Posted by PH Cody on November 19, 2002 at 07:52:16:
In Reply to: Equine linebreeding/inbreeding posted by lbspaints on November 15, 2002 at 09:00:23:
:I'm just starting back in the horse business. I always had geldings before. Now I have two mares and a filly all Paints. This is the first year I have ever breed a mare. I went by the advise of the breeder I purchased the two mares from, which is also my horse trainer. We went by the conformation, disposition, and the color of the resulting foals he would produce, he is also owned by them. I'm wondering where the cut-off point is between linebreeding and inbreeding? I know from other articles on the internet and talking to my horse trainer and breeder that daughter to father, son to mother, and full sister to brother is inbreeding. But, I want to know how many times a foal or a particular horse can go back to the same horse, that it changes from linebreeding to inbreeding. One of my mares goes to Three Bars 5 times by 4 different horses, I also have her daughter that goes back to Three Bars 14 times by 10 different horses. Where is the cut-off point between linebreeding and inbreeding? Are both these mares linebred or inbred or one of each? Three Bars does not come up unless you go back at least to the fouth if not the 6th or 7th generation. Any advice will help. If you can give pedigree examples it would be even better. I want to keep breeding my mares but, I don't want to inbreed my mares. So, I'm looking for something to go by to keep linebreeding. Please help if you can any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks LBS Paints
Unfortunately, there's really not a clear cut answer. Linebreeding is actually just a form of inbreeding. They aren't mutually exclusive. However, if pressed I would say that most agree that sire to offspring/dam to offspring breeding is too close for most purposes. There are actually methods to determine the percent of inbreeding/linebreeding in various horses. But because I'm not a genetic expert in any length of the imagination, I will fall back on the "I know someone who is" and see if I can't get him to come an answer this one for you, as I know that DoctorT is NOT a genetic expert either, and probably has forgotten even the basics of coat color genetics! :) So let me see if I can get a better answer for you from someone who knows this stuff! PH Cody
What a great question!
