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So, there are lots of ways to pick your stallions for your breeding program.

Paper levels all encompass a range of breeding abilities, so, for instance, all B papered stallions are not equal breeding ability.

One way to deal with picking your colts is to make them all compare superior to their sire, so you know there is an improvement from generation to generation. This is particularly helpful at generations when there is not a jump in paper level. So, for instance, A paper level usually spans at least 2 generations. An A papere stallion’s A papered foals might be slightly worse than, about as good as, or superior to him, so comparing his sons to him will help you pick only boys who are better.

But what if you have 5 colts, all superior to sire, all with genes you are hoping to carry forward to the next generation, all roughly equal in terms of PT, consistency, size, etc that you breed for. How do you pick one to keep?

This is usually where benchmarking starts. You compare the colts to each other, at least sort of at random to start. And maybe you get lucky and one colt is better than his brothers! Wow, he’s a really nice stallion!

And then you breed him a few times and wow, he throws really nice foals with high PTs and high papers. And his compatriot stallions in the same generation but other lines....maybe they’re not measuring up.... and so you start, instead of comparing stallions to their sire, comparing them to that superior colt. And only the ones who compare AGA him get to be intact. And now you’ve got a benchmark!

And then it gets really fun, when you get a colt that compares superior to your benchmark...oh my! And you have to go back and test all your current stallions against your new benchmark, and oh wow now we are off to the races!

Benchmark stallions are usually used in the sort of breeding program where you’re breeding even by generations but using the very best stallion you can get your hands on for that generation. This is breeding for aggressive increases in quality instead of high numbers of intact foals. Sort of somewhere in between bootstrapping and even by paper breeding. If you’re going to breed even by papers, you probably will do better with more “middle of the road” superior to sire quality stallions. The benchmark method creates a LOT of mare lag, so works best if you have the luxury of breeding mostly in pastures with the full pasture bonus, as far as maximizing intact numbers.

There is no “better” or “right” or “correct” breeding method. Don’t let someone else’s breeding program cause you stress or make you feel unworthy. Breed to make yourself happy!

This post was linked in a chat group but thought I'd just have my say too. My benchmark stallions aren't necessarily the best of their generation, however they usually are my minimum standard for that generation. So I don't care if a horse is superior to sire, if it isn't superior to my benchmark stallion then it will either be gelded or boosted. If someone has a B papered gen3 stallion for instance, even if they are superior to sire they are way below my minimum standard for a gen3. Comparing to the benchmark stallion is a lot more useful to me than just comparing to sire. Even if I get a super dooper sire, I will use him of course, but it won't necessarily change my benchmark

I have benchmark stallions that I know to be one point below A, another one point over A paper etc, they help me know exactly where my colts compare to each other too

Mare lag is no-where what it used to be if using SBA, when fillies were only compared to their dams. Now with SBA comparing to both sire and dam, you are really are going to only be at most one generation behind with your mares. For instance if I use an A papered gen2 stallion, then all my gen3 fillies that pass SBA must be blue papered, which is my minimum standard. That said I do keep a few reds if they have pretty colours LOL!

I'm also a benchmark breeder. Lately I've been slowly starting to amp up my restrictions but comparison testing can get really expensive really fast. I’m starting to replace all of my foundation stock with exceptional stock. Then require 2G A. Then 3G superior to the 2G A. Then for 4G I accidentally found a stallion that produced star foals better than most. He has turned out to be an amazing benchmark stallion. I do have severe mare lag. I used to get a lot of 4G reds who I would then cull or if super beautiful add to the bootstrap line. But I haven’t gotten a 4G red in a long time. I don’t mind mare lag as if they produce inferior foals then I can always cull which is the main source of income for me, or add to show line so I get very unique color mixes. Some people like more intact. I like auction fodder.... everyone is different