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Line-breeding and in-breeding thoughts & reasons

19K views 159 replies 34 participants last post by  LadyDreamer 
#1 ·
Pretty self-explanatory.

I've never even considered the thought of purposely breeding the sire and daughter together, or grandsire with granddaughter, but it obviously happens.

My question is what are your thoughts? Would you choose this, or choose to breed with a completely unrelated horse for desireable qualities, etc? And reasons why as well please.
 
#2 ·
I don't like in-breeding, but line-breeding is a delicate thing. I believe that only professionals who know what they are doing should be line-breeding because you have to decide what quality you are trying to preserve, why you want to preserve, how you can successfully preserve that quality, and which horses will be the best cross that will not only keep the quality but add more to the resulting foal. I've seen several line-bred horses come out well in the show pen and breeding shed. It's about knowing what you want and sticking to it. It's not for every breeder.
 
#3 ·
Linebreeding and inbreeding are common and useful practices in breeding animals.
If you want to ensure the offspring inherit the good qualities of the dam and sire the best way to get the results you desire is inbreeding.
I own several mares that are the result of their dams being bred back to their own sires. These mares are correct and most importantly pass on the qualities I desire in their offspring.
I purchased the half sister to my stallion solely becuase of the foals the two have produced. She is the only mare I purchased to cross with my stallion who by the way is related to everyone of my mares either through Bask or The Minstrel.
All pure bred animals are inbred. It is used to set type .
The closer related a stallion is to the mare the more careful one must be when choosing to breed. Shalom
 
#6 ·
Linebreeding and inbreeding are common and useful practices in breeding animals.
If you want to ensure the offspring inherit the good qualities of the dam and sire the best way to get the results you desire is inbreeding.
I own several mares that are the result of their dams being bred back to their own sires. These mares are correct and most importantly pass on the qualities I desire in their offspring.
I purchased the half sister to my stallion solely becuase of the foals the two have produced. She is the only mare I purchased to cross with my stallion who by the way is related to everyone of my mares either through Bask or The Minstrel.
All pure bred animals are inbred. It is used to set type .
The closer related a stallion is to the mare the more careful one must be when choosing to breed. Shalom
No, all pure bred animals ARE NOT inbred, they may be line bred, but they are not inbred.

Your chances of having a physically and/or mentally deformed offspring as a result of breeding within 2 or 3 generations is substantially higher when inbreeding. As opposed to breeding for desired traits to present in another 4+ generations removed. This is a scientifically proven and published fact, not something made up.

Yes, if you breed a dam to her sire, you MIGHT get what you want. But you are more likely to get a foal that is of no use to anyone. That's fairly irresponsible in my book, especially considering the amount of poor quality horses there are now as a result of poor breeding practices....
 
#4 ·
Its used to "lock in" a highly desirable trait or set of traits. It should only be done by someone who knows what they are doing and are extremely familiar with the lines they are working with. It can result in an outstanding horse/animal that can then be outcrossed to another line for the next generation, or produce a horrible mess. It is a sure way to bring out any hidden recessives if there are any lurking in the lines and can emphasize any weaknesses just as easily as any strengths.
 
#5 ·
Ok, inbreeding, taboo in the human race because of the possibility of less desirable traits being thrown, and the severe possibility of doubling down on genetic disorders. Our ancient ancestors worked this out quite quickly I think. My husband came from one of a group of small islands off of the North of Scotland, and raids to find new women have been going on forever. At the same time there is an upside, you can magnify any good traits, you have a chance of improving the desirable. In the human world we are against such experimentation, because the poor folk who are born carrying the negative traits are too big a price to pay for the chance of positives. Besides there is no breed standard for people.

For the animal world though, it is how new breeds start, you have one desirable animal with the traits you want, then you start inbreeding with close relatives who have those traits, and once you have offspring, then you can breed them back to the parents. Lets stay with the cattle world, in that case the ones that carry the right traits will be bred, the failures either die, or we let them grow then eat them! It is not a venture for the faint of heart, or those without a depth of knowledge of what they are trying to achieve, the risks involved, and the possible costs, emotional, financial, and on the health of the animals. It is a high risk game for all involved.

Line breeding is far more wide spread, but again should be approached with a little caution, and a whole bunch of knowledge. My beautiful Arab, has Bask and Serafix many many times in her pedigree, no inbreeding, but line bred so she has many common ancestors. They certainly produced a mare of great beauty, and she has no health issues, so either she is lucky, or people have cared enough to do their homework and make sure that they made good choices.
 
#8 ·
I am not a breeding guru. At all.

But I am extremely turned off by a horse that has the same name several times in its pedigree. If I am looking to buy a horse, I will often cross that horse out of my list of potentials. Call me uneducated, but it doesn't seem right to me for breeding close relations.

This thought has always striked me as interesting. What if Tina Charles and Michael Jordan got together to produce the ultimate basketball champion? And then that daughter got with her dad, and then their son got with their mom, to produce more? Disgusting right? But its okay when we do it with horses..... Just food for thought.
 
#19 ·
I'm not "pick on" your post, it just demonstrates my point well Beau...

It really is the human mind that gets in the way when people think of line breeding. The only reason its wrong is because society says so. It's really not an apples to apples view. Just like you cannot compare breeding an older stallion to a younger mare because its taboo for women to date/marry much older men. Horses have no concept of sexual morals.
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#9 ·
I have a 4 month old colt that is the result of daughter being bred to her father (I didn't do it, I got her 1 month before she foaled). Everyone says this could be an OK thing or a bad thing.

So far the colt seems smart, what do look for in "in breeding" as opposed to line breeding? Does that make sense?
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#10 ·
All purebred animals are very closely related they have to be to have the same traits.
All morgans descended from 1 horse all TBs from 3 arabian stallions, Haflinger are all related to one horse etc.
I want a animal that is line or inbred for breeding purposes. It is the most sure way of getting the traits you want.
now I would never breed full siblings or like a certain reserve halter world champion have every single line but one going to Impressive.
if I breed a filly to her sire I wont breed her foal to its half sibling. I want some outcross in the equation to have some different genetics to work with.
As far as humans all Jews are related to one mans twelve sons who married each others sisters and daughters.
Abraham married his sister, their son married his mothers niece, their son married two of his mothers nieces.
Moses's father married his own aunt.
These were people chosen by G-D. Shalom
 
#13 ·
All purebred animals are very closely related they have to be to have the same traits.
All morgans descended from 1 horse all TBs from 3 arabian stallions, Haflinger are all related to one horse etc.

I will have to check my haffy history, but actually no not all purebred animals are closely related, was the arab breed created by a person, or was it developed from the type of horse that lived in that part of the world? The Morgan yes, Arab? Well I wonder, unless we believe in the Story of Noah, and then all horses are descended from an original pair.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Every time you do NOT outcross you reduce the amount of genetic material. Cheetahs have such a low gene pool that zoos are the only way to breed and maintain any wild numbers now. They almost became extinct and might still go under.
My other argument against inbreeding and line breeding is "Impressive." There is a genetic abnormality found in QH's with Impressive (the stallion) blood, and people who buy horses bred from an Impressive line get them tested. Many are NOT able to perform in a sport.
This happened bc of inbreeding and line breeding.
In fact, IMHO QH's as a whole are a great breed bc there are so many different breed lines that run through it.
If you read the book, "Secretariat", the author takes a chapter to run through his ancestry. Even 40 years ago some TB breeders realized that the massive amount of inbreeding and line breeding in the TB studbooks had created physical problems. Secretariat is fairly outcrossed, at least as much as possible, with ancestors from Ireland, England and the U.S.
Just some food for thought.
 
#20 ·
Every time you do NOT outcross you reduce the amount of genetic material. Cheetahs have such a low gene pool that zoos are the only way to breed and maintain any wild numbers now. They almost became extinct and might still go under.
Surprisingly enough the Cheetah is not suffering from inbreeding depression, as much as would be predicted from common understanding.

There is even a degree of selection for inbreeding observed in the wild.
A study on birds was done and it showed a female preference for cousins over an unrelated individual.
 
#15 ·
Foxhunter most don't have the heart to Cull hard these days. Twenty years ago you never saw dilute aussies, the result of breeding a merle to a merle dog, often resulting in deaf or blind puppies. It was done twenty years ago, but no one wanted to admit that they had produced a deaf/blind puppy and kill those ones off. Now its really common and a "fashion" it seems in some circles to own/train a deaf/blind dog.

I think while inbreeding is done in many cases to "start" a breed there is no real need for it with established breeds. As others have said, it doubles up on good but it also doubles up on bad genes. Sometimes it leaves only the skeletons in the closet for which to make a body. Some one else mentioned the cheetah and I will mention the banana. Banana's are incredibly inbred, they are basically clones of one another. Which means that if we get a banana blight (not entirely uncommon/unlikely) it will easily destroy the worlds population of bananas. That would be bad for a lot of people, who make a living growing, or selling bananas. So agricultural scientists are actually working on "genetically modifying" the banana in an attempt to increase its genetic variability and prevent a banana crash.

Horses are not that different and with so many unsuitable horses being bred and so many horses being created I don't see a need for it. I know members (who I respect in many matters) are very pro inbreeding/line breeding. I am just not for it because I think its hard to find a horse out there that compliments your horse; however, its possible. We have at our finger tips basically the entire equestrian world (via the internet) with hundreds of people advertising their stallion or mare. Which means you can probably find a horse that compliments your horse. It might take longer and be more expensive than using a sibling but I think the end product would be a better for the breed/species as a whole.
 
#16 ·
I personally am very careful about a horse's ancestors when I am looking at breeding. I don't mind 5 or 6 generations back having a couple of common ancestors, but close line breeding, or in breeding, definitely not. I had a thoroughbred, bred for racing, with almost no line breeding in her closer relatives. Once you got back to the 1800's you started to see repeat names, but she was fairly out crossed, and a very nice example of a racing thoroughbred. My Arabian mare I had was the same way, she had three names, each only repeated twice in the fifth generation, but most of her lines were all different names, and again, a very nice example of the Arab breed. That being said, I do see a point in further generations back of having some common names, because they do set a type, and especially if the breed has gone off in an unforseen direction, sometimes recrossing to something you know can bring it back. I know someone who had an Arabian, decided to breed her to one of the stallions from the farm where she was originally bred, and somehow when the breeder sent them the semen for ai, they sent the wrong stallion, and she ended up getting bred back to her dad. They had no idea until the baby was born with several different problems, and a color he shouldn't have been if his sire was the horse they asked for. He has basically spent his life as an expensive pasture pet, and the owner opted to not breed her mare to the right stallion. There are risks associated with line and in breeding, and I agree that unless you really know what you are doing, have done extensive research on those lines, and on any potential problems that have arisen, you should stick with not doing it.
 
#17 ·
I see no difference in line and inbreeding, though most people seem to see inbreeding as a no no and line breeding as okay. Line breeding is still inbreeding, especially if the sire and dam are within three or four generations. In/line breeding animals has the same genetic consequences it can have in people, and it bumps the chances of genetic issues quite a bit. (We had a while unit on this in my Genetics class last semester but focused on the line breeding of sled dogs). It's not as taboo with animals as with people but the problems are the same.

I would not buy a horse that was 'line bred' or inbred if I could help it. Horse might be dandy now but who knows what might pop up down the line. (I feel like my opinion is unpopular here, but the thread DID ask for opinions).

And yes, the first bunch of generations of any breed (especially a 'pure' breed) can be pretty heavily inbred - That's why inbreeding can cause issues, it multiplies the chances of the issues that stemmed from that showing up again.

EDIT: Dressagebelle, you said it beautifully. I agree with almost everything you said.
 
#18 ·
The joys of line/in-line breeding are as timeless as the history of humans breeding livestock. Not just horses, but all domestic animals. In relative recent history it's been used to bring back breeds that were on the brink of extinction. In the equine world I'll use the Friesian as an example. By the end of WW II the gene pool for the breed was almost gone. The remaining "pure" Friesian blood was used with obvious in-line breeding along with a certain amount of selected cross breeding of horses that had a high % of Friesian blood, but were not "pure". All of these off spring were eventually in-line bred to some degree (grandfathers, great aunts, cousins, etc.....) in the effort to bring back the breed while creating a greater number of breeding stock.
That's the up side of it. Salvaging in hopes of not losing.
There can be a down side (I'll stay with the Friesians just because the KFPS was kind enough to give me a great example of both sides of the coin).
The concept can become so entrenched that common sense (and healthier breeding practices) can be sacrificed in the interest of "purity".
The Dutch registry restricted stallions approved for breeding from being used in cross breeding. If the were used to cross breed they were removed from the "approved for breeding" stud book and were no longer acceptable for breeding with approved mares.
Now the German registry was a bit more "enlightened". The broke with the Dutch registry and openly allowed approved stallions to be used in cross breeding. Now in case you're wondering why any of this matters....over time it can (depending on what's allowed). If stallion A1 is bread to non or part Friesian mare 2Z and they have a filly: cross A1/2Z who is bred to Friesian stallion G5 producing a filly G5/A1/2Z, who is then bred to Stallion B3 (and so on). Eventually (sooner than you might think) you end up with a horse that is 95% or better pure Frisian, but with good, clean, non line/in-line blood. Multiply this by 100 and you can see how a breed can quickly be saved AND brought back with healthy diversity in the blood lines.
Line/in-line breeding has it's uses and it's place. It's value, however unpopular it might be with some people, is undeniable. Without it many of the breeds we have today (that now have strong and diverse blood lines) would not exist. The problem is when registries lose sight on reality and cling to the tiny fraction of "old" blood without realizing the value and need for the influx of unrelated blood to keep the breed strong and growing toward what should be the ultimate goal of have a breed with a broad diversity of "pure", but extremely distantly related blood available for continuing the breed.
 
#24 ·
I had a mare, i sold, she was so Line bred.. that she was In bred. The family tree only had a few branches.. back to 8 generations.. Did not know this when I got the mare, found out After I had her registered , Cost a fortune at age 4. Line bred to the point she could be considered In bred. BAD THING.. She was pretty.. BUT stupid..
 
#25 ·
I did not read all of the posts, so forgive me if I am being redundant.

There is an old saying that "If the results are good, we call it line-breeding".
"If the results are not good, we call it in-breeding".

Two of the most successful early-day breeding programs in AQHA history were the King Ranch program that started with the stallion, Old Sorrel. Wimpy, an outstanding in-bred double grandson of Old Sorrel was given the prestigious AQHA registration number P-1. His sire and his dam were both sired by Old Sorrel. Hickory Bill, the sire of Old Sorrel, was the the great grandsire of Wimpy 3 times. Three of his 4 great grandsires was Hickory Bill.

The other famous in-breeding program was Hank Weisecamp's program. He in-bed the Shoemaker horses with much of it centered around Skipper W.

Many people do not know the extent of the culling that comes with any strong in-breeding program. There were years on the King Ranch that only a handful of foals were registered and the others were either shipped across the border to be used and ridden in Mexico or were destroyed. Back in the 50s, there were many very unseemly stories that came out of south Texas about how few horses were 'saved' and used for breeding.

I personally knew Hank Weiscamp. I also know that most of the time during the 60s, he had over 200 mares. I've heard people that knew him much better than I did that said he bred over 300 mares most years back then. You could drive through the San Luis Valley for many miles around Alamosa and see pasture after pasture with a stud and 15 or 20 mares in it. The mares all looked like peas in a pod. Yet, there were some years that Hank only registered 30 or 35 foals. He seldom registered horses until they were yearlings so he could decide which ones to register. The others were sold without papers or any acknowledgement of how they were bred. If you went to see his horses, he would show you only a few and usually would not tell you what horse was running with a set of mares. He owned an auction barn in Alamosa and would run a lot of colts through it in the fall when he took them off the mares. The better ones would be kept until spring, but most of those still did not get registered.

I have all of the old AQHA Stud Books and during the long Colorado winters, you can get desperate for something to do. One winter I went through several of these Stud Books page by page. Some years I found as few as 30 foals registered. When someone culls 75% to 90% of their foal crop, they are intent on setting a type and getting as close to 100% consistency as is possible.

One of the problems come when you find out that you have also 'set' bad traits. Thus, when you see line-bred Weisecamp horses, you find a lost of Mon-orchids and crypt-orchids. You also see a lot of tiny feet and very shallow feet that do not stand up to hard riding, especially in the rocks. The cowboys were I lived used to say the Skipper Ws are what made them like the Hancocks. If they did not buck you off in the morning, you at least had a horse that was still going to be sound late that night and could go in the rocks day after day for 20 years. We used to say that you'd have to cut its head off and hide it to hurt one.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it the in-bred Crabbet Arabians that perpetuated the SIDS lethal gene in Arabs?
 
#26 ·
I think Cherie makes some great points. I will also say that I think when you start inbreeding for a set trait you can loose sight of other traits. As an example, you say we want to breed for a certain ear set. So you have two horses that are related that have great ears but one is really nasty and difficult to handle. You breed that horse because it has great ears. You end up with a foal that has great ears and a bad temperament, you then breed that horse to another one with bad temperament or bad feet, but great ears. Soon you have horses with great ears but are really hard to handle and are unsound at age 9 and there is a very limited market for that kind of horse. I think thats a danger of inbreeding you can hyperfocus on one thing to detriment of others.
 
#27 ·
Golden Horse the first five books of the Hebrew bible are a history of the Jewish people. I do not know if we are all related to Aiden and Eva. I know that I am.
To answer your question about arabs being created by man. They were indeed. Arabs believed in breeding pure strains of the arab only . there are only 5 strains. They did little outcrossing so the breed has been inbred heavily for thousands of years.
The Kiger mustangs were only discovered in the 1970's and only 27 individuals were known. They were released back into two herd management areas 20 in one and 7 in the other. Today thousands of horses are descended from those 27 with apparently no known genetic flaws.
Henry Babson imported 6 horses into the US. a stallion and 5 mares. Babson bred arabians all descend from those 6 horses and there are straight babson bred breeding programs going strong and those horses are highly sought after for outcrossing to other lines.
To me that is too much inbreeding and after the first 2 or 3 generations an outcross needed to me introduced
Spainish bred arabs are known to be heavily inbred as no importations were allowed for decades.
I will not purchase a stallion that is not related to my mares in some way and I want the mares to be linebred to ensure those good traits i desire he pass on are set.
How do you think the different breeds of dogs all developed yet are genetically the same? Cattle and all other livestock were developed regionally from small gene pools/
That is why they are uniform in size and color.
Inbreeding works well when you have two very correct individuals.
Two crooked legged hammer headed horses would produce the same, just as two champion halter horses would. Shalom
 
#29 ·
I find this all very interesting. I do know that with father to daughter or mother to son breeding the first generation are usually fine but, it is the offspring from the second generation that often goes wrong.

Getting away from horses, there is a family locally that married 'close' first cousin to first cousin twice. The result from the one part of the family I knew would prove that line breeding in humans was not a good thing!
Two sons were certifiable with mental disorders and one of the two daughters exceedingly 'slow' with learning disabilities.
 
#31 ·
Humans don't stringently "cull" so therein lies the problem. The odds that people aren't bright enough to know not to breed with their close kin would certainly support inbreeding daftness..LOL
The odds that educated, superiorly intelligent kin with no genetic defects would inbreed is pretty slim I think..
 
#30 ·
There is one huge difference between the Kiger Mustangs and other examples. While people that in-bred heavily culled for what they wanted, the mustangs were culled by nature. So if there were any with crooked legs, bad feet or any other physical characteristic, by NATURAL SELECTION, they became bear bait and buzzard bait. If they could not make it 20 miles from feed to water on a dry year, they did not make it at all.

When you look at large numbers of mustangs several characteristics strike you right away. They consistently are small, have big feet and short pasterns, are narrow, light muscled, have scrawny butts, steep croups with very low-set tails and are frequently slightly cow-hocked. You see a lot of plain heads and ewe necks but I am not sure they play into the 'survival of the fittest' theme that runs through the least 'managed' units. I am sure that the common characteristics you see are all there by 'natural selection'.

They have been greatly modified over the years. They had a huge infusion of TB blood in the late 40s and 50s with the addition of many remount stallions from the disbanded Cavalry. Many Indian Tribes turned out these studs, too. Many western ranches also lost or turned out stock in the winter and could not re-catch a number of these ranch horses in the spring.

I know of one bucking stock contractor that turned out half draft bucking studs so try to raise cheap bucking stock that could be caught later. One of those stallions was turned out on the Red Desert in Wyoming and other in Northern Colorado. I am not sure if they ever got to gather any of the results as shortly after that, the Federal mustangs laws went into effect.
 
#32 ·
In-breeding and line-breeding DOES NOT IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM CAUSE DEFECTS IN THE OFFSPRING! Genetic defects that are ALREADY IN THE GENE POOL may become more apparent, but the defects are not caused by the manner of crossing.

Say a mare has a recessive gene for "bunkylegitis". Now, she has the recessive form, and only one copy. So she has perfectly fine legs. She is bred to a stallion who has no copy of bunkylegitis, so she has a 50% chance of passing down this gene to her offspring - who, incidently, won't express it as it is recessive. So let's continue the theoretical - say she has two colts, one of whom inherits bunkylegitis, and one that doesn't. Remember, they are not expressing it, but one of them has the recessive gene for it. Now, let's say we bred both of them back to their dam. Colt A has no copy of the recessive gene, so there is a 50% chance that the offspring get the gene from their dam, but, as it is recessive, it isn't going to impact them at all. Colt B has received a copy of the gene, but has no effects as he only has one copy of it. However, when bred to his dam, their offspring has a 25% chance to inherit two copies of the bunkylegitis gene, and when you have two copies of a recessive gene, it expresses. All of a sudden, we have a foal with legs so wonky it can't walk straight, fails sobriety tests its whole life, and generally looks bad for the family line. This isn't caused by the in-breeding - it is highlighted by it.

The point I am making is that a responsible breeder would do many things with this situation. First of all, if there was any known cases of bunkylegitis in the horse's pedigree, a responsible breeder would select outcrosses very carefully in order to ensure no second copy of bunkylegitis was introduced. They would test their breeding stock stringently, and not breed two horses that both carry a copy of the bunkylegitis gene. And, should it come up by surprise, they would humanely deal with the resulting foal (whether that is culling or gelding/spaying would depend on the severity) AND never make that particular cross again.

In-breeding does not cause problems. Irresponsible breeders that don't do their research or operate with integrity do.
 
#35 ·
In-breeding and line-breeding DOES NOT IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM CAUSE DEFECTS IN THE OFFSPRING! Genetic defects that are ALREADY IN THE GENE POOL may become more apparent, but the defects are not caused by the manner of crossing.

In-breeding does not cause problems. Irresponsible breeders that don't do their research or operate with integrity do.
Thank you Chiilaa!! This is exactly right!!
 
#37 ·
The 2 yo Babson bred colt I is cow hocked. Pretty badly I might add. I bought his mother when she was in foal with him. She has very good legs. She had been turned out with a stallion and already produced a colt with him. He too was cowhocked.
Researching the stallion I discovered he and a few other foals he sired are cow hocked. Not as bad as my colt.
If I ever bred her to another Babson bred stallion to keep the line going in my herd I would find one like Lady my mare with straight correct legs.
This years colt she had is very very correct. the outcross to my stallion was very successful. They are distantly related 4 generations back.
I believe firmly in breeding related horses. My family has done so with cattle for generations with great results.
Yet I follow the rule my family has. I might breed father to daughter or grand father to Grand daughter but I would never breed those offspring back to their father.
Star has sired 5 fillies with my mare Dancer his half sibling. All have been correct and very nice horses. I would never breed one of those fillies back to their sire or a half sibling.
The fault has to be present genetically to be passed on so as Chillaa explained inbreeding does not cause defects. Shalom
 
#41 ·
The 2 yo Babson bred colt I is cow hocked. Pretty badly I might add. I bought his mother when she was in foal with him. She has very good legs. She had been turned out with a stallion and already produced a colt with him. He too was cowhocked.
Researching the stallion I discovered he and a few other foals he sired are cow hocked. Not as bad as my colt.
If I ever bred her to another Babson bred stallion to keep the line going in my herd I would find one like Lady my mare with straight correct legs.
This years colt she had is very very correct. the outcross to my stallion was very successful. They are distantly related 4 generations back.
I believe firmly in breeding related horses. My family has done so with cattle for generations with great results.
Yet I follow the rule my family has. I might breed father to daughter or grand father to Grand daughter but I would never breed those offspring back to their father.
Star has sired 5 fillies with my mare Dancer his half sibling. All have been correct and very nice horses. I would never breed one of those fillies back to their sire or a half sibling.
The fault has to be present genetically to be passed on so as Chillaa explained inbreeding does not cause defects. Shalom
ok,. I am just jumping in here with NO breeding experience at all, but I wonder about this statement.

many recessive traits are present genetically but not expressed in the physical animal becuase they are recessive, right?. Would they not be more likely to be expressed in the offspring if the mother was bred to a related sire, who also had the same recessive genetic traits? there would be no dominant gene to prevent expression of that recessive gene.
 
#39 ·
Here's a few articles I had just posted on Psynny's thread. They explain the entire concept pretty clearly:

Inbreeding, Linebreeding and Crossbreeding

http://tylerligon.tripod.com/sitebui...anbreeding.pdf

Breeding any relation can be successful if done correctly.

Quote from the article mentioned above:

Fortunately for us, there are still a small
Percentage of Arabians that contain only
The blood of the original Bedouin desert
Steeds. Again, I will use Sheykh Obeyds
As my example but there are other
Subgroups that have remained pure. SO
Arabians came from the Bedouins out of
The desert and have been bred on without
The infusion of outside or impure blood.
This allows us a resource that continues to
Be void of most undesirables or recessive
Disorders. To this day there are no known
Cases of an SO Arabian dying of SCID or
LFS. Since there is little chance of these
Traits showing up, we can utilize
Linebreeding and Inbreeding to their
Utmost potential to produce extremely
Prepotent individuals who will produce
Consistently for us. Consistency is one of
The hardest things to come by when
Breeding horses and it is the hallmark of
All great Arabian breeding programs.
 
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