FWIW, my children learned how to ride and show on Arabians. They were far safer and took much better care of my kids than any of the Welsh I had (at the time). We had one Arabian, line bred Naborr, who was a saint with anyone who wasn’t that knowledgeable, a beginner or a child but would make a trainer or more experienced adult work for their keep LOL. He was an awesome guy. Having said that, though, there are some I wouldn’t own; but, that could be said of any breed out there.
I have owned MANY pony crosses. Warm blood, TB, Arab, pinto…crossed with welshes of all types. you name it.
I think you have to be very aware that your mare is an F-1. The first of an out cross, which is the most predictable in terms of genetic outcome. Further out crosses can introduce more expression of latent genes. You have Zero idea of what is behind her. My Cob X TB cross is 16.2 hands. Sire was 14.2, dam was 16 hands.
i believe you should prioritize finding a stallion who STAMPS his get with the qualities you want to bring to the mare. Reduce the variables. Use an older stallion with LOTS of babies under saddle, and talk to the stallion owner about the characteristics he consistently passes on.
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I didn’t mean any offense to those of you who have nice minded Arabians. But I worked on an Arabian Breeding farm, and what they were breeding (for saddleseat and halter) was not what most people want in a good working, riding horse. Too hot, too flighty, and difficult. You can have a sensitive, forward moving horse, without having a crazy horse that spooks explosively at every single thing in sight. It is a shame because the horses they were breeding were stunningly beautiful, with excellent conformation, but why they couldn’t breed for some common sense, i don’t know.
4horses I use to be the resident vet for one of the larger Arabian barns back in the late 80s and early 90s. I saw the exact same thing. I swore I would never own an Arab because of my experience and observations there though I did see much more level headed beasts when I was flown into the Canadian Nationals, Junior Champs and Scottsdale for my job. As is often the case I ate those words 3 times over and was happy to do so. A solid citizen Arabian is often a very good way to add blood without the crazy’s nor a lot of/too much height to many other breeds; but, I still subscribe heavily to breeding like to like. Fortunately the Arabian breed really has some very strong and distinct bloodlines that allows you to do just that.
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Back in the mid 80’s I worked at a hack barn. Literally the overwhelming majority of the hack horses were Arab geldings. Out of roughly 30 horses there was 1 QH/Arab cross, 1 OTTB, 1 gaited Frankenpony, 1 medium grade pony, 1 Percheron. All but 1 of the Arabians were ridden in hackamores. The Percheron was dual use as both a riding and driving horse. One of the Arabians drove and pulled the wedding carriage.
These horses safely trucked people that had never ridden all over the place. We used to go on long trail rides with the guides and working students and gallop all over the place with no problems. Most of the working students only had a few years of weekly summer riding lessons so not much experience. I can only think of two people coming off- one due to a loose cinch and one was on a barely green broke 3 year old that bucked a guide off. Thankfully the loose cinch was a guide too. We never had a hack rider come off in the 6 months I was there.
These horses were solid citizens. However most of them would not be winning in the show ring. I would bet the majority of them would have done well as endurance horses. Most were barefoot or front shoes only and that was with a cheap crappy farrier
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I recently got my first Connemara pony (3 years ago) and fell in love! (I previously owned and bred APHA and WB’s). I highly recommend breeding to a Connemara stallion…there are lots of different sizes, colors, and types available in the US and Canada. The stallion owners are happy to talk to you about their horse, and want to help you make a good choice for your mare and what you would like to do with the foal. There are many stallion owners on this forum . Hope you find a stallion that fits your mare and your future.
In defence of ponies, they are intelligent and know how to look after themselves. That means humans need to work with them rather than attempting to boss them. If a pony is on side with their human, they give 100%. If not, they can use that brain against the human and self preservation comes to the fore. Welsh D and Connies can be perceived to be ‘hot’ but IME that spirit needs to be channelled into interesting work to keep them happy.
The problem with ponies is they are often spoiled by kids. Someone i know bought a young Welsh pony for her kids. The problem was, the kids would gallop him back to the barn. Typically he was lazy. But he learned to buck and started tossing the kids. Not really a bad horse, but he was green and the kids needed something more experienced.
The fjord i knew was the same way. She had learned to ignore the reins and just drag you wherever she pleased. Supposedly was trained to drive, but you can’t drive a horse if you can’t steer!
Arabian!
Foal will be registered Half Arabian.
Then you could show not only in open shows, but also Arabian. Tons of sport classes with the same carded judges as the dressage and hunter shows. And adults can show in pony hunters. [ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“large”,“data-attachmentid”:10537507}[/ATTACH]
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Someone mentioned Anglo Arabian?
This guy adds height, jump, slow legged movement, big step.
No chestnut foals.
Registered Anglo Arabian National Champion, shown by Amateur and Youth riders.
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