Beginner's Barn - Finding a Pedigree for your Models
by Mary Vinyard

Well, after a few months off, the Beginner's Barn is back! In this installment, we will pick up where we left off. Your stable has a name, your horses have names, but what they really need are some parents!

Where to start
As a member of IPABRA, you are already ahead of the game. You have paid into a great group of "Pedigree Assigners". Our newsletter, web page, and email group are great resources for learning about color genetics, breeds and of course pedigrees. But this isn't exactly where you should start.

Determine a Breed
The first thing you must do is determine a breed for your horse. That might sound obvious. You have a Classic Quarter Horse Stallion in bay, so he's a Quarter Horse, right? Not necessarily. Look at his conformation to determine. Might he do better as a Quarter Pony? Model horse manufacturer's models of breeds aren't always the best representation of the breeds they assign.

What color your model is will also determine his breed. Many breed registries only allow certain colors. For example, Arabians are only found in solid colors and are limited to chestnut, bay, black, and grey. Therefore your Buckskin Traditional Black Stallion cannot be an Arabian, even though the mold was created as such. Other breeds even limit the horses markings. For example, Cleveland Bays only come in bay and cannot not have any white markings other than a small star.

The Aging Issue
The next thing you will want to consider is an age for your horse. There are two systems used within the model horse hobby for determining an age for your model. Realistic Aging and Non-Aging.

The first is the realistic aging system. This system places a birth year on the model and allows him to "age" just as a live horse would each year. Upon reaching a certain age, the horse would decease. This age is, of course, up to the owner. Realistically, most horses live and continue breeding into their 20s.

The second system is non-aging. Just as the name says, this horse would be given a pre-determined age, such as 7, and would remain at that age throughout its existence.

Both of these systems are acceptable and it is completely up to the owner which system they choose to use. The aging system, though, is the most preferred method as it is the most realistic.

Real Parents vs. Model Parents
Once you determine a breed for your model, you now have a decision to make. What "type" of parents to use. You may use real horses, model horses, or a combination of real and model horses. There are sound reasons for each. Real parents allow you to have an own son or daughter of a World Champion stallion or out of your favorite trail mare. It also allows you to use well known and preferred bloodlines within a breed for that perfect show horse. But you may also do this with models. There are many hobbyists who incorporate real bloodlines in their stock. By using their models as parents, you will get the real lines, but have model parents. There are also many models out there who have proven themselves in the show ring, such as NAN Champions or IPABRA Supreme Earners. By using these models, or models with these horses in their pedigrees, you will be bringing forward known models. You may also want to use a combination, having a real horse stallion and a model mare, for example.

A note on using real horses. You should remain realistic when using real horses as parents for your model. Keep in mind the foaling and death date of the real horse. A horse pedigreed as a 2000 foal, should not be out of a horse such as Secretariat, who died several years ago or out of a mare who was just born in 99, as she could not have realistically had a 2000 foal.

Color Genetics
When selecting parents, basic color genetics must be adhered to. The safest route is to have one parent be the same color and pattern (if applicable) as the foal. There are certain colors that are also dominant. Grey, roan, pinto and appaloosa must have one parent their color. Recessive colors can occur out of almost any combination, such as chestnut. Two chesntuts, though, will only produce a chestnut. You should also pay attention to patterns with pintos and appaloosas. Tobiano and overo come from different genes, so the parents you choose must have the appropriate pattern gene. Two tobianos will never produce an overo. There are some combinations that will produce other colors. An example is black x palomino = buckskin. Unless you are familiar with these mixes, though, you should play it safe and choose one parent the same color as the foal.

In the next installment, we'll go further in depth on the actual assignment of a pedigree, such as requesting a model breeding.

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