HGG Community Forums

PT has nothing to do with breeding ability of the individual. I cull every horse with an AFPT (average foal PT) lower than 10 for foundations, 10.5 for 2nd gens and so on. But I never cull their foals. That is how I keep only quality stock.

hey Drakon! My culling method gets refined a little more every season, so this is an overview of the process I used this season.

Foundation stallions: most of my stallions are perfect foundations or rank special boys. These guys already have the top breeding ability for a foundation and the few that aren't one of these guys have been comparison tested and are AGA one of my specials. I also want my foundations to have a PT of 9.0 and up since my boys show year round. almost all of my stallions are around to contribute to a specific line, so I have fairly clear goals for all of my boys.

Foundation mares: I cull based on color first--if they aren't the color I'm looking for, they're gone. Then I'm looking for PTs 9.0 and up but I keep ones with lower Pt scores. However, a low PT counts as one strike in my 3 strike policy for breeding mares. Every mare is allowed 3 strikes--their PT, their foal's PT, spays, gelds and papering. If they hit 3 strikes, they're out unless there is a really good reason not to get rid of them.

Mares used for straw breeding instead of pasture breeding get extra leeway, as do mares I have bred poorly when I was just starting out or mares other people have owned and bred to their own stallions--I don't count other people's foals against them. That said, I'm trying to have all Red papered foundation mares.

Newly bred foals: everyone gets GA/SMA and SAT. Anyone who is altered by these tests, I make a note on that mare's page what test altered her foal. Geldings at this point are Gelding Papered and if they paper below the level I expect for this generation, that is also noted on their dam's page.

Now everyone gets PTd. And I mean everyone! Gen 2s with a PT below 9.5, that is noted on their dam's page. Already altered foals with PTs below 10 are thrown in the auction, those with PTs above go to the show string. Intact foals with PT below 9.5 are auctioned--colts are gelded first, fillies from pastures that contain LE genes are spayed, but if it's a normal color pasture, they may stay intact.

Now I stop and look at the colts I've kept from previous breeding seasons. What colts did I keep from this particular batch of colors? Am I looking for a colt with a different color (last season I got a wild bay dun from my wild bay pasture, this year I got rid of him in favor of a colt without dun that I liked better) or a colt from s different stallion or have I failed to get a superior colt? This will affect how I cull the colts--am I culling for color, a sire, or general quality. I usually geld most of what doesn't appeal to me because I want to paper everything and it's free to paper geldings. My goal is to keep no more than 1 colt per line per year, so if I already have a superior colt in a line, I'm quite ruthless culling new foals. So, I cull based on what I need for the future. I may keep out a choice colt or two to sell in a forum sale, but I geld almost everything I can't use myself. i gelding paper everything I've altered, again making notes on mares with low papered colts and keep the show ponies, auction the extras.

Now hopefully I'm down to a handful of colts, so I paper them. Lower than expected papers are automatically gelded, with notes on their moms. Whatever left is comparison tested to my benchmark for that generation. My benchmark in gen 2 is a very high B papered colt--I know this because he's AGA an A papered stallion. I keep some inferior colts, either because I can't access those bloodlines anymore or because I don't yet have a superior colt from that bloodline, but my goal is to replace those colts as soon as possible. Again, I geld what doesn't compare favorably and keep show ponies, auction the rest. However, I do not mark mares for having a colt that doesn't hit the comparison test...

And now, having sufficiently gotten rid of the colts, I go to the fillies. Basically it's the same process--free test, note mares, auction, PT, note mares, auction, go through and cull on color. I currently keep the vast majority of my fillies but will start culling gen 2 mares this season or next as I start to have big herds of replacement homebreds come of age.

I tend to cull broodmares as I cull foals, but I will note one other point here--I cull any mare that throws a Showable only colt and i cull all of her offspring.

And finally, I tend to keep all of my upper gen altered stock since the upper gens naturally have higher PTs than foundations or gen 2s. If you have limited barn space for show ponies, you are probably better off keeping all of the few upper gens you breed and get rid of foundations and gen 2s that haven't accumulated a lot of points yet...

Ok, that turned into a full on novel and since I'm about to be asleep, I hope it made some sort of sense! Good luck!