Sire Qualities

Kinniside Asi and his ladies-in-waiting

I was asked what I like about my Fell Pony stallion.  The question was posed as if a single answer was expected, with a list of possible choices.  I had to stop and think about it.  I had never considered the choice of a stallion to be a single factor decision.

Now that I live on a cattle ranch, I’m learning about the stewardship of another species.  My friendship with Bruce and Linda, who own the ranch, began with conversations about the art of breeding.  Right now, it is bull-buying season, and Bruce gave me a catalog for an upcoming bull sale to study.  He gave me a few pointers to get me started, and I soon became fascinated by how many factors beyond conformation can be used in a purchase and breeding decision.  For instance, there are measures of scrotal circumference, calving ease, and weight gain.  There is data about birth weight, weaning weight, and yearling weight.  This is my first exposure to high-volume breeding, and it certainly makes sense that there would be lots of data collected, analyzed and regurgitated. Yet it isn’t uncommon for buyers who have studied all the data to show up on the day and see something in the flesh that wasn’t in the numbers that ends up changing their purchase decision.

That trove of data is such a contrast to the information I have when I want to choose a Fell Pony stallion and what is required to collect it.  Our breeding population is so small by contrast, and the number of breeders is also small and dispersed.  Yet the one thing I quickly learned while watching an auction of bulls is that buyers rarely are purchasing based on a single factor.  So I’m not alone!

In case you’re curious, here’s how I answered the question about what I like about my stallion.  “I suspect you won’t be satisfied if I said it was the whole package, so I'll say that I met all his grandparents which indicated a consistency of type behind him. I was pleased with his offspring last year.  I love his type, bone, substance, and movement. He's interested in learning and great at giving hugs when I need them. So there's a few of the things I like about him!”

When I asked a bull buyer what they saw in their purchase that led them to bid as they had, I got a similarly broad answer with a similar lead-off about ‘the whole package.’    Despite all that data, breeding is still an art.  Informed by science perhaps, but still an art!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

More stories like this one can be found in my book What an Honor, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.