I was at a conclave of pedigree geeks and chatting over nibbles when we got onto what has happened to the brains of breeders today. With all the data available without pouring over multiple volumes of chart books and stud books, one would think breeders would be able to make a more thoughtful analysis of whom their mares and stallions should match up best with. But the opposite seems to be true! Instead, they want everything reduced to one magic number, be it a Werk nick or biometric measure or whatever. And stallion owners try a scattershot approach, breeding their stallions to dozens of different types of mares, in hopes that they find a few matings that work well, instead of doing their homework.
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