Family Tree

     Being in the horse business, pedigrees are just a matter of life & death which most horsemen tend to rely on far too much! However, given the precarious nature of livestock breeding, pedigrees are in most cases the best we can do to half-way predict offspring quality under very general circumstances. We all fervently hope that "Like does indeed produce Like"! If you are a grizzled old trainer like I am, you mostly scoff at such simple ideas. We have seen too many duds come from top families to rely on individual breeding too tell us much other than act as a very basic of selection filters when trying to buy a yearling or any individual. I often think of an incident that happened to the famed Calumet Farm trainer, Ben Jones, many years before he actually started training for that farm. I will quote a passage from Joe Hirsch's book, In the Winner's Circle which illustrates the smart trainer's view:

"Money was still desperately short--purses were no more than $500--and a horseman didn't dare spend a cent he didn't have to. Captain Carr was stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, at the time, and he phoned B.A. and began talking about his horse. "Ben", he said, "this horse is by so-and-so out of such-an-such by..."   B.A. took two or three minutes of this, fidgeting all the while. Finally his face reddened, and he bellowed into the phone: "Damit, Frank! This call is costing you a hell of a lot of money. The only thing I want to know is CAN HE RUN?"

So true! All we all really want to know is "can he run" and breeding seldom tells us much.

      Nevertheless, pedigrees and genealogy are fascinating subjects. So it was no big leap for me to become interested in researching family lineage. As we get older, death seems closer and we tend to be more curious about where we actually sprung. I was looking online for a family tree template that I could use for a poster display and as a family heirloom with minimum of luck. Those found online were not well done, nor did they seem to go back very far. I then decided, maybe I could design my own? I do use Adobe InDesign and thought that might be a perfect platform to design a personal family tree upon. Again, I went to the Internet with little luck. No InDesign templates could be found. I was on my own and decided I could start from scratch and make one that suited my needs. And so I did as pictured above. I was able to go back six generations on both sides with the option of a border consisting of select family photos along the side and bottom to narrate family history. I also added a photo watermark in the center of my parents embracing, symbolizing the union of two separate families. Depending on complexity, average prices for your individualized family tree photo would run from US$100-$500. Email (dahart@centurytel.net) me for more information.

    The same design may be used for your favorite racehorse, dog or stallion. It would make a superb edition for your stable, kennel, farm's office or home's den. Sire and Dam lineage of six generations would sandwich your individual animal, similar to my family tree shown above. A horse pedigree poster prototype below will give you the basic design parameters. A watermark impression can also be set within the poster's background with any photo image you desire, (win photo, conformation photo, etc). A selection of your multiple images can be placed any where around the outside borders. Plus, many of the pedigree individual boxes within the pedigree are also large enough to contain a photo of your or your animal's ancestors along with data. Colors and design are open to your customized selection. Contact me via email (dahart@centurytel.net) for more information. Prices would range on the average from US$100-$500 depending on complexity.