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Genetic Traits The older I get the more I marvel at how much our psychology is influenced by genetic traits. And as a scientist by training, I am always looking out for relationships to things or correlations which would explain things. As I raise more horses and have had the opportunity to be with many animals throughout my life, I also see these genetic and environmental effects on animals. One thing that I have noticed in breeding horses is that now for the third time in comparing different mares, the first of their offspring to the same stallion comes out looking mostly like the mare. That’s three in a row. The other generations with the same mare begin to show much more combination of physical traits. However, even in the first generation, there are certain traits that can be ascribed to the stallion in particular. All the offspring have more of his head and his tail. The attitude is a mixture of both mare and stallion. The other thing that surprised me is that bred mares when not bred for a particular year can become more unruly than the stallion. Perhaps this is a bad comparison since my young stallion is so well behaved. At the worst he whinnies and runs the fenceline when he can hear but can’t see the mares. The mare however, will rush through the gate or attempt to blow the fenceline if she is determined to be with the stallion. Sounds like a teenage movie! I thought how funny it would be if there was an unusual mutation at the same time and females suddenly lost the ability to have children and there was a mutation so that the men had the capacity for children. I think we would smile to see how our world and attitudes would greatly change….at least at first. Perhaps there would be greater understanding for the other role. For certainly the animals seem to have their roles equally characterized by ourselves. Enjoy the rest of the summer, especially if you have a new young horse to follow in their development!
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