Choosing a Stallion
Written by Kelsey Kempton
Published January 2019
Breeding season is fast approaching and it’s time to make the tough decision of which stallion you want to breed to your mare. Whether this is a one-time breeding, or a yearly decision for your entire breeding operation, there are many things to consider when picking a stud for your girls. The number one thing to consider when you decide to breed is to know what you are breeding for. Is this a business? Are you breeding to sell or keep the foal as a future breeding prospect? Or are you breeding to keep the foal for your own personal horse, for recreational use or show? There should always be a purpose for breeding and knowing what your purpose is gives you a solid starting point of what to look for in a stallion. Before you start browsing through studs, you will need to determine your mare’s faults. No horse is perfect, and being able to identify the faults in your own horse doesn’t mean you love them any less, but it does make you a smarter breeder. Refer to the IDHA breed standard to get an idea of what the ideal Drum Horse should be. From there you can compare the breed standard to your mare and identify her strengths and weaknesses from conformation and hair to movement and temperament. As you evaluate your mare, keep in mind that not all horses should be breeding stock. If the faults on your mare are starting to outnumber the strengths, especially in conformation, the mare might not be a good candidate for breeding. A common misconception is that a good stallion will “fix” all the faults in a mare. The goal of breeding is to create offspring that are better than both parents, and if either parent is not quality breeding stock, we cannot achieve that goal. A horse that is not breeding quality can still be a great horse, but being able to make that distinction will make for a better breed as a whole. Now that you have determined your mare’s strengths and weaknesses, you can start looking for a stallion that complements your mare. Start with conformation. Look for a stallion that abides by the IDHA breed standard that also has strengths where your mare has weaknesses. Remember that no stallion is perfect either, so where your mare has strengths the stallion can be a bit weaker and you can still achieve superior offspring. For example, if your mare is 17.1hh but weak in her hip, look for a stallion that is strong in his hip, even if he is only 16hh, he can still be a great match for your mare. In addition to conformation, also look at his movement and hair. Again, these aspects should abide by the breed standard and complement your mare. You can also consider color, though it is not the most important aspect. Drum horses were originally bred to be flashy parade horses, so many breeders have preference for tobiano or high white sabino/roan. Conformation should NOT be forfeit to color. Color should be the last thing you consider, icing on the cake, you should never choose a stallion just for his color or amount of hair, but firstly for his conformation and complementation to your mare. Another large part of choosing a stallion is looking at his pedigree and comparing it to your mare’s pedigree. Breeding close relatives, also known as “inbreeding” or “linebreeding” is not recommended for several reasons. Firstly, the Drum horse is not yet a breed, it is still a type, which means the IDHA is still allowing Clydesdale, Shire, and Gypsy blood to be bred into the Drum horse. This means there is potential for a wide variety of bloodlines from all three breeds to be bred into the Drum, and breeders should take advantage of this to give the future Drum breed as much genetic variety as possible. By linebreeding you remove that genetic variation. Another downfall of linebreeding is the risk of genetic diseases and poor health. Many breeders try to enhance a good trait by linebreeding, but while you may achieve that good trait to some degree, negative traits and diseases that are usually associated with recessive genes also appear. There are many examples of this across domesticated species. For example, Cutting type Quarter horses linebred to enhance the Poco Bueno bloodline brought forth the genetic disease HERDA. This disease is recessive, meaning horses with one copy of this gene are unaffected, but horses with two copies are affected. There is no treatment and this disease is often lethal. This disease traces back to a single gene mutation in a single horse, Poco Bueno, and only horses that are linebred, with Poco Bueno on both sides of their pedigree have a chance of inheriting this disease. A few other things to consider when choosing a stallion include registration, availability of semen, stud fees, and the stallion’s current offspring. To register a foal with the IDHA, both stallion and mare need to be IDHA registered OR registered in their respective breed registry (for Clydesdales, Shires, and Gypsies). Make sure that the stallion you choose has proper registration to ensure your foal will be eligible for registration. You will also need to determine if you would like to breed your mare with fresh, cooled, or frozen semen, and what type of semen is available from the stallion you choose. There are pros and cons to each type of semen (which will be discusses in another Drumbeat article). Cost of breeding is another thing that may influence your choice of stallion. Stud fees, breeding fees, collection and shipping fees; these can add up and overwhelm you quickly if you do not plan out your breeding budget. Finally, it is a good idea to take a look at the stallion’s offspring that are already on the ground. You can get an idea of if the stallion puts a lot of himself into his foals, or if the foals take after the mare, or if it’s an even mix of both. The decision to breed your mare should never be taken lightly. There are a lot of things to consider and a lot of decisions to be made. Always keep the breed standard in mind and strive to complement your mare with your stallion choice. Following these guidelines will allow you to produce Drum foals that will do you and the breed proud. Happy Hunting!