By now many of our followers have heard the news... there's a new boy in town at All the King's Horses! Kyro van de Fossa Eugenia is a 5 month old Brabant colt who recently arrived from the Netherlands. Importing any horse is a big deal, but this boy is especially significant for us as he will be our future herd sire and contribute greatly to the genetic makeup of our herd. Of course, anytime we purchase a horse we are looking for a conformationally correct animal who is a good example of the breed standard, but we had several other important items on our list when evaluating a herd sire prospect. Here are some of the factors we considered when searching for this special boy:
Pedigree: The Brabant breed has small population numbers and suffers from inbreeding, where many of the horses are closely related. When only a handful of horses are imported to the US the problem quickly becomes compounded. As we searched for our next herd sire, we were actively looking for a stud that is not related to the popular lines that have been imported in recent years.
Leg Health: CPL is a known issue in the Brabant breed and something that affects most of the horses to one degree or another. As breeders of purebred Brabants, it's not likely that we will find a horse totally free of CPL but we do seek to find horses out of lines with long-lived horses that remain healthy and sound, even if their legs aren't perfect. This is the hardest factor to judge without actually meeting the parents in person (which is the way we'd like to do it, but Covid...) so we relied on feedback from the connections we made during our 2019 European tour as well as published results on leg health to identify lines that we would consider for our own herd.
Height: We prefer our horses in the 16-16.2 hand range, while current trends in Europe are towards taller horses. Kyro's sire measures just shy of 16.2 and his dam was comparable in size. I was surprised at how tall Kyro appeared when we brought him home, but a measurement of his cannon bone using the 'string test' popular with many breeders suggests that he will mature right at 16 hands. That would be perfect for us!
Color: This is a hard one for me to admit, because I am always preaching at folks to consider more than color when buying a Brabant! However, as a breeder I have to consider the fact that color sells, and blue roans are our most requested color. Since most of our mares are bay based, with bay being produced by the dominant Agouti gene, we really wanted either a black or blue roan stud to help increase our odds of the elusive blue foals. While color was not a disqualification for the 'perfect' horse, it was something that we took into consideration
PSSM: PSSM is a genetic condition that affects how horses utilize sugars and starches in their diet. Affected horses can experience 'tying up' of their muscles during a PSSM episode. The gene is found in many horse breeds and can affect different horses or breed types in different ways. Based on the Brabants we've tested, both imports and American bred horses, we find that nearly all of them carry at least one copy of the PSSM1 gene. Even so, on our own farm we haven't found that differences in PSSM status are evident in our horses' health or behavior so it's not something that we get too concerned about in our breeding program (more on that to come). That said, it is a thing that people sometimes ask about, especially if they plan to cross with light horse breeds that are more prone to problems. With this in mind, we tested potential stud colts for PSSM as part of the evaluation process. When Kyro came back free of the PSSM gene that was the final confirmation that he was 'the one' to join us.
Importing, when done well, requires a whole lot of time and careful analysis of the goals of your own breeding program as well as the horses that are offered to you. It is an exciting process but not something that we take lightly. To be totally honest, I'm rather glad that this will be our final import for a while! We owe a huge thank-you to many breeders and friends in Europe who helped us by providing leads and suggestions on horses to consider as well as feedback on their pedigrees. And, of course, a big debt of gratitude and admiration for the Gaal family who bred Kyro and were willing to share him with us. We can't wait to watch him mature and see how he fits into the future of our herd!