AQHA Journal Article--King Ranch Herd pedigree research

[vineyridge]

It's called "A Century of Breeding". TAMU Kingsville did a pedigree research study on the linebreeding in the King Ranch herd since 1915, and published an abstract of sorts of their findings in the April AQHA Journal. The article is fascinating, and it sets out some percentages of common ancestors and unacceptable numbers when using the same families over and over for breeding.

One fact, which y'all will appreciate, is that the TB influence in the King Ranch Herd is very, very strong. 97% "of the horse pedigrees analyzed for the King Ranch traced back to at least one thoroughbred ancestor."

Old Sorrell was at least 56% thoroughbred, and King Ranch breeders weren't afraid to keep the Thoroughbred influence in the early breeding program.

On the King Ranch, horses with Thoroughbred blood have been preferred roping horses because of their larger body size and speed, helpful for roping larger calves, cows or bulls on the 825,000 acre ranch. The Thoroughbred influence for King Ranch Quarter Horses born between 1941 and 1942 was determined to be 65.8% Thoroughbred and 34 percent registered Quarter Horse.

One assumes that the authors mean "post-registered" Quarter Horse, because the AQHA was only founded in the 1940's and the Klebergs were among the founders.

[xfactor fan]

One of the things to keep in mind about the King Ranch breeding programs. They had huge numbers of animals to work with, and a clear picture of what they wanted.

Old Sorrel, was not just any stallion, but had the exact set of working abilities that the ranch needed in working stock.

Apparently so did Monkey the foundation bull selected for the Santa Gertrudes cattle.

[Linda_d]

One of the things to keep in mind about the King Ranch breeding programs. They had huge numbers of animals to work with, and a clear picture of what they wanted.

Old Sorrel, was not just any stallion, but had the exact set of working abilities that the ranch needed in working stock.

Apparently so did Monkey the foundation bull selected for the Santa Gertrudes cattle.

This is probably why the King Ranch had so much success inbreeding their QHs and really didn't try it with their TBs. Bob Kleberg did practice line breeding with his TBs but not inbreeding.

[Pan Zareta]

One assumes that the authors mean "post-registered" Quarter Horse, because the AQHA was only founded in the 1940's and the Klebergs were among the founders.

If by AQHA founders you mean the original directors that incorporated the AQHA in 1940, there were no Klebergs among them. However, the King Ranch did own 110+ (~20%) of the 556 horses recorded in AQHA stud book 1 (pub. 1941), and obviously various family members have served as officers and directors since then.

The study is interesting from the standpoint of the ranch's use of inbreeding to set type. But the fact that the reported source of pedigree info was the AQHA db is unfortunate. Its entries for some of the old KR stock aren't always completely faithful to the ranch's breeding records as reported by Rhoad & Kleberg 1946. Mares that they reported as TB tend to turn up in the AQHA db as unknowns. While some TB influence on the KR horses is acknowleged in this report, it's still considerably understated.

[xfactor fan]

The King ranch family chose to "throw in" with the AQHA, instead of continuing to develop their own breed. Which they were well on the way to doing.

[vineyridge]

AQHA History from the AQHA
http://www.aqha.com/About/Content-Pages ... story.aspx

From his AQHA Hall of Fame write up, Bob Kleberg, Jr. was a founding director of the organization.

[Pan Zareta]

Fact-checking has never been a top priority with AQHA historians. See pps. 13-15 Foundation Sires, photocopies of the original letters of incorporation. RJK Jr. wasn't one of the original directors, tho' his sister Alice's husband Robert C. East was.