Behind the Foaling Door - Getting Started in PA

Whether you are a seasoned veteran of the s/d lists or a newbie just starting to PA your first model, we all got started in PA due to our love of lineages and information. This month I asked several breeders how they got started practicing pedigree assignment....

"I first began PAing back in 1978, using pedigrees of Straight Egyptians from the pages of Arabian Horse World magazine. Since I couldn't afford the real thing, each ID I created was for a horse I wished I could own in real life, and each one was my dream horse. I don't think it was called PA back then. I just always preferred using real pedigrees to using models with fictional parents. Back then, and throughout the early 80s, I PA'd ALL of my over 700 models of all breeds. I had the good fortune to send for the sire and dam list of Vicki Whittemore of Rowan Stud, and thus began a deep friendship and invaluable education for me. She was a goldmine of information, and as far as I'm concerned, THE authority on Thoroughbreds. I would send her a list of my horses' names, mold, and sex, and she would design the perfect pedigree for each horse based on age. color, bloodlines, ability, ect. She would send 7, 8, and 9 generation pedigrees noting colors, foaling dates, breeders, race records, and list of significant foals for each horse in the pedigree. A wealth of detail. She also introduced me to Cynthia Gardner and Lucy Zeh, who also had wonderful, well-researched pedigrees. People around here are always surprised at how familiar I am with the bloodlines of the horses they have, no matter what the breed. Well, it comes from literally hundreds of hours of pouring over and studying the pedigrees I used from Vicki, Cynthia, and Lucy. I had one Shetland stallion foaled in 1981 who had seven generations of models behind him before tracing to real, and somewhere through his sire, he had a line to *Walter the Imp, Linda Walters' famous stallion. I still have every pedigree, letter, and note I ever received from those women, and they are fascinating reading even today, and not the least bit obsolote.

I sold all of my non-Arabs back in 1992 to finance opening our auto shop, plus now I'm getting too old to keep up with all breeds like I used to. Over the years, I have built a foundation base with my Arabs which covers every aspect of Straight Egyptian bloodlines. I have pure Babsons, non-Nazeer New outcrosses, Straight New, Blue List, and Babson/New outcrosses. I have some with almost 20 lines to Nazeer, upon whom our base program is centered, and many second and third generation pure-in-their-strains. I have imports from Egypt, Hungary, and Germany, and my lines represent the programs of Serenity, Bentwood, Ansata, Lancer, EAO, AlBadeia, Loeber, Gleanoch, Babson, Pritzlaff, Imperial, Akid, and others. Strains represented in our herd include Dahman Shahwan, Hadbad Enzahi, Saklawi Jedran, Kuhaylan Ajuz, and Kuhaylan Jellabi.

We also have a small "program within a program" breeding for black. Many of our horses are now fourth and fifth generation modelbred, although we never miss an opportunity to infuse new blood into our program with an occasional import or taking one of our mares to outstanding outside stallions to add certain bloodlines to our herd. Although our stock is available for no fee to outside breeders, this herd has been put together for me and my own uses and satisfaction. As in real life, we own no geldings as we are a breeding farm and I see no point in maintaining a horse that does not contribute to the program. All of our mature stock are trained to saddle, and many to harness. Through most of the 1980s we attended 4-5 shows per month, but slowed down around 1994 and now only campaign a manageable number of mostly younger horses. Our last studbook was published in 1991 and we are working on a new one which should shortly be available. Many of our foundation horses are becoming quite aged, so this will be the last time they will ever be available for outside breedings.

The information I find on other breeds in the pages of Bloodlines is proving irresistable, and we will probably be adding a select few horses of other breeds to our year 2000 show string. In the real horse world, we raise Straight New (non-Babson) Egyptian Arabs, and in 2000 we will begin shifting our focus to breeding black within those lines."
-Deb Chenoweth

"I was always one of those people that would read the classified sections of Just About Horses and raise my eyebrows at the Standing At Stud articles, thinking to myself, 'Now what is THAT all about?' I never had the guts to write to the PAers and ask, but when Chris published her pedigree assignment article in JAH in 1998 I poured over it, delighted to finally learn about the hobby. The same day, I wrote for several s/ds advertised in the back of the magazine. Melissa Clay of of Foxwood Farms was the first to write back, answering any questions I still had about the process. After that, more s/ds started arriving and I was hooked. I discovered the IPABRA web site, and many of you were terrific e-mail helpers, helping me with color genetics and naming guidelines. I am so grateful for everyone who helped answer my questions, many of which started out as 'This may seem dumb to you but how...why...what?' Thank you to everyone who has helped me in the hobby!"
-Laura Prettyman

"I got my start in pedigree assignment when I joined the Model Arabian Registry of America in the spring of 1978. My PA mentor is without a doubt, the President of MARA, Ava M. Durbin. No matter how busy she was running the club, she always took time to answer my questions. Some of my model papers survived from those days, and I still have the letter and pedigree she researched and typed out for me when I first joined MARA and told her I wanted my foundation stallion and his son to be imported from Morocco (I think U had read King of the Wind a few too many times *grin*) Ava actually sat down and FOUND an Arabian stallion of EAO bloodlines who was actually owned by the stud of the brother of the King of Morocco! Rather than the fictional parents I had been innocently considering for my horse's pedigree, she managed to create a pedigree of real parents that was so well put together, I would not hesitate to re-create those stallions and use them in my current program today.

I learned everything about PA (model breeding back in those days) from Ava and MARA. As Daralyn Wallace once said, Ava was years ahead of her time. Regarding pedigree realism, color genetics, breeding ideas and promotions, I think her philosophies would fit right in with IPABRA and modern PA today. She gave me, and all of us in her club I think, a pride in our breeding programs that carried me through the "Dark Ages" of the model horse hobby when PA seemed to fall out of favor. Because of Ava, I have always considered myself a breeder first, and a shower/customizer/collector second."
-Vikki Johnson

"I got my first Breyer almost eight years ago, started showing in 1995 and started up a stable... Then I got bitten by the PA bug....

I remember having the 1994 or so issue of the Arab stallion guide and my friend and I tore through it writing down names of various horses and creating VERY fictional pedigrees for our Breyers. The one thing that was realistic was the fact I made sure our horses had a parent of the same color (I had read every horse book in our library and there was a color genetics book there.) Then in July of 1998, I decided to get involved in a more realistic way in PA. I then joined the Express, IPABRA, and the MRF. My first s/d list had about 30 horses on it. I then re-did it about six months later and had about 100 more horses and this time adding in real dams and sires. At the same time I managed to bring home a few SWs, but my proudest moment came from my homebred Appaloosa 2 year old who won two stakes races in a row. But now back to IPABRA...I managed to squeeze in one benefit show before the end of 1998. I then received my next Bloodlines and found I had three Top Ten horses! I was in awe of my abilities as a model photographer and can't wait to snap some more pictures for my 2000 show string.

But before history was made for Saddleback Dolphin Stables, I had to bug a bunch of people about PA and swamp them with breedings. Those few people I had contact with in the earlier days of PA for me were Chris Wallbruch, Suzanne McAllister, Julia LaBomascus, Jen Reid, and Nicole Brown. Thank you so very much to you and the rest of IPABRA for making PA so much fun for me! Kudos to you all!"
-Johanna Dolch

Next time, we will discuss the breeder's favorite tool...outside s/d lists! We all have that certian s/d list we reach for when we get that really special models... Which s/d lists out there are most valuable to you, and why? Write to Chris Wallbruch to share your opinion in Bloodlines!

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