Goals
The goal of this pedigree information
service for Fell Pony breed conservation in North America is to assist
those parties interested in conserving the Fell Pony breed (overall,
but specifically as it relates to activities in North America) to make
informed and well-reasoned decisions in their breeding and purchasing
programs. With this service we provide you with
information; you analyze the information and factor it into your
decisions. This service is provided free of charge.
Please understand that MANY factors should influence breeding and buying decisions. This service is
provided to help provide some insight into but one set of factors (pedigree/lineage/kinship).
Why bother?
The motivation for providing this service
is best articulated in the article, "Fun
with Pony Pedigrees - Analyzing Pedigrees of Fell Ponies to Maximize
Diversity".
We believe that the information
provided by this service is correct. We, however, make no
guarantee of that. It is the responsibility of the party(ies)
using this information to verify the accuracy of the
information. The Fell
Pony Society's Stud
Books are the definitive source** of information for pedigree
analysis. Anyone using this pedigree information service is
assumed to have a complete set of the Stud Books. If you do find
any inaccuracies in the information provided by this service we would
appreciate being informed of the inaccuracies so that they may be
corrected.
**
Though we call the Fell Pony Society's Stud Books "the definitive
source", we also recognize that the accuracy of the information
in the Stud Books cannot be totally relied upon (some anomalies we've
found are noted below). Anyone familiar with the Fell pony breed realizes that early
entries in the Fell pony stud books are full of errors and entries of questionable validity
However, it is the best information we have and we are always open to
hearing additional information that improves upon the information in
the Stud Books.
Services Available at this time
The services provided will likely grow as
the service is utilized and feedback is provided. At this time two
key services are provided:
-
"Mating
game" reports - considering hypothetical breedings
-
Annotated Pedigrees
-
Kinship
analysis (i.e., Kinship Coefficients, Mean Kinship)
Mare's Mating Game Report
The mare's "mating game" report is
generated for a given breeding mare. This report considers the
mating of the specified mare to all Fell Pony Stallions currently
standing at stud. It generates annotated
pedigrees for the hypothetical foal. It also computes an
inbreeding coefficient for the hypothetical foal. The report
summarizes the result of these inbreeding coefficient calculations by
presenting the list of possible matings sorted in increasing order of
inbreeding coefficient (from best to worst in terms of
inbreeding).
There are many factors that breeders
can and should take into account when considering a breeding.
Inbreeding coefficients are but one of these factors, though an
important one when, as the Fell Pony breed is, the breed has a limited
gene pool.
An inbreeding coefficient is a measure of the degree to which inbreeding.
exists in a pedigree. There are many different forms of inbreeding
coefficients. The inbreeding coefficient calculation utilized here is one
that has been in common use for quite some time and is considered the
standard. It was developed by Sewall Wright and presented in 1923.
Rather than attempt to relate the theory and nature of this calculation here
I'll point you at a number of very good resources on the web:
The numbers representing the inbreeding
coefficient will be a number between 0 and 1. Sometimes you will
find this inbreeding coefficient represented as a percentage (a number
between 0 and 100). Merely multiply the number we give by 100 to
put it in the same scale.
The inbreeding coefficient calculation is
extremely sensitive to the depth of the pedigree over which the analysis
is performed. The most accurate inbreeding coefficient is gained
from the deepest analysis. However, the pedigree information for
Fell Ponies generally doesn't reliably go back more than 6-8
generations. Once again, we will do the best with what the
information we have.
In the pedigrees associated with the "mating game" report you will find
common ancestors noted by being italicized
and emboldened. Also, you will find the registration number preceded by
a number bracketed by #'s. The number between the #'s represents the number
of times the individual shows up in the pedigree.
You can request any depth of
generational consideration for this report, however the actual depth
of pedigree that can be considered and provided is limited by the
information available for any given sire and dam. At this point,
full pedigrees of depth 5, and for some even 6, can be generated for
most sires and dams from our database. If you request a pedigree
depth greater than that for which we have a full pedigree depth, this
situation is indicated on the annotated pedigree and it also notes the
deepest full pedigree that can be provided from the information in the
database for the specified pony.
If you are interested in importing a mare
and would like to run this sort of report for possible imports please
feel free to contact us.
A
sample mare "mating game" report is provided for you
consideration.
[ Submit a request for a Mating Game
report ]
Stallion's Mating Game Report
A stallion's mating game report is very
similar in nature and content to that of a mare's mating game report,
however it is organized around a particular stallion standing at stud in
North America. It considers possible progeny with each brood mare
in North America. Two lists are then created for the
stallion. One enumerates the brood mare matings rankings based on
inbreeding coefficients. For example, which brood mares matings
would rank this stallion as #1, which would rank him as #2, etc.
The second list is ordered strictly based upon the possible progeny's
inbreeding coefficients, identifying the possible progeny with the best
and worst inbreeding coefficients and everything in between.
If you are interested in importing a
stalion and would like to run this sort of report for possible imports
please feel free to contact us.
A
sample stallion "mating game" report is provided for you
consideration.
[ Submit a request for a Mating Game
report ]
Each line of pedigree is annotated with
the following information:
-
Registration number
-
Registered name
-
color ( "bl" -
black, "gr" - grey," ba" - bay, "br"
- brown)
-
markings - an indication of
whether the pony has markings ("mrk" - has markings,
"nomrk" - has no markings)
-
foal date
-
DNA & blood sampling -
an indication of whether the pony has had either or both of these
samples taken ("DNA" and/ or "BT")
In addition, for the pony for which the
pedigree is generated the following additional information is
provided:
-
Height (in hands high)
-
Gender
-
Markings description
-
Native / import & country of
residence
-
Name of the current owner
-
A list of all full and half
siblings (Note that since our database is
limited primarily to those ponies in a lineage back from the
current population of Fell Ponies in North America, that the
sibling reports are limited in this way and will likely only
report siblings that reside in North America)
-
A list of all progeny (Note
that since our database is limited primarily to those ponies in a
lineage back from the current population of Fell Ponies in North
America, that the progeny report is limited in this way and will
likely only report progeny that reside in North America)
Of course, if the information is not
available to us, or we are not aware of the information, it is not
provided in the pedigree.
You can request any depth of pedigree,
however the actual depth of pedigree that can be provided is limited
by the information available for any given pedigree. At this
point, full pedigrees of depth 5, and for some even 6, can be
generated from our database. If you request a pedigree depth
greater than that for which we have a full pedigree depth, this
situation is indicated on the pedigree and it also notes the deepest
full pedigree that can be provided from the information in the
database for the specified pony.
A sample
annotated pedigree is provided for your consideration.
[ Submit a request for an annotated
pedigree ]
Mean kinship (MK) is a measure of the relatedness of
one pony to all the other (breeding) ponies in a breeding population
under consideration. A low MK indicates that the pony shares few genes
with the rest of the population. A high MK indicates the pony has many
relatives in the population. MK is calculated by taking the average of
the kinship coefficients between a particular pony and all other
ponies in the breeding population. The kinship coefficient is
calculated in the same way as an inbreeding coefficient for
hypothetical crosses between the pony and all other breedable
individuals.
Mean kinship is an important tool for conservation
breeders. Ponies with low MKs are the most genetically valuable and,
from a conservation standpoint, should be favored in breeding
programs. In addition, it is important to minimize breeding of low-MK
ponies to high-MK ponies because the rare genes are then linked to
common genes and are therefore more difficult to increase in
frequency. When planning breedings from a conservation perspective, it
is important to consider both the mean kinship of each parent AND the
inbreeding coefficient of the resulting offspring. And of course,
other factors, such as temperament and conformation, must be
considered when planning breedings.
Fell ponies are a rare breed in their native
England. In North America, our population is miniscule by comparison,
and the risk of over-utilizing certain bloodlines is high. Mean
kinship is a tool that both breeders and importers can use to improve
the genetic diversity of the Fell pony population in North America.
We have provided three analyses to facilitate
breeding and importing decisions. The first is a list of ponies
currently in North America sorted by mean kinship. This list will
change every time the North American population changes, whether due
to new foals, importations, or deaths.
The second analysis hypothetically adds a stallion
currently at stud outside North America to the North American
population to see its relative uniqueness in our gene pool. The list
of stallions is sorted by MK, with the first stallion in the list
sharing the fewest genes with the North American population, and the
last stallion in the list sharing the most genes with the North
American population. If you wish to see a stallion added to
the list, please let us know.
The third analysis is a Kinship Report. A Kinship
Report provides the kinship coefficients for a given pony relative to
the rest of the North American breeding population. If you are
interested in seeing a Kinship Report for a particular pony in North
America, please contact us.
For the preceding three analyses, the North American
breeding population was defined as all living ponies excluding
geldings for which pedigrees can be defined.
In addition we have begun to do kinship analyses of
the world-wide Fell pony population. At this time we have
reports available for 1998-2004. There
are reports that analyze the population of foals born in given year
and another that analyzes the sires & dams of the foals born in a
given year.
If you have any questions or comments about these
analyses, we would like to hear them.
Resources:
Significant
Genetic Relationships, Dr. John B. Armstrong, Ph.D., 1998.
Sample
Kinship Report
Sample Mean Kinship
analysis for all North American breedable stock
Sample Mean Kinship
analysis for stallions outside of North America active in the last
published stud book as compared to North American breedable stock
As anyone who has explored the Fell Pony Stud Books
knows there are a number of interesting anomalies and errors that
exist. We have attempted to resolve these problems as best we can
with detective work that includes contacting the Fell Pony Society
Secretary and owners of ponies in whose pedigrees the anomalies exist.
As you reach the "end of the line" on some
pedigrees will find some sire or dam entries that give names such as
"A Fell Pony", or just give a colloquial name of the pony with
no registration number. In these sorts of cases we assigned our
own little unique number, like "1B" or "2B" for the
registration number. So if you see an entry like that as a leaf
node in a pedigree you will understand a bit better the circumstances
behind it.
Possible future services
Please let us know what other pedigree information
services you think might be particularly useful to you in doing our part
in North America to conserve the Fell Pony breed. At
this time we are focusing on deepening our pedigree information database
rather than expanding services, but we are interested in considering
offering additional services.
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