How close is too close?

Mostly out of curiosity, how close is too close for a dam and sire to be related? The reason I ask is I saw a beautiful filly for sale who has been approved by a well respected German registry and when I looked at her pedigree I found that her dam and sire are from the same sire. So, either opinion or from experience, how close is too close for a dam and sire to be related?

It depends on the breeding program. It is a human thing to worry about breeding with your family The problem with breeding close like that is that unwanted traits can be 'cemented' into the foal quickly as both parents may have the genes for it. However, outstanding traits can be locked in just as easily. If the filly is a nice specimen, clearly it is working

It may be a great horse, but I think the breeder took a risk with that breeding. Here in Georgia, we say that they do that kind of thing in Alabama. (They accuse us of the same thing....)

We blame Kentucky.

In Canada, we say it's royalty keeping it in the family

Doubtful. A risk would be breeding a line that was known for less than excellent traits. Crossing two individuals in a line that are all beautiful specimens is not taking a risk.

I was a breeder for many years and practiced and like line breeding when done properly. Most responsible breeders draw the line at full siblings (pardon the use of the terms half and full siblings - it just makes it more clear to novice breeders), which is the smallest possible gene pool - only 2 horses in the mix. Half siblings have 3 horses in the mix, which is less risky, but is still inbreeding. Personally I would not breed half siblings, but some do. Some turn out OK, some don't.

Chiilaa, the traits of the horses aren't a factor in the risk, although you are certainly correct in that you would not want to breed horses that closely related if they had an undesireable trait, as the odds of replicating the undesireable trait would be very high. The actual risk with inbreeding is that with nearly duplicate genes, there is a higher than normal potential of pairing an undesireable recessive gene or genes...as recessives they are phenotypically transparent, but when paired become dominant and will cause whatever undesireable trait they induce...

Faceman I think if you re-read my post, you will find we said the same thing - the risk is in the recessives, not the "omg it's going to have two heads"

The fillies grandparents? Not a big deal at all. Line breeding is pretty common, although it is normally the grandparents and back that are considered more "acceptable".

Well if they are Appys they need two heads so they can have a full brain...