I stumbled across a very important website:
http://www.pedigreegoddess.com/
The site, run by Anne Peters, has a great deal of educational material.
There are excellent articles on breeding theories, and well as information such as the height of each sire.
Some of the most important things I learned:
- The importance of using more than just Nick ratings to judge pedigrees
- There is a great article “The Outcrossing Advantage” which supports my idea of adding “euro-pedigree” to typical US sires
- There are people that actually believe that the quality of foals decline as a mare ages
- Another great article is “Is Bigger Always Better”
There is something here for everything.
It does make me wonder what other free resources are available that I have not discovered.