Hi All,
Anyone have experience breeding a tall mare to a small stallion.
My FEI Dressage mare is all of 17.3 and now I’m looking to breed from her (due to an unfortunate paddock injury) and was thinking of breeding her to a GRP stallion of around 14.2ish to try and make a more reasonable size dressage horse (for myself). Does this get done often, work ever??
any opinions or experiences would be much appreciated!
Breeding is not that simple. You do not get something in the middle except by luck in my experience.
I would never breed for size(again) or color(never did that).
That is a very common breeding practice. You can have a good selection of pony stallions and AI will be your friend. Good luck!
I agree with Randee. Same advice I would give:)
I agree with Randee. Same advice I would give:)
Look for a stallion who does downsize. Small + tall doesn’t always = mid-sized, but some stallions consistently throw sizing genetics. So you aren’t just looking for a small stallion, you are looking for one that has a history of siring smaller offspring from a big mare.
Same opinion here, my mare barely 16hands ( with long feet) stallion barely 16 hands: daughter 17 +. Therefore I will never breeding to a stallion that gives size to foal. As next pregnancy will be for a keeper.
I agree with most comments ie that usually isn’t the way it works. A very popular cross in the pony hunters when I was growing up was the welsh/tb. Many were 16+mares and large ponies to produce a large pony. Some went over obviously but you still got a lot of large ponies from this cross. On the other hand I worked for a breeder with a large wb stallion. Almost without exception this stallion produces foals over 17h, whether the mare is a 15h quarter horse or a big th or warmblood mare. Most breeders have told me that when breeding very disparate heights you are more likely to get something very similar to one or the other rather than in the middle.
That said, is it diarado who pretty consistently produces shorter horses…? Check around.
It’s always a crap shoot. Hard to say anything for sure when breeding horses. But yes, one would normally think and expect that the size of the offspring might be a happy medium between the sizes of the parents, though they may not be.
It’s worth a try, if that is your goal, IMO.
Find a steep hill, or dig a hole. Put the mare standing at the bottom of the hill, or in the hole. Give the stallion the height of ground. Live cover is often possible this way with a mismatched set.
You never know. I do know that Escudo I consistently throws small. I think I would look in that direction - what the stallion throws -rather than the actual stallion’s size.
Whereas I thought it was escudo ii who consistently threw small haha yeah I’ll go with craps shoot.
A maiden mare often throws small, or not, if that helps 
Height is multifactorial, so it can seem random at times. It is several genes together so you can have other horses in the pedigree show more similarities in height than the parents. If the population is all similar in height, then you see consistency.
I wouldn’t breed to a pony as you may get a Franken horse, one with characteristics of both breeds, aka big head and little legs. You want to find a talented stallion that tends to throw small. He may or may not be smaller himself. Contender is known to throw small but not consistenly. Few will throw it consistenly. But you also do not know how your mare will throw and it is possible that she will tend to produce much smaller than herself.
If you breed for a really good dressage horse by using a really quality stallion that matches your mare in pedigree and type and corrects her weaknesses, then you should at least end up with a good dressage horse that may or may not be tall. If you breed for height as a main goal, your chances of ending up with a FEI dressage horse will be much less.
Breeding mainly for height may give you an average horse the right size…lots out there already.
Try KWPN as they do meticulous stats on their stallions, and pick an older stallion with a really good track record. You will probably end up using frozen then.
Something very dressagebred but small like Ridley (who also has a horse approval) might give you something nice with more registration options than a stallion only registered pony…
If I am breeding for a horse to stay at the farm, I am breeding for brains. Height, color, movement is useless if you can’t ride it to it’s max. Seen enough people breed to some great pro horses but they were AA and got to much horse for them.
I have bred several Horse x Pony and Pony x Horse Crosses (WB, TB and Arabian) . We breed Purebred and Partbred Connemaras for Dressage and Eventing. I have yet to breed a frankenhorse but Connemaras are the largest of the pony breeds and have far more substance and body depth than many other pony breeds and types. I believe the trick is mainly to match types as closely as possible so that the body types are proportionately more alike than they are different. For example I would not breed a full size deep bodied mare to a tiny super refined or narrow pony.
In my experience with height its generally more an either or–either more like the sire or more like the dam. Finally I think it may be easier to find horse stallions bearing some pony character than the other way around.
Thankyou all, definitely a lot to consider. the mare is proven GP mare with great brains and above average movement, other than her height there is nothing i would be in a hurry to change, it is more as I get older i don’t really need bigger. I will have a look at proven stallions and see if there is any know to consistently through smaller progeny.
She is a Florencio x Donnerhall if this helps so not huge height there
thanks x
I have an 18 hand mare that I tried to downsize by breeding to a petite 15.3 hand stallion and the resulting offspring is 17.2 and not done growing. Neither of the mare’s parents are overly large, so I don’t know where the height came from, but she has definitely thrown it.
[QUOTE=ticofuzzy;]
I have an 18 hand mare that I tried to downsize by breeding to a petite 15.3 hand stallion and the resulting offspring is 17.2 and not done growing. Neither of the mare’s parents are overly large, so I don’t know where the height came from, but she has definitely thrown it.[/QUOTE]
I need to use this post as an example of how many people need to go PAST the dam and sire to determine future height. I bang this drum all the time and this is a very, very common mistake made.
Know your pedigrees before making the commitment to breed. Warmbloods are a crossbred breed and will bring hidden height to the table when you least expect it. Same goes with crossbred ponies. When it’s not a purebred, the chances of height from a grandparent showing up exists.
[QUOTE=VirginiaBred;8481764]
I need to use this post as an example of how many people need to go PAST the dam and sire to determine future height. I bang this drum all the time and this is a very, very common mistake made.
Know your pedigrees before making the commitment to breed. Warmbloods are a crossbred breed and will bring hidden height to the table when you least expect it. Same goes with crossbred ponies. When it’s not a purebred, the chances of height from a grandparent showing up exists.[/QUOTE]
I agree with your post, but also have to say, some of them may have hidden midget in their as well! I have a Galoubet mare (Graf Gotthard on the dam line), who is about 16.1, and MOST of her babies have been smaller no matter who I breed to. If she wasn’t so old, I’d breed her to a pony, hahahaha… She’s had 2 tall babies (and both were stallions that threw height), and about 7 foals by 5 different stallions that were all 15.2 and under. And I point this out to kind of support your post and to go further and say “get an understanding of what that specific stallion and dam throw - it may not be what you expect”…
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