Curious how often certain restrictions are placed on mares & what may be the reasons for them?
Height restrictions in place for mares going to Havana Grey.
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That’s the first time I’ve ever heard of a height restriction on mares for breeding purposes. Here (U.S.) unexpectedly large height differences are usually managed by either digging a hole or building up a mound of dirt for the stallion to stand on. I’ll also be interested to hear if anyone knows why these restrictions have been put in place.
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I saw this on my FB feed too and thought it was super interesting. Comments seemed to indicate they’re limiting him to mares under a certain height, but I couldn’t find any confirmation of that, or what the limit might be, or how tall he is himself. It would be interesting to know the details!
So maybe covering taller mares is just making him sore (and they don’t want to have him cover mares on a hill, haha)? But from the headline I also wondered if he throws super shrimpy babies on smaller mares and they want to limit that (by breeding to bigger ones.)
I wish there was more info in the article!
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I think most of your points went through my mind reading that article. What the heck was the reason or at least the restriction!? Tall mares or short mares? WTF? I could understand known producing mares, but the height thing has me puzzled, unless he’s throwing itty bitties by short mares…
Right?? I read it a few times, sure I must have somehow scanned over the details. How is there no actual information?! How big IS he, anyway?!
And come on now, racehorse people are often just terrible at heights. Who is doing the official measuring?! 
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15.2 1/2 hh ?
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His damsire looks long and deep bodied but not long legged. It’s so difficult to guess height from a photo with nothing in it for scale.
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His Sire died of a fatal pelvic injury as a 13 YO.
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Yeah, he definitely looks to not be very big in the pics that are out there showing him under tack, like here
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He has Green Desert top and bottom, who was 15.2hh.
Danzig back on both sides as well at 15.3 and Norther Dancer at maybe 15.2.
Perhaps the smaller height is popping up from back in his pedigree. My guess would be that he is getting small horses, but who knows?
My wonderful small junior hunter was a Green Desert son — 15.2 on his tip toes on a good day!
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The rumor I’ve heard is that he is physically struggling to jump larger mares. I wonder if this is also an effort to limit his book size, reading between the lines on the comment on his fertility.
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I wonder why, as @LaurieB mentioned, they couldn’t accommodate him with a dug out to be used for larger mares, or is that not a common practice in the UK? Perhaps size isn’t as prized as much in the sales in Europe, as it is in the U.S.
His sire dying from pelvic injuries at 13 is interesting. I wonder if it was an accident or if it happened while covering a mare. I haven’t been able to find any information regarding the cause of the horse’s pelvic injury.
On a Kentucky tour of Gainesway, we were told that Tapit has his own shed, which enables him to jump large mares. Did not see it, but assume it was built up for him somehow, as he is not tall.
On the tour at Coolmore, they pointed out that they have the option to use higher or lower spots that are in the breeding shed as the situation calls for it.
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Thank you for this post. I did the same thing. I assumed I had missed the detail about him only wanting tall or short mares so I read it over and over again. But no details.
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There were no details.
I could only find one source that listed his height. 15.2 1/2 hh.
Apparently we’re not the only ones looking for clarification with this announcement. The Racing Post has this article to explain Havana Grey’s unheard of height restriction – here’s the long and the short of it
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TL:DR
16h and under is the parameter. He doesn’t like ramps and taller mares were both physically taxing and returning more frequently for second covers.
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Breeding is not the safest thing done with horses, accidents happen and if they choose to ease up on his physical demands covering 100+ mares a year? Good for them.
Thinking in past years, there were not so many tall ones out there as todays market is demanding and they sure weren’t jumping 100+ mares in 4 months or so every year….more if they shuttle.
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