Breeding my pony-size of stud

[Horsey Chick]

If my pony mare is about 10-11hh how large of a stud can I go with for breeding??

If I wanted to cross her with a rather drafty pony stud would the larger feet and bone be hard on her?

[shandy84]

We had a post recently I think the concesus was try not to go bigger than her by more than a hand and be careful of the amount of bone especially if she is fine, I think Es and Chv posted some useful bits

[chev]

What kind of build is your pony?

There's a saying with regards to breeding - blood on bone. It means, if you're crossing a light breed with a heavy one, that the heavy parent should be the mare. Using a stallion that's heavier in build than your mare is actually more dangerous than using a lighter, taller stallion - although that's not really the ideal either.

If your mare is a chunky 10.2hh then I'd be reluctant to go much bigger than say 11.2hh of similar build, or 12hh of lighter build in a stallion. If she's a lightweight 10.2hh then you need to stick to the same build, and as close to her height as you can.

Bear in mind as well that you are just as likely to have problems covering her with a big stallion - during covering, the main weight of the stallion is carried by the mare, and if she's much smaller, you stand a real chance of having her injured. Mares have sustained damage to their backs and pelvis when covered by a big stallion.

There's also a risk of internal injury.

If you want to use a drafty pony stallion you need a drafty pony mare.

[Horsey Chick]

The drafty I was thinking is like a dartmoor pony drafty. My mare has finer legs, but is rather big in her main body area. She is big in the barrel and thick in the neck. I would love to cross her with a dartmoor or something more solid like that. I love the look of the dartmoors. They come about 11 hh, don't they?

I know whatever I cross her with needs to have good bone in the leg, because she is too fine in the leg compared to her body(in my opinion). I don't want much taller, just good bone in the leg.

[chev]

Unfortunately using a pony stallion with more bone than your mare is exactly what tends to lead to problems. When assessing your mare's build, it's things like bone you need to be looking at. The size of her barrel won't give an accurate idea of whether she could carry a big-boned foal. The size of her legs, will give a better idea, since it tends to reflect the size of her skeleton as a whole. It's her pelvis that the foal needs to pass through, not her barrel - and that's likely to be small if she's a fine-legged type.

Thick in the neck means absolutely nothing - the only bones in the neck are the spine - the rest of it is fat and muscle, which again is no indication of her skeletal build.

Fine legs makes heftier stallions a bad choice.

Why do you want to breed her? It sounds like your best bet would be to look for a foal that fits the description you want - no risk to your mare, no breeding expense, no waiting, and you know you won't be breeding an equine quasimodo, as one experienced breeder put it recently!

The other big problem crossing two different types is that quite often you manage to breed something that has a big head, big body, and little diddy fine legs - exactly what you don't want. Better to match type to type for all sorts of reasons.

[Horsey Chick]

Wow that doesn't sound good. I'm glad I asked around about it. Thank you for being honest! I know I should just buy what I want, but I was just hopeful I could get it out of my mare. But, I certainly don't want to hurt her at all.

[entreat]

Breeding is very complex. Often people will choose a stallion with the opposite trait in their mare to get something inbetween (mare has short neck, stallion has long neck), but it rarely works out that way.

You can do some searching on the net about responsible breeding. They are usually good at giving direction for breeding, but most suggest against frivolous back-yard breeding as it can often weaken the equine species by producing foals with bad conformation. They also suggest showing your mare to a breeder to help finding a stallion with complimenting conformation.

I'm torn about breeding my mare! She's so gorgeous, with acceptable conformation, but she's a known rear-er, which I don't want passed onto a foal. Also, I don't want to spend more than about $1500 on a stud fee... also limits my options. Then - what do I cross her with?? :rolleyes: All this make me very tired!

[Mehitabel]

just want to say, well done horsey chick for taking the advice on board, even though it wasn't what you wanted to hear. too many people ignore the advice that goes against what they want to do and just keep asking different people until someone says yeah, that's a great idea.

well done for putting your pony first.

[chev]

Echo Es.

Your mare is lucky to have you as an owner. :)

[Horsey Chick]

Hey thanks!

I want a baby from her, but she is still my baby so I don't need another "baby" just yet. She is still in need of some good solid training as she is just a bit of a youngster herself and needs a good foundation. She is going to get some more consistant training this spring and summer. She deserves it!

I love my pony!! I mean who doesn't just love ponies??

Speaking of those who don't care for their ponies as they should...don't you wish you could adopt all the hurting ponies in the world?