Quarterbase, Pedigree Planner for Quarter Horses.

Database
Finally, a Quarter Horse pedigree database is available which contains thousands of Quarter Horses from all fields of discipline - racing, cutting, pleasure, halter. Quarterbase will accomodate any other horses you might choose to add of your own, with their ancestors already in place. Quarterbase combines the best features of Pedigree Planner V3.0 with other features especially for Quarter Horses, including fields to allow for Speed Ratings, NCHA Earnings, Race, Show & Produce Records, and Registration Numbers. The standard information such as Color, Year Foaled, Breed, Country of Origin, etc is also available. With over 10,000 Quarter Horses already entered, and many thousands of Thoroughbred ancestors traced back to their origins, this database will be the most useful tool you'll ever need to look up pedigrees, plan matings, study inbreeding patterns, experiment with hypothetical pedigrees, view descendants, and more. As an added bonus, the program and database have been written to allow Paint horses to be added too.

Data Entry
Data entry is simple and easy. Names are entered on the screen into the pedigree as if they were being written into a pedigree on a sheet of paper. The program prompts for the details for new horses. Names can be 'rubbed out' from a pedigree and replaced with another name. This feature is particularly useful when you are using Test Mating to analyse theoretical matings and you wish, for example, to try many stallions against one mare. The following is an example of the details screen. This display can be used both for entering new information about a horse and to display all the information already entered.

Pedigree Analysis
Pedigree Planner V3.0 has some some powerful pedigree analysis methods, and they are all available through Quarterbase. From tabulated pedigrees with linebreeding highlighted in colour, to linebreeding and relationships analysis, and on to sophisticated seaches, Quarterbase has everything that is available in V3.0 of Pedigree Planner. The following sections describe some of these pedigree analysis features, and also show how the displays have been adapted for Quarterbase.

Tabulated Pedigrees on the screen
Quarterbase has a powerful and unique way of handling tabulated pedigrees on the screen. You can set any number of generations to be analysed, from six upwards, and you can also set the number of generations to be displayed on the screen. Small screens (14 inches) can display six generations, and high quality or larger screens can display seven generations. The program treats the screen as a window into the larger pedigree so if you are analysing eight generations and displaying six generations on the screen you can move the screen around in the pedigree by double clicking on different horses to view six generation sections of the pedigree. The following picture shows a six generation screen, giving the first six generations of an eight generation pedigree.

For the first three generations on the screen, registration number, year of birth and either the breed or the family number for thoroughbreds are displayed with each horse's name. For the last three generations family number or breed is displayed. The bottom line on the screen is used to show details of the individual horses in the pedigree. If any horse in the pedigree is clicked once, the following details are displayed (where known): name, family number (thoroughbreds), year of birth, the generation the horse appears in the pedigree and total generations available, and the race record.

Descendants
Generates an Explorer-style tree of the descendants of a particular horse. If any of the names in the display has a plus sign next to them, then there are progeny of that horse in the database. Click the plus sign to display the progeny. Additional information with each name includes the other parent, breed, registration number, year of birth, color, sex, and racing record. This display can be used to generate sire and dam breeding records.

Tail Analysis
This feature allows you to generate a list of the ancestors on either the tail male or tail female line for a particular horse. Clicking on one of these will take you to the pedigree of that horse.

Test Mating
The keywords Test Mating, Foal, Colt, Filly or Mare can be used to automatically create a theoretical mating and allow full analysis of the resulting pedigree. It is also possible to quickly and simply generate a Test Mating to compare two horses from within the current pedigree.

Linebreeding
Horses that appear more than once in a pedigree are identified, with each duplicated horse displayed in a different colour on the pedigree screen. The linebreeding can also be displayed in a table.

Relationships
Pedigree Planner defines related horses are defined as being two or more horses that share two or more ancestors in four generations. Related horses, and their common ancestors, can be highlighted on the tabulated pedigree screen, either one relationship at a time, or all at once. A summary table of relationships can be displayed, and the threshold for displaying relationships (i.e. the percentage of genetic makeup shared by the two horses) can be adjusted. The following table shows the relationships for eight generations of Sir Tristram. The threshold for displaying the relationships has been set at 50%, so that the only relationships displayed are where there are two or more horses which have half or more of their pedigrees in common.

Line of Inheritance of the X-Chromosome
The line of inheritance of the X chromosome can be highlighted, allowing, for example, analysis of the inheritance of the large heart factor. Pedigree Planner underlines those horses in the pedigree from which the subject horse could inherit its X-chromosome. In addition, duplicated horses are highlighted in different colours.

Highlighting
Pedigree Planner has extensive colour highlighting options, all of which are designed to give you information about the pedigree that you are analysing. You can control which colours are used. By default, simple linebreeding is highlighted. Highlighting options include:

Linebreeding: See above
Relationships: See above
Specific ancestors: Ancestors believed to be important within a particular pedigree can be specified and they and their descendants can be highlighted within that pedigree.
Families: Horses from the same family are coloured similarly within a tabulated pedigree.
Modern taproot: Horses with the same modern taproot are coloured similarly within a tabulated pedigree.
Line of inheritance of the X-Chromosome: See above.
Double copy mares: See above
Important ancestors: Horses of particular merit or influence to the breed can be designated and then highlighted in every pedigree where they occur.

Search Pedigrees This is a powerful feature which allows you to search one or more individual pedigrees back as many generations as you wish for a list of specific ancestors. The search displays a list of each occurrence of each ancestor, plus a summary table, for each horse searched.

Printing
Pedigree Planner can print from five to eight generations on an A4 sheet of paper. You can specify number of generations printed, the font and the colours used. The highlighting scheme currently in use on the screen is printed to the printer. All tables, such as linebreeding and relationships, can also be printed.

For more information about Quarterbase, either contact Susan Larkin, susan@nanosecond.com, or use the Pedigree Planner contact form.