Search

 
  About Us
  News
  Shire Hub
  Shows & Events
  SPARKS Breeding
  Shop
  Contact Us
 

Join us on      

@thebbqmag for all

About Us 
News
Shire Hub 
Shows & Events 
SPARKS Breeding
Shop
Contact Us

 

 

 


SPARKS BREEDING PROGRAMME

SPARKS is now online at breeds.grassroots.co.uk/shire

You will need your membership number to login. Anyone who is not a current paid up member will not be able to log in

To log in the first time:

  • Type in your membership number
  • Click on “forgot password”
  • Set your password to something you can remember

Once logged in, there is a 5 minute video and a system user guide. (However you will not have access to the entire system!). A separate user guide for the SPARKS element is available to download here, or on request to the office.

You will still need the Alphabetical List of Stallions Issued With A Service Book for locations and contacts for UK Stallions.

Please note that you will only be able to see the horses that are registered in your name, therefore please check that you have registered your ownership. You may also see horses on your list that are deceased. If this be the case, please contact the office to let us know so that the horse records can be updated.


GUIDANCE NOTES ON USING SPARKS KINSHIP TABLES

Introduction

The Shire Horse Society (‘the Society’) has adopted SPARKS to tackle inbreeding in the Shire horse population. This is needed because inbreeding leads to loss of genetic diversity in the population. In turn, this threatens the health of individual horses and the health and sustainability of the Shire breed as a whole, because it has the following consequences:

  • increased infertility
  • ​increased foal mortality (deaths)
  • increased likelihood of harmful genes accumulating in the breed
  • increases risk of inherited diseases and deformities
  • reduced overall fitness of the breed and resistance to diseases

A powerful way of tackling inbreeding is by managing ‘Mean Kinship’ through selection of mare/stallion pairings.


What is Sparks?

SPARKS is an advisory scheme that helps manage Mean Kinship and inbreeding. It is a computer programme that calculates Mean Kinships for every living pure-bred Shire in the Studbook, measuring how related any one Shire is to all others. SPARKS also calculates the potential inbreeding of foals resulting from specific mare/stallion pairings. Based on this analysis, SPARKS produces Kinship Tables for mares.


What are Kinship Tables?

The Kinship Tables are a tool to help breeders manage Mean Kinship and inbreeding via their decisions on which stallions to put to which mares. There is a Kinship Table for every living Shire mare that is pure-bred and registered in the breeding section of the Studbook.

Each one gives the mare’s date of birth, Studbook number and Mean Kinship coefficient. Based on the Mean Kinship coefficient, the mare is assigned to a Mean Kinship Band. Mares in Band A are of lowest Mean Kinship, i.e. are least related to the rest of the population, and those in Band H are the most related.

The mare information also gives the mare’s Inbreeding Coefficient. This is a measure of how related an individual animal is to itself through common ancestors that appear on both sides of its pedigree, whether in recent or distant generations.

Each Kinship Table includes a list of pure-bred Shire stallions that are available for use both in UK and Overseas. For each stallion there is a range of information including colour and kinship figures to help with breeding choices. Mare owners – please check that the stallion you select for mating had been issued with a service book for the current breeding season, before mating. If the stallion does not have a book the Society will not be able to register the progeny in the breeding section of the Stud Book.


How are KInship Tables used?

The Kinship Tables give the ‘Co-ancestry Coefficient of Progeny’ for each stallion/mare pairing. This is the level of inbreeding that the resulting foal would have. The lower this coefficient, the less inbred the foal would be. Co-ancestry coefficients of below 0.05 are considered acceptable. Those at 0.05 and above are not.

Using SPARKS is voluntary and intended to help mare owners to select a stallion. The Tables do not relate to the physical attributes of any mares, stallions or potential foals. Breeders should continue to use their own best judgement on this. The Tables are an additional tool to add genetic health to dam/sire pairing decisions.

To help interpretation of the Kinship Tables, the potential matings between mares and stallions are ranked into four Tiers. Tier 1 represents the best genetic pairings, and Tier 4 the worst. The Tiers are “traffic light” colour coded as follows:


 

Tier 1


The mare and stallion are from the same or an adjacent Kinship Band AND the mating would produce a foal of lower co-ancestry coefficient than the Mean Kinship of the Mare. These matings are said to be ‘SPARKS compliant’ and are coloured green in the Kinship Tables. THESE MATINGS ARE ENCOURAGED.

Tier 2


The mare and stallion are from the same or an adjacent Kinship Band BUT the mating would result in a foal of higher co-ancestry coefficient than the Mean Kinship of the mare but still less than 0.05. These matings represent ‘The Best of the Rest’ and are coloured yellow in the Kinship Tables. THESE MATINGS ARE THE PREFERRED ALTERNATIVE IF A SPARKS COMPLIANT OR ‘GREEN’ MATING DOES NOT EXIST OR IS NOT DESIRABLE.     

Tier 3


The mare and stallion are from widely differing Kinship Bands and Kinship Coefficients less than 0.05. These matings bring together genes in a way that puts less common genes at greater risk of loss. They are coloured orange in the Kinship Tables and ARE DISCOURAGED. 

​Tier 4


These matings, coloured red in the Kinship Tables, are highly inbred and increase the probability of deleterious genes/harmful traits being expressed in future generations as well as accelerating the loss of genetic diversity. THESE MATINGS SHOULD BE AVOIDED.

   

 


Please note:

  • The Tiers are an assessment of the merit of pairing of two horses. They are not an endorsement or criticism of the genetic makeup or physical characteristics of either horse.
  • The traffic light colours are shown on the names of the stallions, but do not represent the level of inbreeding of the stallions themselves. They represent the level of inbreeding that the foal would have if the stallion was mated with the named mare.
  • For red matings, the red traffic light colour is highlighted on the Co-Ancestry Coefficient of Progeny figure as well as on the stallion’s name. This is to help distinguish between orange and red matings, given that the two colours may look similar on some computer screens.


Important notes on using Kinship Tables

Kinship Tables are valid for one year only because the Shire horse population, and therefore the kinship relationships within it, change each year. The Tables are therefore updated every year. Changes in the population can affect the mating colours. For matings on the cusp between colours, the colour may change eg a mating that on the cusp between green and yellow, that showed as green last year, may possibly change to yellow this year and vice versa.

For information on which stallions are in the Kinship Tables, see the section “What are Kinship Tables” above.

Contact details for stallion owners are in the “Alphabetical list of UK stallions issued with a service book” document available to download here or on request from the office  info@shire-horse.org.uk


Financial Support

The Society provides SPARKS Foal Grants to encourage Tier 1 Green and Tier 2 Yellow matings. The Grants are payable to mare owners who are members of the Society on successful registration with the Society of a pure-bred Shire foal from a Green or Yellow mating, whether by natural service or AI. The Grants are:

Green matings at least £200       Yellow matings at least £100

Each year, there is a fund for payment of the grants. The amounts above are guaranteed. Any residual funds will be shared between the qualifying mare owners.

There are no payments for Orange or Red matings.


Correction and Anomolies

The information in the Kinship Tables is only as good as the information in the Society’s Studbook, so the more up to date the Studbook, the better. Therefore, if you see a mare in the Kinship Tables that you know has died or been exported, please notify the Society office, sending in the passport if you have it. Likewise, if you see information that is not or might not be correct about any horse, please let the office know.


Contact Details and Help

Shire Horse Society, The Old Dairy, Rockingham Castle, Market Harborough, Leicestershire, LE16 8TH

T: 01536 771611 E: info@shire-horse.org.uk


Notes for researchers. The data provided in the Kinship tables are highly filtered from the SPARKS database and should not be taken as an accurate representation of the current Shire horse population. As such, they are not suitable for research purposes.


SPARKS is endorsed by the UK’s Rare Breeds Survival Trust

Rare Breeds Survial trust


 
 

 

 

 

Copyright ©2025 Shire Horse Society. All rights reserved. Registered Charity No210619. Company registered in England and Wales No12383.

Shire Horse Society uses cookies for analytical and technical purposes to improve our service to you. Please choose whether to only allow technical cookies, or accept all. more information here