Horse Pedigree Database

Reports Maintenance Subscriptions Help  

Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions
  • Why can't I find a specific horse?
  • Why do some horse names have numbers at the end of them?
  • Help, I'm having trouble printing a pedigree.
  • How do I add a photo for a specific horse?
  • How do I get progeny reports for dams?
  • Pedigree Questions
  • What's the Female Family Query and how does it work?
  • What are the inbreeding statistics and linebreeding reports?
  • Pedigree Display Questions
  • Display settings options

  • Adding/Editing Horses
  • What type of horses are okay to add?
  • I added a horse but selected the wrong parents, can you fix the error for me?
  • I added a horse, but made a typo in its name, now I can't change it.
  • How do I edit the record for a specific horse?
  • How do I add additional information such as color or career earnings?
  • How do I add a photo for a specific horse?

  • General Pedigree Questions

    Q:Why can't I find a specific horse?

    A: Make sure that you've spelled the horse's name correctly. That includes all spaces. If you are confident you have spelled the name correctly and you still don't see the horse, it probably isn't in our database and you'll need to add the horse in order to view its pedigree. Note that even if you add a horse, it may take up to 24 hours for the horse to show up in some of the queries, in others the addition is instant.

    Please note that the database isn't necessarily complete either. We don't have every horse ever foaled, only those that have been added to our database by our users.

    Q: Why do some horse names have numbers at the end of them?

    To deal with duplicate names the database uses numbers at the end of each horse. For instance Cigar and Cigar2. Sometimes the numbers are removed from the names before being displayed, but not always. As a result, sometimes you see the numbers after names. We feel it's a better method than using Albin's old roman numeral system.

    Q: How do I add a photo for a specific horse?

    A: There are two ways. You can either upload a photo (as long as you have copyright to the photo), or you can link to a photo on another web server (if you have permission to link). For either method, bring up a horse's pedigree first, then select "Edit Information" from the "Maintenence Menu", Next, find the "Picture URL" field in the data edit screen. If you have a subscription and are logged in, you will also see an "Upload Photo" button next to the Picture URL box. Simply supply the full URL to the picture on another server, or click the button to upload your own photo.

    Q: How do I get progeny results for dams?

    A: The progeny query works for both males and females. If you don't like the format of the progeny query, then try a 1 generation female family query instead.

    Q:What's the Female Family Query and how does it work?

    The female family query can be used to obtain the female family for the horse in question. If you run a 1 generation query you'll get back a list of the children for the horse in question if it's a female. When you move up to two generations you'll get back a family listing of the horse's 1st dam. When you increase to three generations you'll get the family of the 2nd dam and so on. Generally speaking you shouldn't need to go beyond 4 generations.

    Q:What are the inbreeding statistics and linebreeding reports?

    The pedigree query will give complete inbreeding statistics for the number of generations you are currently viewing. The notation such as 4S x 5D lets you know the generation and location in the pedigree that the inbred horse appears. 4S means that the horse appears on in the 4th generation on the sires half of the pedigree. 5D means in the 5th generation on the dam's half of the pedigree.

    Each inbred ancestor is assigned a random color so that you can easily locate the pairs in the pedigree. This is useful for 5 or 6 generation pedigrees. Beyond 6 generations, the color coding is pretty useless because of all the inbreeding that usually occurs. If two colors appear the same, it's totally coincidental and you can get a new set of random colors by reloading the pedigree.

    Also remember, pink squares are used for females and blue squares for males.

    Sometimes you'll also see a lower case 'd' or 's'. This means that the inbreeding is occuring through a female ancestor. An uppercase letter denotes that the inbreeding is occuring through a male ancestor.

    Q:Why do I get the message 'resource temporarily unavailable' sometimes?

    The database we are using can only be accessed by one process at a time. If something is currently accessing the database, you'll get this error message. Generally it's a one-time thing and if you try again you'll get through. In addition, every night there are a few scripts that are used to maintain and check the database...these scripts may tie up the query for periods of up to 10 minutes.

    Pedigree Display Questions

    Q: The font is so small, I can barely read the pedigree.

    If you find that the font size for the pedigree displays is too small, use the Preferences option to change your desired font size. We recommend 10pt if you find the font too small. You can also change the font size by scrolling down and editing your pedigree display settings. We recommend using the preferences option since that will be a permanent rather than a temporary fix.

    Q:What are the numbers on top of each pedigree?

    A: The numbers you see on top of each pedigree dispaly are related to Steve Roman's Dosage system. For more information about the dosage system see That site explains how dosage is calculated and what the various numbers mean.

    Q:What are the numbers and letters on the far right of each pedigree?

    The numbers such as 3-a or A1 are female family numbers. For more about female families, I'd suggest taking a look around the Thoroughbred Bloodlines web site. They have a special section on family numbers.

    Q:What do the green stars in the pedigree displays mean.
    They green stars are used to denote Reine's-De-Course mares. "Reine-De-Course" is French for "Queen of the Turf". Ellen Parker has done an incredible amount of research on infuential mares in thoroughbred pedigrees and every so often, she does a write up on a new mare and designates a new Reine-De-Course. For more information, see
    Q: What do the red stars mean?

    The Red Stars (*) are used in the pedigrees to show that there's a photo for a specific horse on record. To view the photo of that horse, pull up his or her pedigree and scroll down untill you get to the Additional Information section of the pedigree.

    Q: Why are some horses black and others blue?

    Horses whose names are in black type are stakes winners or stakes placed. A horse who is bold and black is one who has one a Grade I race. For older horses who weren't born when there were Grade I races, the bold black type is used to denote horses who won important races in their day...or Grade I equivilents.

    Q: Explain how the X-Factor feature works.

    The X-factor is a theory developed by Marianna Haun that attempts to genetically explain large hearts in thoroughbred race horses. It's pretty complicated and rather than trying to explain how it works, I'd suggest buying Marianna's two books: The X-Factor: What is it & how to find it and Understand the power of the X-Factor.

    If you turn this option on when running a horse query, you should see red and blue lines in the pedigree tracing the X-factor gene. Red lines are used to denote single copy horses and blue lines are used for double copy horses. Note that some horses may appear with the X-factor in one pedigree and not in the other. This is because horses that aren't in an X-chromosome passing position cannot pass on the X-factor gene and as a result, they aren't shown. To see where the X-chromosome positions are, click the X-chromsome option on the upper right hand side of the pedigree.

    If you do not see the red or blue lines at all, it's probably because you are using an older web browser. This feature is only supported for newer web browsers. The solution is to update and get a newer browser. The most recent versions of Netscape and Internet Explorer will work.

    Display settings options.

    Adding/Editing Horses

    Q:There's a hole in a pedigree or a horse that I need added? Who can I ask for help?

    You can hit the "Research" link where the hole appears to have a specific horse's pedigree researched. We have a small team of people who can look up pedigree information. When a horse gets added to the Research Request list, it'll show up on the Research Requests page where it'll stay until it gets completed or a week passes and the request hasn't been handled. Generally, it only takes a couple days for requested horses to be added to the database.

    If you have a special request, you can fill out our Research Request E-mail form and someone will try to look up the information for you.

    Q: What type of horses are okay to add?

    The site was designed to allow people to access pedigrees for most breeds of horses from around the world. If you don't see a breed in the drop down menu, please contact us at [email protected] and we'll see if we can create the menu item for you.

    Q: I added a horse but selected the wrong parents, can you fix the error for me?

    Please see the question below about editing the record for a specific horse. If you do send me an e-mail with the above problem, I'm not going to correct the error. Instead I will make you correct it on your own so that you'll know how to deal with the problem on your own the next time it happens.

    Q: I added a horse, but made a typo in its name, now I can't change it.

    You can't edit a horse's name once it's in our database. What you need to do in this case is add another horse with the correct name and then edit any children's pedigrees so that they point to the record of the horse with the correct name. Then it would be appreciated if you delete the incorrect horse from the database.

    Q: How do I edit the record for a specific horse?

    To edit the record for a specific horse, first pull up the 4 or 5 generation pedigree of the horse you'd like to edit. Next find and click the "I want to correct the listing or add more information" button below the pedigree and above the inbreeding display. You should then be allowed to edit the record of that horse. Fill in the correct fields and then you'll be given a chance to select the correct parents.