BREEDING PHILOSOPHY
I would like to share Murder Hollow’s breeding philosophy as we regularly get calls from individuals looking to breed to our stallion or who might be interested in a foal. Knowing the breeder behind a foal and how they truly raise their animals and select mares for breeding is incredibly important.
Our goal is to produce exceptional, athletic and well-mannered horses that are genetically sound. A little color doesn’t hurt either. When you look at heritability, you must factor in both the mare and the stallion. Many breeders make the mistake of overemphasizing the stallion. Few stallions are producing enough offspring to understand what their genetic potential might be. We are excited that Pax has bred over 50 mares as this allows to to begin to see what he consistently passes on. Offspring are the truest estimate of a stallion and a mare’s potential.
When we price foals, we consider both the number of foals the sire and dam have produced and whether or not the foal equals the average of the prior offspring. Are they equal? Are they superior? In rare breeds like Knabstruppers, it can become difficult to find enough quality mares to breed given the small population. We are fortunate to be able to outcross in order to create a quality gene pool for future generations. This means we must retain a mare’s best filly every 3-5 years in order to facilitate maximum generic improvement in the breeding program.
A foal’s expressed genes come from both the sire and the dam. Scientists are finding a small number of genes that are “imprinted” meaning they can only be expressed from either the sire or dam and that one parental copy of the gene is silenced – meaning it is present but not expressed. So far, scientists have identified 93 imprinted genes that are unique to equines. Some sires become known as broodmare sires because they tend to produce female offspring that produce outstanding prodigy. This phenomenon suggests that there are multiple types of inheritance transmission of athletic ability. The maternal grandsire phenomenon would mean that the high performance skips a generation and comes from the daughter of a champion sire. The genetic mechanisms that account for the skipping of a generation might be explainable through genetic imprinting. Some recent studies have concluded that the maternal heritability of athletic performance may be a stronger contributor than paternal heritability. The current theory suggests that this is due to mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is inherited only through the female parent and has a strong influence in the production of ATP, the source of energy for any physical activity. Sires pass on a lot of important characteristics to their progeny, but they don’t pass on mtDNA as mares do.
We truly believe that a good mare can contribute more than 70% influence on a foal. The upbringing of a foal should be just as important as the time spent researching bloodlines. A proven mare – one that has had a successful career and has also produced quality offspring - and has a solid brain, is worth her weight in gold. Every breeder has tried breeding that one crazy mare with hopes she won't pass her behavior onto her foal and guess what...that NEVER happens! A dam passes on character. A dam that easily spooks and is nervous in cross ties? You get a foal that is spooky and learns that nervous behavior. Brave and intelligent dam? She’ll teach and pass along these qualities to her foals. A foal out of a stellar mare and a mediocre stallion is always a better choice over a foal out of a stellar stallion and a mediocre mare.
Those first few months of life are the basis of EVERYTHING. Nutrition that does not overfeed a growing body, exercise and turnout that promotes the foal to find balance, socialization within a herd of various aged horses etc. are all lifelong qualities. A breeder that handles their foals in a positive manner and exposes them to having their feet trimmed and stalled in order to teach barn manners and patience is essential. You will find on our website not just pictures of our mares and their pedigrees but pictures and videos of their offspring. These should be closely studied when looking at buying a foal or embryo transfer. Know the breeder and how they raise their foals and the environment they provide. Our foals receive hours and hours of thoughtful training before they are even weaned. Our weaning process is done in a scientifically backed approach that considers the emotional and physical of both mare and foal. Stallions, mares and foals are all graded and inspected and shown at the top levels of sport. Pay for the quality of foal AND quality of the foal’s upbringing. The small increased price on the front end is much cheaper in the long run.
OUR FARM NAME
We are often asked about our farm name, here is the story:
The farm where we used to live had a bit of a sordid past, that we uncovered one day. It seems that, in the 1700s a nice family lived in the house. The husband/father, dutifully attended church services in the local village every Sunday. The church was not much more than a mile from the house, and the family would walk each way (the poor farmers in our area at the time did not often have horses, and if they did, they were tools for completing farm work - not for leisure/personal transport use). So the story goes, that one winter Sunday, during a particularly memorable blizzard, the gentleman instructed his wife to bundle the children so that they could begin the walk to church. Well, she refused to go due to the blizzard. The husband left and walked himself to church. Upon his return, he killed his wife and children and threw them out of the second story window, into the raging blizzard. As a result of the incident, for the next hundred years, the valley was referred to as, “Murder Hollow”. After that, the name was no longer conducive to selling farms in the region, since many a story and legend arose about the valley and its inhabitants. The name was changed to pay homage to a local iron furnace, and the term Murder Hollow was seldom heard again.
So, when we had our first foal, we jokingly named it after our neighbor, calling it, Murder Hollow Jane. The name, after that, just stuck.
I would like to share Murder Hollow’s breeding philosophy as we regularly get calls from individuals looking to breed to our stallion or who might be interested in a foal. Knowing the breeder behind a foal and how they truly raise their animals and select mares for breeding is incredibly important.
Our goal is to produce exceptional, athletic and well-mannered horses that are genetically sound. A little color doesn’t hurt either. When you look at heritability, you must factor in both the mare and the stallion. Many breeders make the mistake of overemphasizing the stallion. Few stallions are producing enough offspring to understand what their genetic potential might be. We are excited that Pax has bred over 50 mares as this allows to to begin to see what he consistently passes on. Offspring are the truest estimate of a stallion and a mare’s potential.
When we price foals, we consider both the number of foals the sire and dam have produced and whether or not the foal equals the average of the prior offspring. Are they equal? Are they superior? In rare breeds like Knabstruppers, it can become difficult to find enough quality mares to breed given the small population. We are fortunate to be able to outcross in order to create a quality gene pool for future generations. This means we must retain a mare’s best filly every 3-5 years in order to facilitate maximum generic improvement in the breeding program.
A foal’s expressed genes come from both the sire and the dam. Scientists are finding a small number of genes that are “imprinted” meaning they can only be expressed from either the sire or dam and that one parental copy of the gene is silenced – meaning it is present but not expressed. So far, scientists have identified 93 imprinted genes that are unique to equines. Some sires become known as broodmare sires because they tend to produce female offspring that produce outstanding prodigy. This phenomenon suggests that there are multiple types of inheritance transmission of athletic ability. The maternal grandsire phenomenon would mean that the high performance skips a generation and comes from the daughter of a champion sire. The genetic mechanisms that account for the skipping of a generation might be explainable through genetic imprinting. Some recent studies have concluded that the maternal heritability of athletic performance may be a stronger contributor than paternal heritability. The current theory suggests that this is due to mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is inherited only through the female parent and has a strong influence in the production of ATP, the source of energy for any physical activity. Sires pass on a lot of important characteristics to their progeny, but they don’t pass on mtDNA as mares do.
We truly believe that a good mare can contribute more than 70% influence on a foal. The upbringing of a foal should be just as important as the time spent researching bloodlines. A proven mare – one that has had a successful career and has also produced quality offspring - and has a solid brain, is worth her weight in gold. Every breeder has tried breeding that one crazy mare with hopes she won't pass her behavior onto her foal and guess what...that NEVER happens! A dam passes on character. A dam that easily spooks and is nervous in cross ties? You get a foal that is spooky and learns that nervous behavior. Brave and intelligent dam? She’ll teach and pass along these qualities to her foals. A foal out of a stellar mare and a mediocre stallion is always a better choice over a foal out of a stellar stallion and a mediocre mare.
Those first few months of life are the basis of EVERYTHING. Nutrition that does not overfeed a growing body, exercise and turnout that promotes the foal to find balance, socialization within a herd of various aged horses etc. are all lifelong qualities. A breeder that handles their foals in a positive manner and exposes them to having their feet trimmed and stalled in order to teach barn manners and patience is essential. You will find on our website not just pictures of our mares and their pedigrees but pictures and videos of their offspring. These should be closely studied when looking at buying a foal or embryo transfer. Know the breeder and how they raise their foals and the environment they provide. Our foals receive hours and hours of thoughtful training before they are even weaned. Our weaning process is done in a scientifically backed approach that considers the emotional and physical of both mare and foal. Stallions, mares and foals are all graded and inspected and shown at the top levels of sport. Pay for the quality of foal AND quality of the foal’s upbringing. The small increased price on the front end is much cheaper in the long run.
OUR FARM NAME
We are often asked about our farm name, here is the story:
The farm where we used to live had a bit of a sordid past, that we uncovered one day. It seems that, in the 1700s a nice family lived in the house. The husband/father, dutifully attended church services in the local village every Sunday. The church was not much more than a mile from the house, and the family would walk each way (the poor farmers in our area at the time did not often have horses, and if they did, they were tools for completing farm work - not for leisure/personal transport use). So the story goes, that one winter Sunday, during a particularly memorable blizzard, the gentleman instructed his wife to bundle the children so that they could begin the walk to church. Well, she refused to go due to the blizzard. The husband left and walked himself to church. Upon his return, he killed his wife and children and threw them out of the second story window, into the raging blizzard. As a result of the incident, for the next hundred years, the valley was referred to as, “Murder Hollow”. After that, the name was no longer conducive to selling farms in the region, since many a story and legend arose about the valley and its inhabitants. The name was changed to pay homage to a local iron furnace, and the term Murder Hollow was seldom heard again.
So, when we had our first foal, we jokingly named it after our neighbor, calling it, Murder Hollow Jane. The name, after that, just stuck.