Breeders reports vs Conformation numbers

[Westview Stable]

Hi,
When evaluating horses which do you feel is more important, Breeder reports or the corresponding Conformation numbers?
Most times I notice they are pretty similar, but I just got this foal with a Gold (i've never seen such an agile horse) Breeder report but when checking his Conformation it shows only 22 for Agility, not good at all.
Here's a link to the horse in question:
https://www.horseworldonline.net/horse/profile/2733956
What do ya'all think? Thanks

[melanta]

I think that depends on what you evaluate the horse for.

The confo numbers may have more use in evaluating the horse's ability for a particular discipline.

For breeding (meaning if you want to pass competitive talent through generations), I would strongly root for the breeder's report. You can look at it like that - the confo numbers relate to only that particular horse, while the breeder's report says what the horse might pass to the offspring. Example: a 50+ movement doesn't mean at all that the horse's foal will have a similar number. However, if the movement stat is gold in the report, there's a significant chance that the offspring will have the same.

That said, I've found the confo numbers highly unreliable even for discipline evaluation. For example, I've seen plenty of horses with 60+ speed that did very poorly in racing comps.

That may be because of the third invisible component to the whole thing - some players call it "competition heart". That's an elusive trait that makes horses win competitions sometimes despite all odds (I've come across some with low HGP and average/neutral breeder's report comments that continually placed high in comps). I've personally found that you can inbreed it (to some degree) into your stock by sticking to those horses that seem to place high in comps repetitively (so, WPS should be more that 80-85%) and culling those that don't have at least some talent. Unfortunately, that still doesn't mean that all of your horses will be extremely talented, just that those rare brilliant individuals will pop more often down your bloodlines

[Westview Stable]

Thank you for your detailed reply. I guess both are equally important; and with that illusive "heart" thrown in, oh my!
I have been relying on the numbers more than breeders comments.I do more breeding than showing at this time. Working toward my ideal horse I will have to start watching the comments more closely. So much to consider. I want to increase speed, and improve strength, stamina and agility in Arabians, while keeping balance movement and tempo good. For an all around horse that can be competitive in English as well as Western events.
I was surprised this colts agility came up 22 when his parents were 35 & 31.
Thanks again for your advice.

[BlackOak2]

Very well written response!
I only have one thing to add, some heavy reading that breaks this down more and gets to the nitty-gritty of report versus scores, but you have what you need to move forward without it.

In-Depth Discussion on Conformation Scores Versus Genes

[Westview Stable]

Excellent, thank you. Wish that some of those horses were still around to peruse their pedigrees. I like checking out compitition results and then looking at the conformation stats of winners.