Hunter-Type Stallion Suggestions for my QH girly?

[Phinn336]

Hi everyone!

This is my first post, but I have looked through lots of previous threads for suggestions! Most threads on this topic are a little dated now, but the knowledge-base and connections of users here are super impressive, and I would love suggestions!

My mare is a little cutting-bred quarter hony that showed pony hunters (14.2 hands freshly trimmed and barefoot). She is getting older, and while I should have considered this a while ago, I do have a great repro specialist vet that did a breeding soundness exam and everything looked good for her to be a candidate for embryo transfer or icsi. I do know it is super expensive and that some would advise otherwise, but I really would like to try.

Ideally, I would love to add some height and am looking for a fancy mover and good mind, but athletic enough to have some scope. She is AQHA registered (no TBs in her pedigree for multiple gens), so my initial thought was a TB daddy would be great, but I am realizing they can be tough to come by outside of racing. Suggestions would be AMAZING! QHs are fine too - especially with the tb blood in a lot of the huntseat sires. I just do not want to veer too far over into the western pleasure-types, as jumping is a priority. My mare has a cute jump and is super smart. A nice mover and good temperament are also priorities.

Anyways, thank you so much in advance!

Also, last minute additions - Needs to be AI (shipped cooled or potentially frozen if we go the icsi route) & I do have a deposit down for a recip mare.

[NancyM]

Your instinct to go TB is the best option, IMO. But I am a TB person, both for racing and sport. The problem is that unless someone is standing a TB stallion primarily for sport (which is a bit rare these days), AI is usually not something that we play with. I have stood a TB stallion for both sport and racing, but kept away from engaging in any AI. I just would not play those “rich people games”. And besides… I wanted to know what mares were going to be bred by my stallion, not just ship semen off to inseminate something with a uterus.
Which means you are probably looking at live cover, not AI. Which may be in issue for you and your mare. But is much more affordable to use.
Smaller race breeding farms may have a stallion who is declining in local popularity with race breeders, who may be available to breed non TB mares. Such a stallion, in the “old days” would by this time of life have possibly established a local record of his offspring jumping at the local shows, which would be helpful to you in making your decision to use him. But these days, this doesn’t happen in the same way any more. So you are more likely choosing blindly, with little or no local information about jumping ability in available “not busy” TB stallions.

Good luck! I’d start by trying to find ANY TB stallion who is standing with AI capabilities, if that’s the way you must go. There isn’t going to be a lot of choice.

[GraceLikeRain]

Could considering an appendix stallion with a lot of tb blood open up options?

[jvanrens]

@GraceLikeRain

Could considering an appendix stallion with a lot of tb blood open up options?

This is likely a direction I would research as well if finding a good TB is a challenge. If you want the foal registered AQHA you would also need to find a breeder that will submit a breeding report to AQHA as well.

I’d start poking around in show results like from the world show and see what sort of bloodlines were common in the working hunter classes.
https://www.quarterhorsecongress.net/results/23results/IXDiscWH.htm

[Montanas_Girl]

@GraceLikeRain

Could considering an appendix stallion with a lot of tb blood open up options?

This is the direction I’d go if I were the OP. Look for the top sires of successful working hunters. There may still be a lean towards “wenglish” types, but they will be slightly more forward moving than the HUS horses are. And be prepared to look past some of the training and presentation to see what the horse’s natural style is - often that is more forward and elevated.

[4horses]

Could you look at APHA stallions and register the offspring as APHA? My APHA mare is about 25 percent thoroughbred and you can definitely see it.

Otherwise I would suggest live cover.

[McGurk]

Please look at Raven Sky.

Raven Sky — M-S Sporthorses

TB, but they absolutely do AI and cooled. I’ve seen a bunch of his babies and they all seem to have his temperament and substance.

I considered taking my ISH mare to him but chickened out. I still think it would be a lovely cross.

[Phinn336]

Thank you very much for your insight on my breeding conundrum! Just in looking through previous (dated) threads related to this topic, it was evident that there are a good deal of highly experienced breeders for various disciplines on here, and I figured this forum could be a great tool in refining my search!

I have not personally had any involvement in TB breeding, but I have been doing a good bit of research and am starting to piece some stuff together!

So TB wise, I do have a lengthy list of horses that caught my eye (including: deceased stallions whose progeny have done well in sport, a few current Sport Horse TBs that are / were competing successfully, and some current TBs whose progeny / descendants are competing successfully. I had decided to hold off on mentioning said horses because I just wanted to see if anyone has any suggestions that I may be unaware of, but I do plan to add in some names of potential stallion candidates in another comment in a week or so!

I really appreciate that you have insight from both sides of it (breeding for race and sport), and I was wondering if you might be okay with me tagging you in the future comment with the names of the (TB) horses that stood out to me (probably will add in a few days to a week in a comment (depending if there’s much more feedback or traction in the meantime). I would love to see if you are familiar with any of them and could provide some objective feedback if any of the names ring a bell!

Also, do you mind me asking if you feel it would be inappropriate for me to reach out to a couple of TB race breeding farms (primarily in my area) to see if there is any chance that they might consider collection (fresh cooled or possibly frozen) for a quarter horse. Unfortunately, she is not a candidate for live cover, and I totally understand that’s where it starts getting a tough with TB sires and JC registration.

I may have mentioned this in the original post, but we are located in North Texas, within reasonable driving distance of both Weatherford and Pilot Point, so that part is nice! Equiembryo (sp??) is super close as well!

Anyways, thank you so much again!

• Erin -

[Laurierace]

How do you feel about a pony? There are few horses on the planet that can move as nicely as a top pony

[NancyM]

The advice from McGurk is the best option. As I said, MOST TB breeders do not offer AI. If you need to use AI, here is one of the few TB stallions that offer it, and apparently the stallion’s offspring are showing success in sport pursuits. There won’t be many others to choose from. Sport breeders have bought into “sport specific” breeds… “warmbloods”. If you want TB, and you want AI, the pool of potential candidates will be small. I’m in Canada, a long ways from your reality.

Stallions who have done a lot of AI, often simply have never bred a live mare, and their handlers do not want them to try. Stallions who breed live mares often will not cooperate to be “collected” for AI, they will not mount a dummy and ejaculate into a sleeve. So it’s kinda one or the other. Since basically ALL TB stallions (other than the few that breed for sport and do AI) are live cover only, there is no “frozen semen” that can continue to be used after the horse’s death. Even if you find a TB stallion who has successfully sired sport horses, once he’s deceased, he’s gone from being available for you (unless he has been collected and frozen- which he probably has not been, if he’s siring race horses). All racing breeding is done LIVE COVER ONLY. If you want to do AI, it must be with a stallion who is engaged in being collected, and whose breeding is done by AI. This is NOT AVAILABLE in the racing industry. Strictly prohibited. I would really think that “Raven Sky” sounds like one of the very few TBs who are being collected and being offered AI, AND who apparently have been successful in sport disciplines.

[sandsarita]

I’m an AQHA girl who shows the hunters and breeds for AQHA hunters. What specifically are you looking to improve on your mare? Just height, or need more stride length, temperament, flatness of knee etc?

If you are looking pure hunter the first two are the two hunter stallions that Robin degraff stands. The name starts with DGF…. The brown is my favorite. I’m sure there is a ton of video of him showing. I don’t think any of his foals have quite made it to the show pen yet.

I’ve been crossing to Easy on the Eyez. Super quiet foals, great movers that just improved on what the mare had to offer. The first foals are showing on the flat and are just amazing. I can’t wait for mine to be able to jump

If there is semen available allocate your assets has a ton of foals that have done great in the hunter pen. He passed this year though. They are later to mature and can be quirky but are great horses.

If I think of others that are more tb like I’ll try to come back and add on to this. Also wanted to add im just north of you in southern Oklahoma so hi neighbor!

[cripplecreekfrm]

I bred my TB mare to Theres No Telling and got a lovely filly in 2022. Looking at his pedigree he is basically 1/2 TB and got his full AQHA papers through performance. He tends to throw height. He is a lovely mover and I love my filly’s movement and temperament. If you are looking to stay with a foal that can be registered I would recommend going with one of the english riding bred AQHA stallions. DGS Replicated and DGS Vintage are very popular right now as well as UnForgettable ( al lthree of these stallions all had a over fences career)and you can never go wrong with any stallion that had Truly Priceless close in their pedigree. Truly Priceless has passed and I am not sure what the status of his frozen semen is currently but I know there there were some foals by him born this year so there has to be some out there.

[weixiao]

How much height are you looking to add? How tall are her parents? At her height I think you do run a larger “risk” of getting something in the “hony” 14.3-15.1 hand range and for the h/j market, if you have to sell the foal in the future, that’s a tough spot to be in. I don’t know about the breed show circuit, so that may be different there. Just something that is worth considering.

Some nice TB stallions that come to mind that are available to sport breeders are Saketini and Hollywood Handsome. Road to Happiness was also standing in the US a couple of years ago and has been very interesting as a sport horse stallion. I thought he was available through EMCO Stallion Services but I don’t see him on their website anymore. Might be worth reaching out because he was a lovely jumper. If frozen is an option, Future Prophecy is available through them and his pedigree is lovely. He is a FFS carrier so you’d need to test your mare.

[Montanas_Girl]

OP, do you mind sharing your mare’s pedigree? I know you called her “cutting bred” in the first post, but a lot of people say that and then the pedigree actually turns out to be something else entirely. (Not meant as a slight against you but rather something that commonly happens, especially on this board where people in general are less familiar with QH bloodlines.) Depending on how she’s bred, you may have a good chance of getting more size in the next generation or absolutely no chance at all.

[Phinn336]

Certainly! So she was actually a PMU foal that we got at 4-months-old. A local saddle club was planning to auction off a PMU foal to raise funds after 9/11, and my Mom came home with my sweet little girl.

Actually, if anyone is familiar, I would be interested to find out more about where she came from. She has an underlined OC brand on her left haunches.

Ideally, some height would be nice, but that’s not to say I would be disappointed if it was a copy-paste situation, as she is a total dollface and would be perfect for any theoretical future kiddos of my own. Definitely no intentions to sell!

[Montanas_Girl]

As I suspected, she is not cutting bred. A mix of running and halter bred on top and then mostly foundation breeding on the bottom. You should be able to “breed up” for more size from that pedigree, I would think. At least more size than her, anyway!

[Phinn336]

Thank you so much for your thoroughbred suggestions and feedback!

You do make a good point about the potential of ending up with a hony-type! I definitely plan to keep the baby regardless of size. If it ends up on the smaller side, it will probably end up being a youth horse for my theoretical future kid(s)!

I do have several of the tbs you mentioned on my list! One that I have on my list but can’t seem to track down is Well Said. Do you happen to be familiar with him? I think he’s in Canada (if he’s still standing), and I am not sure that he is AQHA approved, but he is one I am interested in finding out more about!

[LaurieB]

Saketini was mentioned above, here’s a link to his page: Saketini Stallion

[paint_hunter]

Lovely stallion.

[jvanrens]

Agreed. But nothing (based off the pictures on his website) says breed to my QH for a hunter though.