Understanding pedigrees

Miscellaneous information

Thoroughbred pedigrees, which are kept by the Jockey Club in America, show the color of the horse and the year the horse was born, for example, as well as the country where he or she was born if the animal is imported to the United States.  Warmblood pedigrees contain additional information in the form of evaluations that are awarded to breeding horses.  For example, Dutch warmblood pedigrees may list the word "keur" by a horse's name, which signifies that he is regarded as an outstanding producer of the type desired.  Similarly, a Dutch warmblood horse that competes in the Olympics has the word "Olympic" added to his or her name.

Relation to significant families

Of course, pedigrees show how closely related a horse is to its various ancestors.  Some bloodlines among thoroughbreds have been identified by eventing experts as occurring among successful event horses.  These include particularly the lineage of Nasrullah.

Racehorse breeders are less concerned with temperament although thoroughbred fanciers have created other registries to record the success of their favorites in other disciplines. This information gathering  facilitates intelligent efforts to breed thoroughbreds as successful performance horses in other sports than racing.  Similar but more extensive information is carefully maintained by the warmblood registries.  Those registries usually test the horses extensively at about age 3 and assign a score to a horse's various traits, such as gaits (which predict success at competitive dressage), trainability (which is important for all competition), and jumping talent.  Success in these early tests is a prerequisite to a stallion's being approved for breeding. 

For example, Consul was approved by the KWPN (the registry in Holland for Dutch warmblood horses) only after he passed a 100 day test for correctness of movement, athletic ability, and conformation.  He has sired many successful horses, including Jamboree who competes at FEI dressage and Judgment who represented the US in jumping at the 2003 World Equestrian Games. Click here for pictures of Mole End colts by Consul  Youngsters. 

Numerical matters 

Thoroughbred pedigrees also contain ratings for the great thoroughbred sires, which reflect the stallion's propensity to produce offspring who are sprinters or distance horses.   These letters indicate the tendency of famous stallions to produce the ability to sprint or to go a longer distance.  The letters B, I, C, S, and P indicate the range of stamina and early speed from brilliant through classic to professional.  A brilliant horse is one with tremendous speed over a shorter distance while a "professional" horse shows greater stamina.  These influences are assigned a numerical value depending on how many generations away the sire is from the horse in question. Through various mathematical combinations, called "dosage" and "center of distribution" a student of thoroughbred pedigrees can compute the relative percentages of these influences.  C Student, for example, shows a statistical distribution of sprinting and staying bloodlines that is considered most likely to produce a classic winner. A classic horse is one which is predicted to have the qualities necessary to win at distances between a mile and a mile and a half, i.e. a horse that has the genetic potential considered typical of a winner of a classic race, such as the Epsom Derby, the Kentucky Derby, or the Ascot Gold Cup.  Her son Prophet was sired by Shuailaan by Roberto, which is a family that has produced distance horses. Sultry Avenger's pedigree, on the other hand, shows a strong predisposition to early speed, which was borne out by her success at races about 5 furlongs.  Click here to see our mares' pedigrees Pedigrees of our mares.

These pedigrees also contain information about inbreeding.  Although a pedigree can be traced back for many generations in the established breeds, most experts look to the last five or six generations to check for inbreeding.  The occurrence of the same horse more than once within the last five generations is considered significant. 

Warmblood pedigrees indicate the breed of a horse's ancestors.  For example, a selle francais horse might be the result of careful crossing of Anglo-Arab, Hanoverian, and thoroughbred in addition to selle francais horses.  Many European registries do not consider the offspring of a cross between a Swedish warmblood and a quarter horse, for example, to be a true Swedish warmblood and do not grant that foal the same kind of papers as are given to a foal whose sire and dam are both Swedish warmbloods.

The importance of thoroughbred pedigrees for warmblood breeding

Being aware of the pedigree influences in a thoroughbred helps the breeder manage the crosses to try to produce the desired sport horse.  As a general rule, our goal is a more refined sport horse with the capacity for eventing and dressage.  On the other hand, no breeder wants to lose the desirable warmblood traits of calmer disposition, strength, and the superb gaits demanded for upper level dressage work.  The Dutch warmblood registry, for example, prohibits registration of Dutch crosses that are 7/8 thoroughbred on the ground that the dilution is too great.