Those who bred your own, did you get what you planned for?

[Stella2]

Those of you who bred a your own horse, presumably you wanted to reproduce something from your mare - temperament or conformation, hopefully both. Did your foal grow into what you hoped for?

[Skyhuntress]

I didn't actually own the mare but I wanted a foal from her.

She was a refined TB mare, rather finicky personality, but never mean. She had succeeded well in the 3'6 jumpers but had a rather weak shoulder connection. I bred her to my trainers hannoverian stallion...extremely Old World stallion (really bulky, huge movement) The stallion always tends to pass on one realyl nice gait to his offspring.

I got Arion and he's everything I wanted. More refined then his dad but still stocky enough to look powerful, more refined head. GORGEOUS uphill canter and he also got a far nicer shoulder ;)

[Miriam]

Those of you who bred a your own horse, presumably you wanted to reproduce something from your mare - temperament or conformation, hopefully both. Did your foal grow into what you hoped for?


Do I hear someone wanting the patter of tiny feet :D

[Stella2]

Do I hear someone wanting the patter of tiny feet :D

I think about it with Flora - no impulsive decisions though - thinking process at least two years ;) As you know Miriam, she has a temperament to die for and good conformation apart from a slightly long back. I'd put her to something smaller and lighter with a good temperament being paramount. I was just trying to assess whether I would really pass on Flora's lovely nature. I guess temperament must be inherited, after all it is in humans.

[Miriam]

Go for it :D


I'm now trying to convince Iz to breed from Rhi :D

[Lgd]

Yes and Yes (so far!)

Peri - I actually wanted a foal from her aunt by Lucky (Peri's sire) but the mare was persistently barren four successive years, Peri is out of that mare's full sister. I didn't actually breed her myself but have essentially had her since she was a foal.

Belle has been my lucky shot at breeding, my order list was:

Filly - tick :D

Keep Mum's temperament and trainability - Belle is a cheeky little madam but very sweet and very trainable.

Keep Mum's good walk and canter - very similar to Mum in that respect, certainly has a better walk than Mooiman (his isn't bad, but Peri's is a 9 walk) and her canter is better than her Mum's.

Improve the trot and suspension - her trot is superb with loads of suspension.

Improve the hind leg conformation and action - she is very well put together generally, nice active hock.

More uphill way of going than her Mum - another ticked box.

I have been incredibly lucky in that all my aims have been met - now just got to keep the little madam in one piece for the next few years!

[Miriam]

I'm sure you will Lesley.


She sounds superb

[casey]

Absolutly, I knew my mare would produce a lovely foal. Bless her. But I am planning to use the same stallion with Tiff next year.:)

[chev]

Yes and yes... and yes and no.

I've had some turn out exactly as planned, and a few surprises over the years too. The surprises were mainly from the cobs with unknown breeding; one even managed to produce a weedy looking riding pony type which defied all logic.

[l7oopys]

Yep! Pat is great!

Her dad is a New Zeland TB Eventer (Intermediate BE) With the best temperment EVER!

And her mum is FAB cross country and has copmpeted at national level many times at tetrathlon! (xc phase)

Pat is laid back, with a great temprement! has a hugh jump! loves XC and SJ and is coming nicely with her Dressage!!

[BeachRiding]

Nope... Wanted a small bulky barrel racer, and we ended up with a huge,fine, jumper.... hmm... Personality came through though!

[fiesty_filly]

We wanted a nice tall leggy hunter. Got a gorgeous, 15hh (stud was 17hh), dressage horse (well we're working on eventing :) ) All's well in the end!

[Peanut]

Do I hear someone wanting the patter of tiny feet :D


It's coming from over here! :D However I should imagine breeding is quite a costly business unfortunately. :(

[teabiscuit]

when i get the pictures, i'll post them
they are of Finn (light and fluffy) and Lad (big and butch)
both have the same sire and dam
they are so totally different that it proves you can only guess what you will end up with, but it's usually delightful
:)

[amandaco]

yes and yes
i wanted to keep mums temperment and boldness but cool down her hothead a little bit.i wanted more suspension in the paces to go with the better paces.
and i wanted a bay filly
and thats what i got!
(also by Moo)

[Mareish]

*Ahem* Not exactly :o

[Ms Kitty]

No, kind of and yes.

We have only had two of our own born in our stable, the first one unfortunately died right after birth, we don't know why. He would have been the perfect looking little stallion, jet black with 4 socks and a long star. I am sorry we never got to find out what he would have grown out to be.

The second one was a standardbred we bred for trotracing. He didn't grow to be as tall as we expected (he remained smaller than both his parents) and he had few conformational issues, nothing serious though, front end was alright, but the back end was a bit weak. He inherited some good points from his parents, but unfortunately some of the bad ones as well. He was a lovely horse though, but way too smart for trotracing, he always had that look on his face saying "Why on earth do you want me to get exhausted running around in circle?".. ;) He ended up as a light hack & companion horse, the place we sold him to still has him and they love him to bits. :)

We have also had couple of friends horses stay at our yard from young age that were bought while they were still in the womb. So kind of relates to the OPs question.. They turned out to be nice horses, almost exactly what they expected them to be.

What I would say about breeding, is that if you can aquire the best possible horses to breed from, and you have the facilities, it is well worth a try.

It is a lot of work to find the suitable horses for it, there is no point of breeding horses just because you think your mare is "the cutest bestest horsey in the world" and finding a stallion for her who also is "the cutest bestets horsey in the world" (though I am sure this is not the case with you ;), but for many it is), that just produces horses that in most cases turn out to have lot of conformational faults and have trouble finding their place in the world, and in many cases end up being PTS. Though I have to admit that this sort of blind shooting breeding sometimes brings out true gems too!!!

It is also worth realising all the things that can go wrong, like in the case of our first one who died.

But as a whole, breeding can be a positive and definitely educating experience! :)

Nina x

[**jet**]

Ask me in about four weeks first one due then!

[blackhorses]

Yes all turned out just as I wanted and some even better - am so pleased with everything I have bred so far, am really critical of my own stock and always ask myself would I buy it if I saw it for sale, and the answer is always yes thank god!! The only one I had reservations about was a TB x my friesian Wessel, he was such a runty thing and looked awfull right from about 1 week old, he is now rising 2 and is 15.2Hh and is going to be really gorgeous, just took a while to get there, normally you can tell how they are going to turn out when they are about 2/3 weeks old.:rolleyes: