an above-average body. The mare herself was never shown, having spent her adult-horse life raising babies. Not an issue to me, seeing as how my need was for a mare that knew how to be a mom, not one that knew how to go win a ribbon.

My ol' gray mare, a 1990 model, has had two foals since I bought her and brought her home, and I couldn't be happier with my choice. Both babies were easily conceived, easily foaled, and easily gentled for handling. They have Mama's substance, her pretty head, her good disposition, and even her eye-appealing color. I'd have run the wheels off my truck trying to find ones I liked any better.

Does my broodmare "Google well," on the basis of a yard-long show record and a famous-today sire? Nope. But she sure does the job for me.