Who here has crossed an Arabian with a sporthorse/sport pony....

[RTF]

I bought a very nice, although smaller, Arabian mare. Her pedigree is sport horse solid, and she goes back to all of the older crabbett bloodlines. She doesn’t even look like an Arabian to be honest, she is pretty, correct, and a good mover. She does not have the dished face, or the very flat croup. Her temperment is lovely, and the original owners worked her in many different ways. I do not take breeding lightly, and when I do decide to breed, I really research to make the best decisions possible. She is an older mare, and has never been bred. I would not pursue breeding her to a purebred Arabian. I would want more lift to her trot, more jump to her canter, maybe a little more substance and size, and to keep her great mind, long stride, and correctness.

I would think she would be nice enough to get approval as a sport pony through inspections. Anyone here crossed a purebred Arabian with a sport pony? Maybe a Connemara? Any other breeds to think about? I also like the idea of a possibly warmblood cross, if the stallion was smaller. She’s not quite 14.2 though, and not sure if I would risk a maiden, unless the stallion was on the shorter side and refined.

[ladyj79]

Not uncommon at all, either the arab/wb cross or the arab pony cross, although I would go with a welsh or a grp or similar. Lots of great options out there.

That said, we have a few threads on here about these arab/wb crosses, pony-type is probably there and a similar response, you might want to review those threads if you are thinking of breeding for anything other than your own personal horse.

[JER]

Given what you’re looking for, you might consider breeding to a Dutch Harness Horse. They cross well with Arabians and have big gaits for not-so-big horses.

[exvet]

It depends on what you’re shooting for but I’ve known several very nice welsh x arab crosses, most were bred to section Bs. I’ve had two over the years and both stayed pony. The Arab bloodlines were almost all crabbet.

[Marla_100]

We used to have a pony dressage poster here “Hot Lips” that has had a couple phenomenal imported dressage pony stallions. One stallion “Golden State” has son a lot since being imported to California. To get the lift you want and smaller size I would look at strictly dressage bred ponies., or very small warmbloods.

Golden State has a FB page, breeder is RoselaneSporthorses.com

[JB]

Avalon Equine has a few stallions I think would be excellent crosses on a nice Crabbet-bred Arab mare.

[RTF]

I actually considered Golden State, if I decide to breed. The Dutch harness horses, are definitely too large to breed to this particular Arabian mare.

[neversaynever]

I had two WBx out of my full Arab mare. She has Crabbet and Polish lines, not the finer halter type horse, and stands maybe 14.3H on a good day. Both WB stallions are 16.3H, one jumper bred and one dressage. The resulting offspring are 15H and 15.1H. The latter is just turning 5 yrs old and may top out at 15.2H. My mare has a lovely temperament, a good walk with nice overreach and a phenomenal trot that she seems to have passed on to her foals. The stallions added a little bit of height, a better canter and more swing. The 15H one has a lot of substance/bone (5’10"-5’11" does not look small on her at all) and is on the “lazy” side, the other is more refined with a great work ethic. Both did very well at their WB inspections. Unless you a definitely looking for pony-size, don’t discount a larger stallion.

[RMSSport]

Not going to lie, about 80% of the Arab/WB crosses we’ve had have been psychotic, but that being said the lowest dressage level they had gotten to was 3rd, the highest being Grand Prix. I personally like them (psychotic and all) but I think if you’re not extremely careful picking a stallion and assessing your mare truthfully it could be a disaster. Look for stallions that have been crossed with Arabs before and have created nice babies. Consider QH too, the QH/Arab crossss I’ve worked with have seriously had the best personalities and the easiest horses to work with