Contributions

I had some time leftover on the traiin going home for Christmas 2009 and I decided to look into what ponies actueally contribute to the Swedish gene pool in a year. I picked the year of 2007 for which I had data from 71 purebred foals. I don't know if this is the full cohort. but it's enough foals not to be completely biased.

In brief I traced all known ancestors of the 71 ponies born in Sweden in 2007 that I knew of. I think all ponies had at least four fully known generations and some had as many as six generations where all ancestors were known. For each ancestor of each pony I calculated how many percent of that ponies genes it had contributed with (50 % for a parent. 25 % for a grand parent etc...). I then summed the total contribution of each ancestor of the complete cohort and divided with the number of ponies. This should give an idea of the relative contribution of the different ancestors.

The most influential pony was Carna Bobby who contributed with 13,8 % of the genes to the 2007 cohort, closely followed by Carna Dun and then Rebel. Of course, Rebel being twice the great grandsire of Carna Bobby, 25 % of the genes contributed by Carna Bobby will also be contributed by Rebel.

The most influential Swedish-born pony was the stallion Hagens O'Chief who only had two foals himself in 2007, but 13 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren. Tulira Highball was the most influential Swedish stallion. The most influental mare was Carna Dolly, dam of Carna Bobby, and the second most influential mare, and the most influential "Swedish" mare was Ashfield Fancy, dam of Hagens O'Chief. The most influential Swedish-bred mare was Brantshammar Julie who contributed with just under 4 % of the genes.

The table shows ponies contributing with more than 5 % to the genes of the 2007 cohort.

ponyoverall contribution
Carna Bobby IRE 7913.8
Carna Dun IRE 8912.89
Rebel IRE 712.64
Gil IRE 4310.62
Dun Lorenzo IRE 5510.37
Innishgoill Laddie IRE 219.8
Dun Heath IRE 318.41
Mac Dara IRE 917.85
Tulira Highball IRE 750, RC 477.48
Hagens O'Chief RC 687.22
Hagens Ryan RC 767.04
Carna Dolly IRE 4426.97
Blue Chief RC 146.58
Double Dun IRE 8036.44
Little Heaven (TB)6.44
Cannon Ball IRE 16.32
Clonkeehan Auratum IRE 1046.28
Ashfield Fancy RC 5646.25
Droighneann Donn IRE 2805.58
Atlantic Storm IRE 1395.57
Golden Gleam IRE 2965.55
Heather Bell IRE 155.46
Lavalley Rebel IRE 24, NPS 30195.41