Prepotentcy
What factors contribute to consistent production
Truly prepotent horses are very rare - and most never get the opportunity to be properly appreciated or used.
It can take 10 years or more to recognise this in the progeny in sport, but often the quality and upgrade in class can be seen immediately in foals.
There are always a few current stallions who have prepotent pedigrees - but most do not have the strong marketing campaigns behind them, or they may be standing at small private studs who do not have a big social media presence - and who do not receive alot of mares. They may be outshone by the star stallions standing at their stations. That is why it is always important to check the extended pedigree of stallion choices.
Often they get sold on as young riding horses for big money - their talent can recognised early on by top riders - before they have the chance to leave a large bank of semen behind and certainly no semen for outlier countries like Australia.
Some stallions may not perform as well at licensing days and end up being sold off as unlicensed stallions.
This is why balanced breeding principles and pedigree analysis should be part of the approval process for stallions - along with all the other important criteria - it would allow those stallions with the superior genotypes to be given a chance in the breeding shed
Some stallions can be more average performers than their spectacular stable mates - they
may not display the mind blowing trot or have the great video online - and so are given less chances . If the stallion is lucky then once his progeny do well the breeders will come back to use him - if he is still standing at stud and not sold on to stand in another country
Many of these super breeding animals simply do not get the opportunities they should.
Silvio Mattacchione says " our job is to diligently research and locate exceptional breeding animals - before others realise it."
With stallions, they will at least be of a certain standard in their phenotype to even get to the licensing phase
Whereas mares - some of these prepotent diamonds may be very plain looking individuals - they may not do well at mare classifications and shows
Pedigree analysis can be used to identify these animals - it is much easier to identify horses for their ability to be top breeders over any other factor - breeding animals will have a far more inbred type of pedigree, loaded with groupings of close relatives - or have different progeny lines of a tap root mare in their pedigrees.
If they can be identified then young stallions are worth taking the punt on due to this factor alone - you are far more likely to get a classy foal and a good riding horse from a prepotent producer than from a commercial or popular stallion who may be unable to pass on his own superior characteristics in the same way - and who will probably disappear within a couple of years
Many of these prepotent stallions only serve tiny numbers of mares - whereas stallions with alot of advertising behind them that have spectacular movement videos get literally thousands of mares - they may end up with a reputation for being good producers just from the sheer number of mares and the quality of mares served - and there will always be a number of champions with this many progeny on the ground no matter the other factors. Whether this is simply a numbers game or whether it is due to the stallions prepotency can only be answered by looking into the pedigree
The only way prepotency can be truly judged is to know how many progeny have been produced by a stallion in total
If a stallion has had 700 progeny and has produced 10 GP horses, he will be higher on the stallion rankings than a stallion who produced 90 foals for 5 GP horses.
Some stallions, because of their performance careers and huge stud fees attract only the best mares- this could be another reason a stallion appears more successful at stud than he really is - when it is actually the higher quality mare factor producing the better foals.
As has been stated elsewhere - there is a massive difference between horses that can perform at the top level and can also produce champions - as Clive Harper says these are "scarce as hens teeth."
Sires that are proven at stud and outstanding in their own right usually have a pedigree with many duplications of superior ancestors - they will have a more prepotent pedigree. This gives them the ability to consistently pass on their type and superior sport aptitude over a wide variety of mares.
Some current examples would be For Romance 1 - he seems to be a type setter and is producing some very good types and horses from less than stellar mares.
Other stallions that could be considered prepotent:
Morricone (still very young)
Quaterhit - young
Landadel
Lissabon (under utilised)
Labbadio - by Lissabon - currently standing at Celle, very under utilised. He is 4 x 4 to full siblings Garibaldi ii and Geisha - both by Grande out of full sisters Marbel / Mascha
Mascha is on the tail female line of this stallion - it is the Marbel mare family who has proven superior mtDNA and sex linked genes.
Labbadio would make a great cross for mares who also have strains of the Marbel mare family, such as Beltain, Belissimo M, Wolkenstein ii, Garibaldi ii, Brentano ii
Destano - who is also inbred to the Marbel mare family via Wolkenstein ii Brentano ii at 4 x 3 with the sisters Wolke and Glocke
World Cup 1 - important foundation sire
Quadroneur - brandenburg stud - underutilised - tail female both pedigree sides to daughters of mare Parabel ii 5 x 2
Weltmeyer
- important broodmare sire
Franklin - still fairly young
See the Analysing pages for more examples.
When you study the pedigrees of these prepotent, often deemed "stamping" stallions, the pedigree will generally explain why these stallions are indeed consistent producers.
For example, Franklin's pedigree above. You can see he has Ferro 3 x 2 (sex balanced), Flemmingh 4 x 4 (via two daughters) and Farn 5 x 5 x 4 (via three daughters). For a five-generation pedigree, this is very potent - it will have a high co-efficient of inbreeding - and it displays many factors of balanced breeding.
It also shows a pattern - each pedigree half shows the same horses - Ferro, Flemmingh, Farn
Horses which display the same pattern each side of their pedigree are almost always great producers
Many top producing stallions are from inbred dams or grand dams, it is very common to see this - in top horses . For Romance , Totilas, Negro and Morricone are from inbred dams.
Ferdinand - Foundation Stallion
Ferdinand is an example of a prepotent stallion with a generally undesirable phenotype who was very under utilised by breeders until it was almost too late
Ferdinand was not a beauty - he was a nondescript looking stallion with many conformation faults - he was small and with little substance for horses of that time.
He was rejected by breeders - and only listed as having around 112 progeny in total - which he sired much later in his life - once his few progeny started winning in dressage and jumping
He sired horses with correct conformation and outstanding presence, that were way beyond what could possibly have been expected from his own phenotype. He sired horses with great athleticism for jumping - and he managed this even though most of the mares sent to him were not high quality
Out of the 112 progeny he had 9 horses that jumped 1.50 and 1.60, and several others at 1.40 m
He sired 2 Olympic horses - one GP dressage horse - Reine Klimke's Olympic dressage horse Mehmed, as well as Olympic showjumper Ferdi
He left the important stallions sons - Wendekreis, Wedekind, Winnetou - and these founded their own stallion lines which are still dominant in stallions available today
It is far more impressive when a stallion has sired only 110 progeny , and produces 2 Olympic horses and around 15 top showjumpers, rather than stallions that sired 8000 progeny for 100 top horses
If Ferdinand had been embraced by breeders, these numbers would have been very different for his successful progeny - but even so his bloodlines are still powering the successful horses of today - and the Hanoverian breed would not be what it is without the influence of Ferdinand and and his sons.
De Niro's dam is 3 x 4 to Ferdinand, and Benicio has several crosses to Ferdinand, Sandro Hit has two crosses - his influence is still being felt today
As Silvio Mattacchione says" we must be able to recognise these horses before it is too late"
Cottage Son xx suffered a similar fate - he was used in holstein to upgrade the showjumpers but spent only 4 years at stud from age 15
In that time he sired 14 licensed sons, 42 daughters, British Olympic eventer Cottage Romance, sired the badminton eventers Comtur and Arrarat, as well as dressage horses Cohinor and Coriolan.
His legacy was mainly as a dam sire and he sired the dams of Lord and Ramiro
There are some mares with super prepotency, many of whom have not been competed - such as Gesina -dam For Romance, and Weihronce - dam of Viva Gold - that are now being bred with ET and ICSI to produce as many foals as possible each year - their potency has been recognised and is being taken advantage of, and it will be interesting to watch their progeny in the future
The pedigree of Ferdinand - he is 3 x 4 to three quarter brother and sister - Alcantara 1 and Arfella. Both by Aland out of Colorist mares. Ferdinand is also 6 x 5 x 5 x 5 to Alnok sex balanced.
The most important element can be seen at 5 x 5 x 6 to full brother and sister Nelusko and Neluska - both by Neckar out of mare Finette. there is an extra daughter of Finette - Ambala on 5th generation
Finette is here the tap root mare - having 3 progeny lines of a mare in one pedigree within 6 generations is the most powerful configuration possible and it is rare to come by
For Romance I
Unfortunately we need six generations to see the second Sandro/Gepard relation in Sandro Song, however you can see that in five generations, Donnerhall is the only connection between Furst Romancier and Gesina. Despite this, the pedigree of inbred dam Gesina is so strong that For Romance is still able to be a prepotent producer.
For Romance's dam Gesina has incredible dominance in her pedigree, and the sire Furst Romancier isn't helping her at all here - and she doesnt need any help. He does provide Donnerhall via a daughter which is a connection but that's it. All the power is coming from the dam line and he is along for the ride.
Granddam Gesine is also an inbred mare - 3 x 4 to Pik Bube I and II.
Many pedigree experts like to see an inbred dam with a sire that is not inbred as is the case here. If they are also from a top producing family that is even better, as these dam lines could carry superior mtDNA and sex-linked genes.
Some mares are highly inbred, they have great genetic strength even if they had limited ability themselves or are not of the ideal type, they can be incredibly valuable broodmares. These diamond pearls give a breeder much greater freedom in their stallion choices and make ideal candidates for great outcross matings. Gesina is an example.
Elsewhere on this site there is alot of information on how to breed horses for type and conformation characteristics and whilst breeding to strengthen strengths and weaken weaknesses is incredibly important, i am going to go out on a limb here and say that when it comes to prepotent breeding stock it is a good idea to be flexible with these rules.
It is always advisable for breeders to buy mares from successful families from their falling dam lines - this can enable the flow of any superior mtDNA and sex linked genes to flow to the foal. for many breeders this type of mare is out of budget or not accessible . It is still possible to find and breed from prepotent broodmares even if they are not from a top family - they can still be phenomenal producers with the right pedigree structure of genetic dominance. Read more on mare selection here.