The stallions are out! Not something that for most of the year that we want to hear! They hang out together for most of the fall and winter and if we hear the phrase, "they're out!" it usually refers to them being outside of the pen/corral that's supposed to hold them. Fortunately that hasn't happened often. This particular, "they're out!" is a good one! The sorting and refining of the breeding decisions we've made in the past have been digested (more than once) and by more than just me....and we've come up with a breeding list for the 2020 year. As we go through and decide whether we can improve upon what we're doing, we first look at conformation. Is the resulting colt desirable? Correct on feet and legs? That's most important for longevity and athleticism. If the resulting foal has any issues, we change up the stallion to see if we can improve. If the resulting foal is conformationally without fault or has little that we would like to change, we also consider color and pigmentation. Right or wrong, buyers preferences come into play. We try to produce the colors that buyers like to buy. It's no different than stocking the shelves of a store with the products that are most popular. This year we did pretty well....lots of roans and buckskin/dun variations that buyers like! We also didn't have to change TOO many matchings. Let's see....we're about 15 years into doing this ourselves...maybe one year we won't have to change anything....but how much fun would that be??
