Welcome from Warmblood Pedigree Analyst Paula McRae
I began gathering the information in this website over many years of breeding Warmbloods, and various other animals – I have learned a lot, made many mistakes and formed many observations. I have put together information on various aspects of breeding, information that I have not seen much of elsewhere , especially in breeding warmblood horses for top sport.
I had so many questions as a breeder that no one seemed to have the answers for, nor the same urgency to find them. I have read many books, papers and scientific findings on breeding in all animals, and filled many notebooks with my research on bloodlines, genetic inheritance, stallions, Grand Prix dressage and show jumping horses, pedigree theory notes, and my own private musings, in an effort to understand all this.
- Why do 90% of stallions fail at stud?
- Why are so many award winning mares indifferent producers?
- Why are some nondescript mares outstanding producers of foals every year, to a variety of stallions?
- Why doesn’t having a collection of GP stallions on top of each other in a pedigree reliably produce GP horses?
- Why doesn’t using stallions and mares that have competed at GP reliably produce GP horses?
- Why doesn’t using stallions who have competed at the Olympic games, or their sons, reliably produce GP horses?
- Why don’t two top champion parents mated together reliably produce GP progeny?
- Why do many champion GP horses fail at stud?
- Why do many GP horses come from non-performed mares?
- Why do some stallions who have never performed, or show little ability themselves, become successful sires?
- Why do some stallions produce better colts than fillies?
- Why do some stallions only pass their ability through their daughters and make good dam sires , but are not able to found a line of successful sons?
- Why do top stallions only have a tiny percentage of top performers and far more unsuccessful ones?
- What does thinking in generations mean?
- What does it mean to return to the sire the best blood of his dam?
- How are nicks created?
A lot of the information around pedigree terminology is confusing: inbreeding, outcrossing, tail female, filly factors, imprinted genes, mitochondrial DNA, return to the sire the best blood of his dam – what does it all mean, how important is each factor, and how does it all fit together and relate?
Much of this is difficult to prove scientifically, and we are told nothing in biology is 100% . The best we can speak of is working with probabilities and likelihoods as well as chance and luck. In breeding, 2 + 2 might not be 4 or it could be marginally more than 4.
Much of the information available has come from books, old papers, and musings of private breeders in cattle, sheep, greyhounds, racing pigeons, dogs for working and show, as well as horses in all other sport disciplines, Quarter Horses, Standardbreds, Arabs and Thoroughbreds. In Warmbloods used for sport, there is little information on these topics.
Kathleen Kirsan’s Sport-Horse-Breeder website was a major revelation for me when i finally came across it in the quest for more information on breeding, and took me in an entirely new direction with what is called ‘ Tesio Methods.’ These methods are basically pedigree theory and how to apply it. Kathleen has written several books, including North American Sport Horse Breeder and Become Your Own Tesio which are very important books for breeders wanting a direction and a path to take.
In the quest for answers I also studied genetic inheritance and its link to functional conformation for sport horses, and spent years researching how these factors tie into pedigrees and bloodlines.
Many people over the years have contacted me privately for help on choosing stallions for their mares, or on which mares to buy, as well as stallions, foals and riding horses. My pedigree matings have produced Grand Prix horses, Young Horse winners, and award-winning foals. I put some of these theories into practice at my stud Macarthur Warmbloods which was a very small breeding operation. Once I learned how to breed with balanced breeding principles, I noticed a substantial upgrade in both the quality of the foals and the comments of the riders on the abilities of the horses.
The area of in-depth pedigree theory and balanced breeding principles, and its application to modern warmblood horses for top sport and breeding is virtually uncharted territory worldwide. Here, I am publishing my research and findings for the first time and offering my professional pedigree consulting services.
I hope you find it interesting and helpful.
This site is meant as a teaching resource for breeders to learn themselves. If it helps only a handful of breeders who want to understand further and breed better horses, then it has served its purpose.
This website is in its infancy and will be greatly expanded upon over the coming months.
Continue on to the Introduction to start the learning journey.
All material is copyright Paula McRae and is not to be copied, used, or reproduced.
Macarthur Boom
Macarthur Desperanto
Macarthur Sting
Macarthur Bel Air
Macarthur Daredevil
All material is copyright Paula McRae and is not to be copied, used, or reproduced.
Contact Us
Grand Prix Pedigrees
Email: paulamcrae@bigpond.com
Follow us on Facebook