The Female Line
Thoroughbred horses are traced through the "distaff" or female line, known as their "family", dating to the beginning of the General Stud Book (GSB). This was done because the mares produce far fewer foals than stallions. Thoroughbred Stud Books around the world cite pedigrees in tail female style - meaning that the ancestry is traced through the maternal, rather than paternal line.
Horses that come from “good’ families will usually command better prices than one with an inferior family, although they may not prove to be better as racehorses or sires/broodmares. However, modern genetic studies have revealed that there are some cases where the haplotype in the mtDNA of modern Thoroughbreds differs from the stated dam line, suggesting that some records contain errors.
Read more about this topic: Thoroughbred Breeding Theories
Famous quotes containing the words female and/or line:
“Girls, get an education and escape slavery.”
—Rena Rietveld Verduin, U.S. farm woman. As quoted in The Female Experience, ch. 45, by Gerda Lerner (1977)
“If surrealism ever comes to adopt a particular line of moral conduct, it has only to accept the discipline that Picasso has accepted and will continue to accept.”
—André Breton (1896–1966)