Mighty Broke - 2016-08-01 8:42 AM As others stated, confirmation and breeding but the attitude is irrelevant to me. I can name a long list of stallions that are and were some bad units but do not pass it to their get. Also, when looking at a stallion prospect it has to have the WOW factor. 

oija - 2016-08-01 10:42 AM

There are two types of stallion, those that people breed to because of their performance record, a good example of these studs are Streaking ta Fame and Slick by Design. Both are working at being proven producers (STF has had a few but most of SBD are still pretty young). And those that are proven producers. Some examples of these are Firewater Flit and Frenchman's Guy.

As a stallion owner, you must be concerned with one or the other it seems. Here's the thing, stallion owners concerned with performance are going to ante up a lot of money showing their stud and starting breeding him a bit later perhaps (at least breeding widely) but will probably be able to ask for more money when they first open a book and be more likely to fill early books with high quality mares. They hope that this pattern will lead to a lot of good foals that also perform and then the stallion is a proven performer AND producer and can ask even more for stud fees. A good example of another young stud with this pattern is Epic Leader. Filled his book fast, no performers yet. Now everyone is hoping their babies perform. A proven 1D performer that has also become an excellent producer is Firewater ta Fame. I tend to think that most studs in this realm also attempt to have the hottest, current in fashion pedigrees full of proven producers.

People who are focused on ensuring they have a proven producer may breed their stallion younger. They are really concerned in getting as many horses in the right hands quickly and making sure they perform. They will be really concerned with the mares bred, either wanting a large number to up the chances of a performer or being hard judges on quality and trying to just breed the best mares. To me an example of this type of stud is Frenchman's Guy. They did do a few things with him but when people talk about him they pretty much never mention his performance record. They are concerned with the large number of winners he has had. The Meyers themselves have shared that they were particularly concerned with mare quality and made sure that on their own ranch they bred him to top quality running bred mares so they themselves were backing up his produce record just in case outside horses didn't win enough. Another thing about some of these studs trying to prove themselves as producers, and may be minimally concerned about performance, they often have outcross bloodlines. Frenchman's Guy brought Driftwood lines to the barrel racing table. Another example of some of these types of studs is Fiesta's Gotta Gun. He is out of a top producing broodmare and performer, Firewater Fiesta, but they are trying to bring Playgun's reining bloodlines to play to, a proven performer and producer from another discipline. People focusing on this kind of stallion will often have lower stud fees at first OR may just breed to their own mares where they can control quality. Then once lots of people see winners from the stallion line they will pay a higher stud fee or the stallion may open his book to the public and start out with a higher fee.

Either stud owner is investing in the stud, either by paying training and show fees, or by buying good mares themselves to make sure their stallion has the chance to produce.

What you look for in a stud may depend on which goal you have. Stallion owners looking for a performer are probably going to be more concerned with temperament. A stallion who is really violent or spooky will likely have much more difficulty showing. The stallion needs to appear to advantage in public places so he needs to behave. Conformation will be important but people may overlook some minor conformation issues if the stallion really proves they can perform. If they also happen to produce later, people are even more likely to overlook conformation issues. Color will also be less important with this set of stallions. These stallions tend to have hot pedigrees with proven lines because proven lines are much more likely to perform in the first place.

Then you have the stallions trying to be proven as producers. They may go out in public much less. Temperament may matter less to the owners or promoters of this stallion so long as his foals end up winning and can be worked with to a certain degree. Color may be more important here though. This will be a bigger draw early on. Conformation, especially good formal pictures, will be particularly important if people aren't seeing the stallion constantly. This needs to be a really good looking stallion right off usually so people are willing to take the risk. Some of these will have the hottest lines, like Feel the Sting or On a Gator. Some will advertise as outcrosses, like Fiestas Gotta Gun.

Stallion owners who are really organized will tend to shoot for one or the other goal at first and then hope long term they have a producer, because even proven performers will lose customers if they do not produce winners. Either is a gamble but the traits will vary a bit based on the early goal.

ETA: Sometimes stallion owners focused on making a producer instead of a performer may actually understand more about genetics or what will make the best possible crosses on their stallion. They may avoid breeding mares who are less likely to produce winners. If Frenchman's Guy had been bred overly much to other foundation bred mares, many of his foals wouldn't have had the speed to win in the barrel pen. Another good example of performers not understanding as well and just hoping breeding the best performers to the best performers will produce other performers is Secretariat. He was sure a heck of a good performer but they didn't understand the X factor yet. So he was bred to mare that were good performers and producers but he didn't really end up being much of a producer whereas if the x factor had been better understood at the time they probably would have concentrated their attentions there. He might have been a better producer then. As it happens, he became known as a broodmare sire instead, the end result of many x factor studs when it wasn't understood early on.