Maiden mare- height of stallion?

[No_Angel]

How many hands heigher than the mare should a stallion be for a maiden mare?

[chev]

The nearer to the height of the mare the better. Using a big stallion on a smaller mare (maiden or not) increases the risk of difficulties like a foal too big to foal.

Stallion should be no more than 2hh taller and preferably not that much even.

[No_Angel]

thanks chev, thats what I thought.:)

[Mehitabel]

none, ideally! although a lot of people say that the mare controls the size of the foal, it's not true, and she will not limit the size of the foetus to what she can easily give birth to. a mare who is an experienced mum is safer to play withthe heights a bit, as well as having some idea of what she 'normally' throws. for instance i know of one mare who always does her foals very very well - she always looks ribby and poor when in foal, and the more she is fed she looks the same but the foals come out bigger. through trial and error her owners have found a regime that stops the foal getting too big in utero, after having a couple get stuck on the way out. so with her i'd definitely stick to a smaller stallion, and had her owners taken the risk on first covering and gone much biger, it could have been tragic.

for a maiden mare who is an 'unknown quantity' breeding-wise, i'd stick as close to the size and build as possible, or go smaller. i'd also research both mare and stallion's pedigree for size info, in case she or he for some reason didn't reach their expectedheight. for instance, a horse out of 16hh parents may have a bad start, or an illness, or just randomly only reach 14hh. but those 16hh genes are lurking so if you put him to a mare of 13hh, which on paper should be fine, those genes may show up and she may have a monster foal.
as an example, petal's mum has had foals ranging from 127cm to 148cm, by the same stallion - so breeding from the 127cm one, you'd need to be aware she has genetic potential to throw bigger regardless of stallion size.

[Lgd]

With a maiden the recommendation is a max of 1hh bigger, but as Es says, you need to keep the genetics in mind.

I used a 16.2hh stallion on a 16hh maiden. I actually limited my height range to 15.2 - 16.2hh when looking at stallions because of the genetic component. Peri is out of a 15.1hh by a 15.3hh and ended up taller than both of her parents - her sire was a 'runt' as such having a 17.3hh sire and 16.1hh dam, the vast majority of his stock went overheight cf parental heights.

Peri also has a 14hh grand-dam on the other side so I did have the risk she could throw the other way.

Result - Belle, currently almost 15hh at 15 months (her Mum was a late maturer and was 15hh at 4yo :eek:) and looks likely to make somewhere between 16.3hh and 17.1hh