Eden Du Rouet, born in 2014, is an approved Selle Francais stallion who jumped at 1.55m with Francois Xavier as a 7 year old but was retired due to injury. As yet he does not have a lot of progeny on the ground, and like many stallions with pre-potent pedigrees he is being under utilised by breeders.
This often happens due to lack of current competition results and being over taken by stallions with glamorous marketing promotions and successful progeny, but make no mistake – he has the pre-potency to become a top class stallion.
His pedigree captured my attention because it is unusual to see such balance and flow in each of the parents in a true out cross mating.
This stallion is a great example of how to plan and carry out a successful out cross , using two parents that are both inbred themselves but to different bloodlines.
This creates the most effective use of hybrid vigor in the offspring.
It is a fallacy that horses need to be out crossed in each generation. Often the problem with loosely bred out crossed horses is they have wide variation in their genotype and therefore no genetic dominance, just a collection of bloodlines that do not blend and mesh well. If a top horse does result it is pure luck that the best possible combination of genes were inherited, and any repeat matings are highly likely to fail. These horses will also make very indifferent producers, and traits that have been carefully selected for in the past can actually be lost in this way.
A far better method of outcrossing is to have one inbred parent, which gives some consistency and reliability as well as direction to the outcome of the mating.
In Edens case, both parents are inbred and pre-potent genetically – but in different blood lines. This is one of the best possible scenarios for successful out cross matings. In this way they are still able to set their own superior sport characteristics and type in the progeny with consistency. Their own superior duplicated ancestors provide a greater chance for the progeny to collect their best genes at double strength.
These two parents are so dominant in themselves, they literally require no help from each other to create successful progeny. True pre-potency in one parent is rare to find let alone in both.
Chacco Blue
Photo – Chacco Blue
Sire Chacco Blue on his own is a picture of pre-potency. Born in 1998 he is still number one on the sire rankings. He has over 200 1.60m jumpers and over 200 1.50m jumpers as well as 40 stallion sons. He jumped to 1.60m himself but was not a superstar performer like Casall. His real influence has been disseminated through his progeny with incredible reliability.
His pedigree tells the story – he is 4 x 3 x 4 both sides of the pedigree to pivotal sire Cor De La Bryere, with a daughter line on the 3rd generation in an inbred position. Back in 1998 it was rare to see this bloodline appear through daughters. Cor De La Bryere left a mass of stallion sons and it was not at all uncommon to see his name appear 5 times in a pedigree through his sons only. Even today it is difficult to find stallions who carry Cor De La Bryere daughters.
Experts have found that having an ancestor appear only via their sons is not an effective method of linebreeding – and this is a common scenario where it can be thought that line breeding does not work. To be effective line breeding has to be present in the pedigree in a certain way and come through particular channels.
Ken Mclean said having an ancestor appear via their sons only “seems to block the transmission of sport ability.” Multiple sons of a sire are not often seen in the pedigrees of horses in top sport – in any discipline. A balance between the sexes always seems to be necessary for bloodlines to unleash their true power. It is certainly not seen in successful breeding stock, unless there are other balancing factors.
Having the daughter line of Cor De La Bryere with the two sons in this inbred position would be enough on its own to give Chacco Blue enormous producing power, as he is meeting this bloodline in mares which are also overloaded with Cor De La Bryere sons.
Similarly with Contender who came into Holstein like a bolt of lightning and revolutionised the entire breed, being out of a Ramiro / Ladykiller daughter – bloodlines which at that time which were almost impossible to find through daughter lines.
Sometimes all it takes is a simple sex balance of a bloodline to open up the full power in that line and give success to the sire who is meeting mares with male overloaded lines. Sex balancing also brings the X and Y chromosome back together, so the progeny can receive both valuable sex linked genes on the X chromosome, and a fuller DNA profile from that ancestor, as only mares carry the genetic code that is missing in stallions.
Chacco Blue also has Ladykiller through a daughter line via Contender and sex balanced at 5 x 5. Again, Holstein was flooded with sons of Ladykiller and there were very few daughter lines to be found as he was a prolific producer of sons. This bloodline is still mainly seen via sons only and having a daughter line in a stallion is like having money in the bank.
Chacco Blue has Raimond at 5 x 5 through a son and a daughter, again this is a line that is mainly seen via sons only , (Ramiro in particular), and a daughter line here is very valuable and adds to the balance and flow in his pedigree. It also sex balances this line in mares which carry the line only through sons.
Chacco Blue therefore has daughter lines of 3 different bloodlines which are mainly only seen via their stallion sons – Cor De La Bryere, Ladykiller and Raimond. This is sufficient to give Chacco his incredible pre-potency. All these ancestors appear within 5 generations , some in inbred positions, and all well within the engine room of the pedigree for maximum effectiveness.
There is far more to his pedigree that this and a longer article is being prepared about Chacco Blue with an indepth look at his pedigree and his successful progeny, as well as which dam lines are working best with him.
Saga Du Rouet – Dam of Eden du Rouet
Dam Saga Du Rouet is also a picture of pre-potency. Her dominance comes more from duplications of mares which creates an interesting contrast to Chacco Blue who has more genetic effect from sex balanced line breeding to stallions.
There are a considerable number of Chacco’s progeny that are by Baloubet du Rouet or his son Balou Du Rouet.
What is surprising to see is that Saga is inbred on her tail female line as well as via Baloubet Du Rouet’s dam line – to daughters of the mare Perle De Norval at 3 x 2 in an inbred position. This can be clearly seen on the pedigree chart.
Pictured: Baloubet Du Rouet, Sire of Saga Du Rouet
Having a mare inbred to her own tail female line, with another of her progeny present elsewhere in the pedigree is really quite rare to see. Mares have so few progeny, and to find two different progeny lines of a mare in the pedigree of a stallion is always remarkable. It is uncommon for two progeny of a mare to appear in a pedigree to begin with, unlike stallions who can have hundreds of progeny and appear in pedigrees many times over. When you see mares duplicated in pedigrees pay attention, because it will be the power centre in the horse and the source of the talent.
Horses that have this configuration often become breed shapers and their progeny have a higher likelihood of inheriting the superior sport talents of their mare line.
Superior mitochondrial DNA only travels on the tail female falling dam line and can only be inherited by the foal in this way. Certain female families known for producing international sport horses often have superior mitochondrial DNA and sex linked genes on the X chromosome. This is sometimes seen to be a defining factor in breeding champion horses.
Mares have more effect on the athleticism and sport talent of their progeny in general because of mitochondrial DNA and special qualities in sex linked genes that reside only on their X chromosomes. It is a wonder really why all the focus is put on the stallion to bring the talent to the progeny. Top sires will often come from strong mare families and dam lines. In this way they are vehicles for distributing the maternal strength of their dams, and they do this far more rapidly than the actual mare can, as they can have hundreds of foals in a season. Mares that can produce more than one stallion son, continue to transmit their power, and have their influence dispersed more quickly into the gene pool via their stallion sons.
The tail female design in Saga’s dam is definately something to aspire to in pedigree design and to watch out for in breeding stock and stallion choices.
The inbred mare Perle De Norval is not just any mare, she is also the third dam on the tail line of top sire Baloubet Du Rouet. Her influence will continue to be dispersed into the gene pool via her daughter in Baloubet and son Eden Du Rouet. Mares whose daughters exist on the dam line of other stallions are highly valuable, especially where they meet up with their stallion sons in the pedigrees of top horses as in this instance, and the distribution of their maternal strength is continued.
It is a very powerful pedigree configuration for a mare, and these things happen so rarely by chance. Many times inbreeding in this manner is done inadvertantly and some breeders dont realise this is occurring (sorry to those that do).
Often breeders are unaware they have horses from a top mare line and even if they are, dont know how to make the best use of it and reinforce it in their stallion choices, because so few breeders actually study pedigrees on a deeper level.
Breed shaping horses who are inbred to different progeny of mares are fairly rare, as true pre-potent breeding stock are. The task at hand is to be able to recognise horses that have pre-potent pedigrees and make the best use of them. It is a fact that many of these prepotent jewels are not recognised by breeders and remain under utilised. They may not have had the most glamorous or successful career themselves and are overlooked for the glamour sires or the ones with the greatest media attention.
By Ibrahim out of Girondine
By Ibrahim out of a daughter of Girondone – La Citadelle
The good things dont end there for dam Saga – she is also inbred 3 x 3 to three quarter brothers Alme Z and Quastor, both by Ibrahim with Alme out of important mare Girondine, and Quastor being out of her daughter La Citadelle. A son and daughter of a mare is one of the most valuable assets for a broodmare in terms of boosting her pre-potency, and the mare Girondine is often seen in pedigrees via her stallion sons and grandsons. She is still distributing her maternal strength in this way, all these years later.
Saga also has Rantzau at 4 x 5 x 4 sex balanced and she is 5 x 5 to Jus De Pomme daughters.
All these duplications are happening very close up, many in inbred positions within the first three generations and most within 6. Ancestors in these positions have a higher likelihood of transmitting their superior sport abilities at double copy strength.
Of course as in all things with breeding, a good dose of luck is required in the reshuffling of the genetic cards. The nature of breeding and the randomness of inheritance means we must talk in terms of probabilities and likelihoods of top sport abilities being inherited.
Pedigrees that are constructed in this way however, do tend to raise the probabilities considerably higher with all possible ducks lined up in a row.
Eden Du Rouet is a wonderful example of a true outcross mating and how to go about planning one. Outcrosses with two very loosely bred horses have little chance of producing a useful horse. It is far more effective to plan an outcross with one inbred parent, and better yet, as in the example of Eden, two inbred parents with different genetic dominances. This is a masterful pedigree design and there is much to learn from it.
Eden Du Rouet frozen semen is available in Australia through Godspell Park.