Stallions to cross with Draft mare?

[kookicat]

[QUOTE=Megan;7061896]
I’m sorry to be confusing. Where I am from, even bay appies are considered “colored” at least by most people.
ETA - By colored, I ment patterned, I should have clarified. I don’t care to get a “dunalino leopard majikal draft” ya know?

Although I understand your points. Traveling to Canada or wherever to look for a foal to haul back south, or even a yearling, is just as big of a risk in my opinion. Shipping fever, lice, mites, anything they can get from being shipped with other horses that are in less than stellar conditions. Colic from stress of traveling that much. Anything could happen in either situation.

This is not set in stone yet, however, I would like to find hypothetical studs for her. Talk it over with her owner, who is an experienced breeder, and get her opinion about the possible crosses and how she feels about it.

I know I cannot possibly find every sport-horse type appaloosa out their and was hoping for some help.[/QUOTE]

Anything can happen when breeding a mare too. You only have to look in the sport horse breeding forum to see that.

Buy a nice young horse that’s what you want.

[Skyedragon]

[QUOTE=stoicfish;7061838]

BTW - I own a wonderful draft cross as well but I wouldn’t try and breed for him. He would be harder to get than a above average WB because he is more of a fluke and they are predictable.[/QUOTE]

I am leasing a draft cross gelding that is a total fluke too. I don’t think there would be any way to reproduce him! TWH x Belgian and is turning into a brilliant sport horse. I was considering buying a Appaloosa x Belgian but am starting to have second thoughts on that one. She is a lot heavy built and a lot less athletic. These two horses have made me fall in love with draft crosses, but I don’t think I would try to breed for one. Like I said it is totally up in the air about what you might get. You might get a wonderfully put together horse, or you might get one with a big body and little legs, or a little body and a huge head, etc.

And we are all totally ignoring the “what makes your mare worthy of breeding” question too. There are so many horses in need of homes right now, what makes your mare worthy?

[Skyedragon]

[QUOTE=CuriosoJorge;7060252]
Is that like shooting fish in a barrel?[/QUOTE]

Yes, only a lot harder.

[Foxtrot_s]

I think the Canadian suggestion was because there are still PMU foals being bred from Draft crosses, some with well bred light horse stallions. (I actually missed the original suggestion up there somewhere). Not a bad idea, cheaper, and you get to see the product.

[horsetales]

Again, not going to give you spots, but could find color with pinto, palomino etc. with an ASB. I have seen a fair number of very nice saddlebred x draft. http://modernsporthorses.com/marshall.html

[JB]

It really would help a ton to see a confo pic of the OP’s mare

I DO agree that there are some nice ASB stallions who have produced very nice offspring from draft mares. I don’t know of any Belgian dams, just Percheron and Clydesdale. Flying W farms has produced some pretty nice crosses of this nature with their ASB stallion and Perch and Clyde mares. Maybe you should look into that farm, see if they can put you in touch with any MOs who bred this type of cross and see what’s out there.

[Sheila_A]

Since you are window shopping here are a couple of windows that you may want to look in:

For spots, Avalon Equine’s Colorado Skrødstrup. He is only 15.3, so not quite as tall as you are looking for, but he is a really neat stallion with an amazing disposition and he is very rideable. I do not know if he has produced any draft cross foals but Kathy could probably tell you. Here is his page: http://www.avalon-equine.com/colorado-skroslashdstrup.html

Also, not sure if you are looking for pinto spots but Crestline Farm has several excellent pinto stallions including Pallido Blu who has a really nice draft cross foal this year and he is homozygous tobiano so he will give you color, pinto color: http://www.crestlinefarm.com/06pallidoblu.htm

Sempatico is also homozygous tobiano and he has produces a variety of very nice foals: http://www.silverwoodfarm.com/sempatico.html

Good luck with whatever you decide.

[TrueColours]

Thanks for the ![](uaranteed Gold suggestion. He WILL 100% produce the dilute colour and he HAS produced a whack of Bend Or spots on some of his babies, but not quite the same thing as “Appy” spots for sure!

This weanling colt was out of a plain bay Holsteiner / Morgan cross mare. Nary a spot ANYWHERE in her background!

[IMG]http://i1180.photobucket.com/albums/x413/TrueColoursFarm/Guaranteed%20Gold/GG-Bentley-Oct07-2_zpse713500c.jpg)

Here is also a link to his Foal Page where you can see pictures of his Draft cross foals - some out of Belgian mares as well

http://www.truecoloursfarm.com/news/?page_id=21

Funnily enough, we have a Percheron / Appy cross mare in for breeding now to Guaranteed Gold. Adorably cute and VERY spotted. It will be fun to see what she produces in 2014

Also - many years ago when I was buying and selling a lot of horses, I bought an Appy / Percheron cross gelding that was a jaw dropping mover. He ended up selling to a dressage rider who loved his “baroque” look. Last I heard he was schooling PSG. No idea how far he went in the action competitions, but he was a really amazing athlete especially considering his breeding

Good luck in your hunt and in your stallion choice

[ChelseaR]

Something really important when evaluating draft cross babies from other stallions:
You have to look at examples that are 6+ years old. Beautiful, athletic looking young draft crosses can thicken up in the front end and become a lot less suitable as sport horses between 4-6.
You really cannot tell true suitability by looking at baby pictures when evaluating draft breed horses for sports like jumping and dressage.

[florida_foxhunter]

My black homozygous (for Tobiano pinto) 16.2h stallion, Counterclaim, was bred to a Percheron mare a few years ago and had the CUTEST foal! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to follow him after his weanling stage! He is pictured below.

Counterclaim is 75% TB (linebred to 3 HOTH TB’s…great horses) and has a fantastic disposition. There are many mare owners who can give great references to his disposition…

He was bred to two full Friesian mares this spring too…Can’t wait to see those black pinto foals next spring!

I know a 3/4 TB, 1/4 draft type horse (especially with color) is very popular in the foxhunting field!

[JWB]

Just one thing to add, since you don’t own the mare. If I WAS going to breed a draft cross, I would probably go for a Percheron instead of a Belgian. We trained a BUNCH of PMU draft/stock horse crosses (mostly draft mares crossed to paint stallions) and the Percheron crosses were always much more athletic than the Belgian crosses. There was one freakishly nice Belgian cross, but he was sort of an outlier. The Percheron crosses typically always at least jumped well, and they had enough refinement behind them that many ended up doing reasonably well in dressage as well. By reasonably well, I mean they were good pony club/hunt horses. They were capable enough to do some novice/training level eventing…

I think the reason you’re not finding the answers you want here is that the goals of most people on this board are not to produce low level horses. People here are more geared toward producing actual upper level sport horses.

[columbus]

Perhaps this is a horse that would interest you. He was a rescu that was given some training and is now looking for a good home. The gal who has trained him does a wonderful job getting her starts out and about and ready fo getting serious. http://www.horseclicks.com/half-irish-draught-appaloosa/horses/434200

[_Tradewind]

[QUOTE=columbus;7071032]
Perhaps this is a horse that would interest you. He was a rescu that was given some training and is now looking for a good home. The gal who has trained him does a wonderful job getting her starts out and about and ready fo getting serious. http://www.horseclicks.com/half-irish-draught-appaloosa/horses/434200[/QUOTE]

Good find, columbus! OP, this looks like something you should consider. The Irish Draught will give you the substance and the temperament you’re looking for in the draft, yet will likely be a higher quality sport type than you would get from breeding a Belgian.

[Skyedragon]

[QUOTE=Sheila A;7064123]
Since you are window shopping here are a couple of windows that you may want to look in:

For spots, Avalon Equine’s Colorado Skrødstrup. He is only 15.3, so not quite as tall as you are looking for, but he is a really neat stallion with an amazing disposition and he is very rideable. I do not know if he has produced any draft cross foals but Kathy could probably tell you. Here is his page: http://www.avalon-equine.com/colorado-skroslashdstrup.html

Also, not sure if you are looking for pinto spots but Crestline Farm has several excellent pinto stallions including Pallido Blu who has a really nice draft cross foal this year and he is homozygous tobiano so he will give you color, pinto color: http://www.crestlinefarm.com/06pallidoblu.htm

Sempatico is also homozygous tobiano and he has produces a variety of very nice foals: http://www.silverwoodfarm.com/sempatico.html

Good luck with whatever you decide.[/QUOTE]

I have personally seen a Sempatico baby that turned out lovely despite the mare being what I would consider less than breeding quality. Kind of funky proprotions and a very old school warmblood look (more drafty than the newer types). And how could I forget about Colorado! I love him. As far as I know he hasn’t produced any draft crosses, however the owner is a member on another forums that I am on and seems super nice with a lot of knowledge.

[Fred]

[QUOTE=columbus;7071032]
Perhaps this is a horse that would interest you. He was a rescu that was given some training and is now looking for a good home. The gal who has trained him does a wonderful job getting her starts out and about and ready fo getting serious. http://www.horseclicks.com/half-irish-draught-appaloosa/horses/434200[/QUOTE]

What a cute horse, columbus. Worth a look, OP!

[columbus]

This is fun…

this is a gelding by the same sire(Kilpeck DIamond Knight RID) as the Appaloosa Irish Draught cross at his first big cross country schooling away trip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO4BqMnNfB8&feature=youtu.be
This guy is out of a TB mare I believe. The KDKs are running big. PatO

[JWB]

[QUOTE=columbus;7071032]
Perhaps this is a horse that would interest you. He was a rescu that was given some training and is now looking for a good home. The gal who has trained him does a wonderful job getting her starts out and about and ready fo getting serious. http://www.horseclicks.com/half-irish-draught-appaloosa/horses/434200[/QUOTE]

Oooh! I’d buy this before I’d try to breed my own. Much rather start with a RID mare than a Belgian!

[appdream]

Megan, you see that you are getting the same advice here, as you did from the groups that you asked on FB. You might not like the answers, but everyone is telling you the truth.

The Irish Draught /Appaloosa cross would a much better buy! You are going to have that much in the breeding and the mare before the foal is born. Then you will have the expense of raising the foal until it is old enough to ride.

You might want to take a closer look at the pedigree of the two stallions you mentioned here. The granddam of both of them was only 14.3 hands. There are photos of her on the internet that shows how small she is.