Colt Factors and Filly Factors for Different Pedigrees

Research has shown that colts and fillies have slightly different pedigree requirements and rarely is a mating as good for both sexes.

There are 4 building blocks to breeding   and classifying how horses appear in pedigrees

Filly Factors

1.  son and daughter of a mare

2.  Daughters of a sire

Colt Factors

1. Sons of  a mare

2. Son and daughter of a sire

It is  recommended that good colts should have more colt factors and good fillies have more filly factors in their pedigrees. Clive Harper found that as with most things in nature - a balance is needed between the two. A top broodmare will certainly need filly factors but will also need a balance of colt factors and vice versa.

Filly factors are important  for top performance mares and for prepotent broodmares. 

Harold Hampton says "It is this method of bringing in a son and daughter of a mare -  that is responsible for the greatest number of good performance fillies"

Filly factors are beneficial for both sexes -    Top stallions often have a full or half sibling feature - and siblings of any kind  build strength and complexity into pedigrees and  allow these horses to set type and sport ability more reliably.

"Siblings seem to be able to gather the strength from the past and bring it forward for utilisation in the current generation"  Ken Mclean

Les Brinsfield "Nothing is as volatile in a pedigree as a full brother and sister"

Kathleen Kirsan  "Creating full sibling configurations is one of the strongest designs in pedigree potency."

Full brothers are a very powerful feature for stallions to have

Calypso 1, 11, 111  - 4 x 5 to  Favorit and Friedland

Floriscount  6 x 5 to Pik As and Perser

Graf - 3 x 2 to Flugfeur 1 and 11

Fidertanz is 5 x 6 to Abhang 1 and  111

Weltmeyer  is 4 x 4 to Flugeladjutant and landeck

Landadel is 4 x 5 to Anblick and Abendfrieden

Ravallo is 3 x 4 to Abhang 1 and 111

Bluefields Floreno  4 x 5 Pik Bube i and ii

Total Diamond PS    3 x 3  Sandro Hit and Diamond Hit

Daughters of a sire -  Filly Factors - are also very useful for stallions:

De Niro's dam is 3 x 4 to two daughters of Ferdinand

Veneno is 5 x 5 to two Welt As daughters

Ladykiller xx is 5 x 5 x 5 x 5 to four daughters of Chaucer

Regardez Moi is 3 x 5 to two daughters of Angelo xx

Gribaldi is 4 x 5 x  2 to daughters of sire Ibikus

Quaterhall is 4 x 5 to two daughters of Grenadier

Lordanos - 3 x 3 two daughters of Calypso i

Sezuan's Donnerhall is 3 x 3 to daughters of Don Schufro

Furstenball is 3 x 2 to two daughters of Donnerhall

Fiji is 4 x 4 to two daughters of Pik bube ii

Daughters of a sire do not even need a sex balance with a male line in a pedigree - they have unique properties of their own.  

Blu Hors Zack shows a pattern that is very common in Dutch horses

He is 6 x 6 to Furioso II and Mexico (brothers) but they appear via sons only - sons of Furioso

Zack has two daughters of the sire Pericles at 5 x 6

Having 2 sons of a sire and 2 daughters of a sire in a different bloodline  is a more difficult and complex pattern but appears often enough to show that it works. It is said to work as a kind of remote sex balance

The situation is slightly different for mares - they will definitely benefit from full and part siblings, but mares can also have full brothers present and a lot of sex balanced line breeding - more of a 'colt ' type pedigree.

This type of mare can be a good performer, but as a broodmare - she will produce better colts than fillies.

Daughters of a mare are not given a classification, just like sons of a sire are not.

However,  progeny of a mare  should be taken any way you can take it -  full sisters are particularly significant  or just two different daughters of a mare that are half related  are always a wonderful addition  in a pedigree - if on the tail line of the falling dam it can also bring into play superior MtDNA and sex-linked genes.

If on the tail dam line of both stallion and mare sides then it kicks the genetic power into the stratosphere  - this is called the Formula One pattern  (Rommy Faversham).

Hilltop Bugatti GP horse is an example of this. He is 3 x 4 to the full sisters Paola and Pirola.  They are not just any full sisters they are the full sisters to Pik Bube I and II.  They also appear in the new young horse star Daan G.

 Quaterhit  is inbred to half siblings, daughters of the mare Poesi at 3 x 1 - Passionata and Poetin 111. These siblings have benefitted Quaterhit, he is a GP horse and with this pedigree dominance should prove to be a prepotent  producer.

Destano is 5 x 4 to daughters of the mare  Marbel - Ganseliesel and Ferbel -   and he was an olympic horse 

World Cup i is 4 x 4 to daughters of the mare Fobuza - Goldwelle and Golfkleid - he was a top hanoverian foundation sire

World Royal - imported  / exported Belcam Stud - GP horse

he is 2 x 4 to daughters of Ruling Chica - and one line is on the falling dam line which is the most powerful position.

Mares whose progeny appear both sides of a pedigree of course refers to siblings -  brothers, sisters, and three-quarter relatives.

If you are lucky enough to find a horse with siblings within 6 generations  -  this is most likely  the power line and the source of the athletic talent in the pedigree and the horse.

You can also build siblings into your own pedigree designs.

Breeders need to learn and identify which stallion and mare lines carry full siblings and plan matings accordingly. We can learn which mare lines have siblings which are carried in stallions whose semen is available to buy  today.

For Instance -  If you have a Sandro Hit mare and you want to expand on the Loretta mare family you can research which available stallions carry Diamond Hit in their pedigree.

If you have a mare by Alabaster - Alabaster's dam Waleska is the grand dam of stallion Hotline - you could find a stallion with Hotline in the pedigree.

If you have a mare by Grannus II, his dam Wenita is the third dam in stallion Foundation and Glocks Flavio - again for combining a son and daughter of a mare in a pedigree.