Why is Temperament important

Frog Hollow Farms

Breeding and raising outstanding Quarter Horses for barrel racing

call us at 319-276-3511 for your next prospect

Why is Temperament important?

In all disciplines of using horses, only a few will reach the top of their field. What will happen to the rest? "Breed the best to the best and hope for the best", but if only a few can be the "best ", what will happen to the rest? That depends on temperament.

We will assume that the aspects of conformation were properly considered in the breeding process and that poor conformation was not built into the horse. We can gather some things from racing statistics. When you consider the leading stallions some things are very clear.

The stud fees are high enough that they will be bred to very few if any poor mares.
Of these matings of the best horses probably no more than 60% to 70% will run better than SI 80. First Down Dash has produced 79% ROM
Fewer than that will be winners. First Down Dash has produced 65% winners.
Fewer than that will be stakes winners. First Down Dash has produced 13% stakes winners.

You can see that no matter how good the breeding is they are not all going to be world class race horses. The same is true for barrel horses. Certainly, less than half of the produce of the leading barrel sires will win futurity money. Only a small portion of their produce will win a futurity. The legendary sires have produced only a handful of World Champions each.

While we strive to produce foals with world class potential, we know they will not all be. There are a lot of world class barrel horses that can only be handled by very good horsemen. They are sometimes known as "hot" or "fractious". They lack the temperament that allows an average horseman to handle them. A capable person will certainly be willing to work through some temperament problems for a world class barrel horse. Why though, would anybody want to do that with a 2D or 3D horse.

When we choose our mares, and the stallions we breed to, temperament is high on our list of considerations. We want to make sure that whether they are world class or 3D they will have a temperament that makes them fun and easy to work with.

Telephone 319-276-3511

Fax 319-987-2900 Attn:Chris

E-mail ckborglum@aol.com