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Selecting the right stallion when planning to breed to a mare takes skill, time and a great deal of thought. It’s important that anyone who keeps a stallion for breeding purposes does their part of the job well, by making sure they are choosing the healthiest animals that best represent the qualities of their breed. These qualities will, of course, vary from breed to breed, but there is one quality that should be common to all of them – good temperament. Anyone planning to breed to a mare needs to ask themselves not only whether they have chosen the right stallion, but also whether they are making the right decision for the breed in general. Most breeds have programmes that ensure only the best animals become registered as stallions at stud.
When breeding to a mare, most people will use the services of an established stud farm that has one or more registered studs. People tend to be specialists in a particular breed because they are enthusiasts for that breed. However, it is not unknown for a stud farm to have several different breeds of stallions, since the owners and staff may well be experts in keeping stallions, and, therefore, able to apply their expertise to more than one breed. Mares are usually taken to stud and may stay there for some time to ensure that they are in foal before they return home. Less frequently, stallions run out with their mares in the paddocks, which is usually the case for pony breeds rather than large horses. Increasingly, artificial insemination (AI) is used, particularly with sports horses, so the mare does not need to travel or stay at stud but can be inseminated at home, meaning less risk for both mare and stallion.
The motivation for breeding is not always the same. For instance, the owner of a mare that is an exceptionally good example of an endangered or at-risk breed may decide that breeding is required for the survival of the breed. Others may breed because they want a horse of a known quality that they can bring on and train themselves. What matters is that there should always be a reason and that the person planning to breed should know they have the money, time and ressources to care for the foal when it arrives and until it is old enough to train, if necessary. Choosing the right stallion depends very much on the reason for breeding, and takes time and research, particularly in the case of endangered breeds where there may already be too much inbreeding.
Many of the world’s best-known stallions for breeding are also performance horses and leading names in the sport, such as the dressage star, Totilas. Historically, documentation has tended to focus on a small number of the male lines of various breeds, so that many people will have heard of the contribution of the Godolphin Barb, the Byerley Turk and the Darley Arabian to the Thoroughbred. Obviously, there is far more to the creation of a breed than just a handful of well-known stallions, but it is the ones that are known to be successful that tend to remain the most popular today. Stallions that produce a line with outstanding offspring are particularly valued. Depending on the traditions of each nation, stallions will either be privately owned or the property of a state stud. Some successful racehorses will belong to a consortium of owners. The general rule is to choose a stallion whose conformation or temperament complements, and if possible, improves upon that of the mare. This is why registration programmes are so important, as they are a record of the tests that the stallion has undergone before becoming a registered sire for the breed. On the whole, mare owners choose stallions of the same breed, as they like and wish to support that breed. However, cross-breeding can produce horses that show the benefits of both breeds, such as Cleveland Bay cross Thoroughbred for creating hunters.