Effectively evaluating your mare's strengths and weaknesses is essential to select a mating to complement conformation, movement and genetics. Fill out our Designer Genes for mares checklist. Submit your mare information, photo, and video. We will recommend one of our stallions, based on her pedigree, conformation, and movement.

While each one of these stallions are unique individuals, they all possess and pass on the overall important trait - a balanced topline. This form to function is the basis for the McWhirter's Designer Genes breeding program. Read more about the tried and true theory of breeding for balance in the Quarter Horse Journal article, "The Trapezoid."

The bone structure and natural balance of our stallions, and the prepotent ability to pass on these Designer Genes to their offspring is responsible for our remarkable success.

Carol and her husband, Dan, have aimed to make their horses "homozygous for balance." By breeding for balance, they want to raise horses with natural ability to collect and use their hindquarters, making it easier for horses to do their jobs.

Horses are erector sets," Carol said. "When you are breeding horses, it goes right back to the skeleton; you are breeding length of bone to length of bone.

"If you throw away all the muscle and coat color, all the frosting on top of the cake, a horse can only move the way its bare bones erector set says it can move," she continued. "If you have wrong angles, you aren't going to fix it no matter how famous its parents are or how good a trainer you have. You've got to start with the right erector set."

"When we breed horses, we're breeding for the needle in the haystack," she said. "We're not breeding for average horses anymore. The industry is so competitive, and it's going towards the best of the best. (Breeding for balance) is how we excel in the breeding business and make a positive contribution."