Breeding Backed By Science: Alison Umberger

From a fifth-grade paper to the forefront of equine genetics, Alison Umberger's story is one you won’t want to miss.  Dive into the genetic tapestry of the American Paint Horse, spotlighting Alison's mare, Zen, and her foals' surprising outcomes. We're not just discussing patterns and hues—this chapter unravels the excitement and complexities of equine genetics, including a foal with six potential color genes and the story of Magic, a young sire with a personality as unique as his genetic makeup.

During this discussion, we will focus on the joy horses bring to our lives and the gravity of responsible breeding. The conversation takes a turn to the American Paint Horse Association's recent rule changes, stirring the community and promoting the wellbeing of our beloved horses. "Beginning January 1, 2025, all registered Paint Horses will compete together in APHA-approved events, regardless of their registry classification." 
Through Alison's insights and our exploration of the APHA's evolving landscape, listeners will garner a deeper appreciation for the value of genetic testing beyond color, ensuring the holistic care of these animals. Join us as we navigate the intersection of tradition, technology, and the love of horses!

Umberger Show Horses LLC Facebook
Markedly Different APHA Stallion
Email: umbergershowhorses@gmail.com
W32 Scandalous White Horses

EtalonDX Instagram
Etalon Equine Genetics Facebook
Etalon Website
Order DNA testing now!

Transcript

Alison Umberger: 0:08

to tell a funny story on myself which was probably very telling for those around me. For my fifth grade research paper, I did a paper on breeding horses wow complete with descriptions about artificial insemination and photos of collection dummies, and I can't even imagine what my teacher thought when reading the paper. But you know, it's just. I have to say it's something I was born with. It's something I've loved and been passionate about for as long as I can remember been passionate about.

Lauren McDevitt: 0:46

for as long as I can remember, that was Allison Umberger. Horses have always been a part of her life, since the obsession was shared by her father and grandfather. The one breed that always stuck with her was the American Paint Horse. This led her to get involved in the Virginia Paint Horse Club, where she served on their board of directors. In 2011, she became a national director for the American Paint Horse Association. This caused her to pursue higher leadership with the APHA and join what's now referred to as the Board of Directors. It was the executive committee at the time.

Lauren McDevitt: 1:14

In 2017. She spent six years serving on that body, including a year as the president of the association. After years of dedication, she turned her attention to showing and developing her own herd of horses, but one scandalous mystery mare led her to Etalon, where a new discovery was made. On this episode of Genetics Unbridled, we are also joined by Holly Rebilliard, an Etalon team member, who has worked in both our lab and sales department. She is here to shed some light on our new breeder program that Allison is a part of.

Holly Robilliard : 1:45

By testing with us. It allows us to put your stallion into our Build-A-Horse database. Mare owners can who have also tested through Etalon can go into the Build-A-Horse platform and they can match their mare with your stallion and what that allows is that our algorithm will produce the percentages of the likelihood of colors and health traits that would arise from the cross between your stallion and the other mare, or vice versa, and it will actually show you what you're going to be getting for that foal. So it kind of puts us in a really unique position where we can go through and we can look at different stallions, we can look at different mares and just decide what crosses are going to be best. To continue to promote healthier foals.

Lauren McDevitt: 2:24

Promote healthier more colorful foals, if that's what you're interested in, keep listening to this episode to learn all about how Allison has used Etalon since 2017 to breed with scientific tools at her fingertips. Allison, I'd love for you to kind of dive into what initially drew you to the world of breeding and then what made you realize the value of genetic testing.

Alison Umberger: 2:53

Sure. So I know I don't think this will be unfamiliar, but my grandmother always said that we were marked my father, my grandfather and I were marked by the gene, the horse lover gene, right. So my grandfather always had a few horses and enjoyed raising them, and that continued with my father. My father raises Belgian draft horses. That's always been his love and so, even as a young girl, he always had a stallion and would breed our own mares and fold them out. And I mean, how do you not love the baby? So that first paint mare that my parents bought for me when I was eight, I showed her for several years and then we decided to get into the world of breeding paint horses. I had, I think, moved on to another prospect by that time and my dad and I drove a few hours out to Grand Island, nebraska, to look at a stallion that a veterinarian stood there and you know. So this was in 94, 95. So breeding technology at that time was much different and we hauled our mare out there to be covered by the stallion and had a grateful the next year. That was a horse that I enjoyed training and showing and he has a great story because I sold him when I was in college here out here to the East Coast, only to rediscover him thanks to Facebook about 12 years later. Wow, and I was able to get him back and just love seeing him again. And he spent seven years as a therapy horse in a program in Leesburg, virginia. So I love these full circle kind of stories.

Alison Umberger: 4:44

To get back to the breeding, I have to say it's I chuckle, because when I talked to my dad about the advances we've made, the discoveries we've made, and he would say, well, remember when they always used to tell us that a Tobiano couldn't produce anything but a Tobiano. If you bred your Tobiano you were going to get a solid or a Tobiano. And I had to say, yeah, well, that was wrong. You know, we didn't know at the time, but that is incorrect information and we know so much more now. So I guess, to continue on the trajectory, we bred, that mare's name was Anna Mingo. We bred her five or six years and we got everything under the sun. She had solids, she had Tobianos, she had a Tobero. We kept one of her foals that was a filly and we bred her. She actually produced. She was a solid bred and then she produced a, an overo filly who is actually the mother of the stallion that produced magic.

Alison Umberger: 5:58

So magic is a really fun story for me because on his top side he goes back to my very first paint horse. Um, I don't know that that would have happened without the the genetic testing and the knowledge that we have, because magic sire was a solid phenotypically um. He had two white socks and he had a blaze on his face that was in the shape of the t, which which is why I called him T-Bone. After testing I found that he possessed the frame of barrow gene and my father, being who he is, loves to breed horses and he really wanted me to breed T-Bone. So I agreed because I'm a good daughter, right, and although I didn't think that T-Bone for a number of reasons, I didn't see him as a potential breeding stallion that I wanted to keep as a stallion and promote in that way. He was a very nice horse but that wasn't the future for him.

Alison Umberger: 7:03

But I did agree to try one time and I crossed him on my mare that I call Zen, small Town Scandal, which I want to get into a little bit more, but she was the first mare that I bought here in Virginia to build my breeding program here. Little did I know how much of a treasure she would be when I bought her, but at this, at the time that I bred for Magic, I had had a number of foals out of her. She was a fabulous mother, just a super nice horse to be around, and so I was. I was open to this possibility we had, we had, one chance, and I will tell you that Magic defied the odds because, based on the breeding and some of the motility statistics and everything else, he really probably shouldn't be here. But lo and behold, it was meant to be and he is, so he's got a really fun history.

Lauren McDevitt: 8:04

It feels like Magic's name is pretty fitting due to the circumstances. We definitely need to talk more about Zen, also known as Small Town Scandal. She is not only the matriarch for your breeding program, but she played a big role in kickstarting your relationship with Edelon. Can you talk a bit more about that?

Alison Umberger: 8:22

I first became aware of EdeLon through one of the educational offerings at an APHA convention annual meeting. Usually between the business meetings, we try to have sessions where folks can learn more about any number of topics, topics and we had geneticists come and explain, you know, I guess, give an update on the science at that time and where we were at. And I found it very interesting, so much so that I took a mini course online through the University of Florida to try to learn more about the genetics. Just frankly, because I find it interesting, but also because I figured that if I could understand it better I could make better crosses and have a better chance of producing a colored paint horse, which is what I'm striving for.

Alison Umberger: 9:20

I remember after sitting in on those sessions and going home and looking at my mare in the field and I had had her tested already, because I think it's important to know not only the genetic health panel but also the color panel and she did not possess any of the testable white pattern genes at that time and I just couldn't wrap my mind around it Visually she has four white legs, high white legs above the knees, above the hocks, white on her face and a bunch of white on her belly and it just didn't make any sense to me that she didn't have a color gene To further that she had. She has had nine foals in total and they've all qualified for paint registry with qualifying white, which is, you know, a nuanced concept for paint horse breeders. But they had white in the qualifying areas and several of them, when I tested, also did not have any testable pattern genes. So you know, it led me to believe that there must be some other genes out there that we just don't know about yet and to support trying to find those, I sent samples to everyone that I could.

Alison Umberger: 10:46

At one point the samples were taken on by Edelon and tested and I was incredibly grateful for that opportunity and for the investment that Edelon was willing to make for Paint Horse Breeders to try to identify these tools that we can use. So, as you mentioned, zen helped us find the W32 allele, you know affectionately known as Scandalous White, which I love, and I've enjoyed the journey since then, getting to see where else this gene has popped up and what other lines it's in, and see other horses that carry it and what they look like.

Holly Robilliard : 11:30

I think as well. It helps owners and it helps breeders. Like you mentioned, allison, sometimes you can, you know, breed two horses expecting to get color and nothing comes out, or vice versa, and sometimes that can produce foals that you know people might not want, because they want a flashier horse or they're looking for a little bit more color, or they're looking for a specific color, and so we end up, you know, if we don't do that genetic testing and we don't know the odds of producing a colored foal, those solid horses might just end up getting tossed to the side, and we don't want that, right? We're all horse lovers, we all care about the horses that we're breeding and that we're producing, and so being able to understand the genetics behind your breeding program and know the possibilities of getting what you're getting, it can help you make way better breeding decisions. So I think it's really important and, again, like you said, it's amazing to be able to have those stories and have that history with your horse and understand them completely, right, right, absolutely.

Alison Umberger: 12:29

So before. So this was probably in the Probably about 10 years ago, so around 2010. We bred the mare in Nebraska to the same stallion. We did the same cross three years in a row. Right, and to me this was the epitome of paint horse breeding, because all three came out colored very differently. The first was a loud bay, tobiano um. The next one was a solid sorrel with two white socks and a star, and the third one was a solid bay with two white socks and face white, who did possess the framovero gene.

Alison Umberger: 13:14

So yeah, you know, you roll the dice and I think I it's fun for me to put in the calculator and see what the possibilities are, to put in the calculator and see what the possibilities are right, and to know that I should not go to Vegas because generally I'll end up with something that was a very low percentage possibility, right, but I have to say so. We are expecting Magic markedly different. We're expecting his first foal in May and there is a possibility now of six different color genes for this baby. So the sire possesses three copies, hetero, heterozygously, so nothing is guaranteed. And then the dam possesses three additional color genes. So the possibilities for this baby it could be wild, I don't know. You know it will be very exciting to see what comes through. Yeah, the more. Having more information only allows you to make better decisions and try to up the chances of getting what, what you're looking for.

Lauren McDevitt: 14:25

Talking about beautiful color and markings. We have to discuss Magic a bit more beautiful color and markings. We have to discuss Magic a bit more. For those who haven't seen him, he is stunning and we're so excited to see all his unique foals hitting the ground. Now that we know the backstory of how he has joined your herd, can you tell us more about your hopes for him as a young sire and the genetics he could potentially pass on?

Alison Umberger: 14:49

Sure. So I mean I will open by saying as much as I love horse breeding, I really never intended to be a stallion owner, but he is a special horse and to this point, he has proven himself worthy. So not only does he possess three color genes, so not only does he possess three color genes, one of which I only recently learned, which I'm very excited about, which is one of the newly discovered, the W35. So he has the frame of arrow gene, he's got the W32 from his mother, and then he has the W35 as well. So for me, as someone promoting paint horses, that's very exciting, because, well, none of those will guarantee a color pattern. That gives you a good chance, and if someone wants to breed their mare to my horse, I want to be able to explain, share with them and tell them that there is going to be a good chance, a fair chance, that they're going to get one of these genes and, hopefully, an expressed color pattern, right. So for me, that's important. First and foremost, though, is a quality horse, and he comes from a long line of really proven horses, some older bloodlines, but on the top side he goes back to a paint horse called by Appointment Only, which was a son of Invitation Only, and then his bottom side, his mother, is a daughter of Radical Rotter out of a paint horse well, double registered, real Bonanza daughter. So there's a lot of proven show horses. He goes back to the Investor and Sunny D-Bar, which were, you know, some foundational quarter horse lines that really made nice horses and good show horses.

Alison Umberger: 16:48

For me one of the best things about Magic is his personality. He's got an incredible disposition. He's quiet, he's not steady and he's fun. I've never had a horse that entertains himself as much as Magic does I. Sometimes, when I'm working from home, I can hear him out in his field pushing his feed tub around. I I jokingly call him my circus horse because he will spend hours pushing his tub. You know it's a, it's a round tub so he can push it around with his nose and he will do it for hours. He also has a traffic cone that he's with and I've more recently been catching him carrying around some pieces of branches that have fallen in his pasture.

Alison Umberger: 17:40

Oh my gosh, he's just very entertaining, and so in that way he's a joy for me to show, and so in that way he's a joy for me to show. So I get professional help training him, but I haul him and show him by myself and I appreciate that. Growing up I was able to work with trainers on occasion but was never a kid that had their horse in a full time training program Right kid that had their horse in a full-time training program right. So I really appreciate a good mind on a horse and a horse that can be a family horse and do-it-yourselfer friendly, and I think he embodies that 100% and is going to make horses with the same kind of temperament. So that's that's one of the things I think I'm most excited about. Not only do I think we can produce beautiful foals with nice movement that are going to be competitive in the show pen, but I think just nice horses that you're going to be happy to have on your farm.

Alison Umberger: 18:42

And I, you know I do just want to talk about, you know, the frame of arrow gene.

Alison Umberger: 18:47

This you know it's.

Alison Umberger: 18:50

It's an important gene for the paint horse breed, for our legacy and our heritage. It produces the beautiful white patterns, but when you cross to Framoveros you have the possibility of creating a lethal white foal, which none of us want. Thankfully, I've never experienced that and now there's no reason I will ever need to Um, and so you know, if you have a horse that has frame overo lineage, I believe it's your responsibility as a breeder to test them. If you're going to be crossing them on anything, because this is a recessive gene that does not always express, you need to test them all. Just because they don't look like a frame overo, that doesn't mean they don't possess the gene. And with as costly as it has become to produce these foals, you don't want to make a mistake. The cost of the genetic testing is a fraction of what it's going to cost to get your mare in full and get the baby on the ground. So, first and foremost for paint horse breeders that are involved with overos, I think it's incredibly important to have them tested. Oh, absolutely.

Lauren McDevitt: 20:05

The frame overo gene is a perfect example of the importance of DNA testing. The frame of aerogene is a perfect example of the importance of DNA testing. Our hope is that breeders will start to use tools like Build-A-Horse the same way you do, so that they can select the best matches based on what they're looking for. In a foal Speaking of breeders, what has been your experience with the Etalon Breeder Program been like so far?

Alison Umberger: 20:26

Well, first I want to just thank you guys for inviting us to be involved. We're super excited to participate. I think it's a great program. I think there are a lot of breeders that are very supportive of the genetic testing and information. It can provide visibility for my horse into different horse communities. So, you know, we all tend to do our own discipline or we're in our own breed registry, um.

Alison Umberger: 20:57

But there's a wide world of horse lovers out there and I am, you know, open to crossing on ponies or drafts or what you know anyone who wants some color on their horse. I'm happy to talk to them about crossing with my stallion. So I think just being able to open up to communities that I wouldn't necessarily have contact with is super exciting. All of the doing the potential matches, seeing what your possibilities are, so that you can base your decisions on what your objectives are for your program, what you're trying to achieve. We all, I think, have different priorities.

Alison Umberger: 21:43

So just being able to have that full arsenal of information I love, you know, I love just the website and having my account and having my horses reports on there. I'm constantly opening them to double check the EEAAs, because I don't remember each horse exactly, and I want to plug it in and see what we might get. So, yeah, the panels that provide comprehensive testing, I think, are incredibly valuable. They give you so much information to work with, and so I think it's exciting to see and will continue to be, as more people participate in this, and when you get more horses into the database, it's going to be really exciting, I think, for folks to play around and see what they can find.

Lauren McDevitt: 22:31

So there has been a lot of exciting things happening in the APHA recently With your involvement. Are there any new things on the horizon that you really want to talk about?

Alison Umberger: 22:41

So we just concluded our 2024 leadership gathering, which brought together state directors from across the country to talk about the state of the association and the industry, and and part of that work is considering rule change proposals that have been submitted by members. So fairly big news coming out of the association this week. For sure, the directors voted to allow so. In the American Paint Horse Association there's two different registries. There's the regular registry, which traditionally has been the visibly colored paint horses, and then there's the solid bred registry, which are horses that have paint lineage but do not express the paint color pattern. Those two registries will continue. Nothing was changed about the registration rules this year, but what was changed up until this point those two registries have shown separately. So at a Paint Horse show we will have regular registry classes and we will have solid paint bread classes for an incredibly long show class list. It can lead to a lot of confusion for folks that are new to the breed and the association and it's been a long debated point of contention in the industry. So because not all of the paint color patterns guarantee continued color, you know this is a challenge that has faced paint breeders since the association was formed. So it's going to. It's groundbreaking for those who compete in APHA shows.

Alison Umberger: 24:33

Some folks are happy about it and others are very displeased and others are very displeased. Something I think relevant to what we're talking about that I've been seeing is a couple of things. One folks will argue that this no longer gives anyone an incentive to breed for color or to buy a color horse. I wholeheartedly disagree with that, simply because the reason that I breed for color and look for color is because I love it. The pretty coat patterns is what attracted me to paint horses in the beginning and what's kept me here. I think that they're beautiful, they're unique. If you're in, if you're at an event with horses of all breeds, the horses stand out and for me, nothing about this rule change vote changes that. The other thing that I've seen that's been kind of disappointing to me is folks will say there's now no longer any reason to have my horse tested for color genes.

Alison Umberger: 25:42

So to fully understand that you have to understand the evolution of the registration rules within the APHA. As we learned more and identified more color genes, the genetic testing became an avenue for horses to get into the regular registry. So over the years there have been different rules developed depending on whether your horse has one or two paint parents. If it does not have the visible color in the qualifying zone, they could qualify for regular registry using these color genetics If they possessed a gene. Sometimes they only needed a gene. Sometimes they only needed a gene. Sometimes they need a gene and trait. Like I said, it's complicated. There's different rules depending on the lineage of your horse.

Alison Umberger: 26:31

It's disappointing to me to have folks say, well, now I don't need to do that. Sure, you don't need to do it in order to maybe advance your horse to the regular registry or guarantee a regular registry status on your registration papers. However, there's no less value in having that information today than there was a week ago To me. You want to test your horses because of the value in the information that it provides you and in order for you to again make better decisions down the road. So, and not only the color, um, you know, not only the color test, but I I'm a strong believer also in having your horse, uh, having the health panel conducted on your horse. If you're not a breeder, for example, there can be certain genes that you still want to know about because it's going to help you manage your horse in its training program, in competitions, in its daily life, you know, to help your horse be the healthiest it can be and, frankly, live its best life. The more information that you have, the better decisions you can make.

Lauren McDevitt: 27:43

So some of the last questions we have here just kind of anything else you'd want to add, whether that's some key takeaways to leave our listeners with in terms of breeding and genetic testing, or if there's any advice you'd like to offer to fellow breeders from the paint horse industry or any industry in general.

Alison Umberger: 28:01

Yeah, I. I would like to start out by by thanking Evalon, especially for the investment they've made and for all the research that they've done, because it's incredible. It's been incredibly important for me, um, and I think the value for it will be seen across the horse industry at large. I know there are interesting things being worked on, as you've alluded to, as far as potential performance indicators, more information that we can use to help some of our horses come back from their recovery or from an injury, you know, rehabbing and and different things like that. Um, I don't know that all horse people appreciate. There's, you know, a lot of money invested into research, research, genetic research for for meat producing animals, but the horses are one area of livestock that really hasn't seen that kind of investment, and so just to say thank you, and it's appreciated For horse owners.

Alison Umberger: 29:06

You know, my bit of advice is don't be afraid to ask questions. This stuff can be confusing and a little bit complicated. One thing that's a universal truth about horse people is they love to talk about their horses, so no one's going to be bothered if you reach out and want to know what genetic testing information you have about your horse and you know, especially when it comes to pains. I'm always happy to explain to people the various coat patterns and what the various genes mean and things like that. And you know a lot of people. It's just something they've not been exposed to and they're generally surprised to learn, especially how many Overo genes exist and that they're all just a little bit different. But yeah, be curious and trying to get as much information as you can to help you succeed in whatever endeavors you are undertaking with your horses.

Holly Robilliard : 30:06

I just want to say, Allison, thank you so much for being a huge trailblazer, not only for this breeder program, but also for us, for Etalon as a company, and for being out there and educating yourself and educating other people. That is something that is. It's the only way that I think that we can really help our horses going forward is to make sure that more people are encouraged to genetically test their horses, understand those colors, the health risks that are associated with the colors and health risks on their own, on their own, and also to understand the performance of the horses, and I think that by having people like you who are out there and really advocating for this, it is an absolute game changer for horses. So thank you.

Alison Umberger: 30:49

You're very welcome. I love to geek out on anything and everything I can learn about horses.

Lauren McDevitt: 30:55

I think you're definitely a member of our nerd herd. We geek out here every day and we always joke about. It's always something new that we're learning and excited about. How can listeners connect with you or learn more about your breeding program and experiences with Edeleon?

Alison Umberger: 31:10

Sure, I have a couple of Facebook pages. Umberger Show Horses LLC. Magic has his own page. It's markedly different and for anyone not on Facebook, which I know is a large number of people, you can reach me by email umbergershowhorses at gmailcom. Always happy to talk.

Lauren McDevitt: 31:33

Perfect, that's awesome, and I know you have a Facebook group too. Is it for W32?

Alison Umberger: 31:39

I have, yes, and I would love to go through that. So I will admit I don't remember what it's called exactly, but I think w32 scandalous white, if you search for that and it. I've just created it as a way for folks with w32 horses to connect and share experiences and brag on their horses.

Lauren McDevitt: 31:56

And, yeah, we'd love to have you thank you again to allison for joining us to talk about her amazing program and involvement with the APHA. We are fortunate to work with some amazing clients and their horses. For more information on what we talked about in this episode, open the show notes attached to the description. If you like this episode, make sure to leave a rating and review. Thanks for listening and we will see you next time.