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 Veteran
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| If you are looking for a stallion to add some size to a smaller built mare, how big of a difference do you feel comfortable with? What about if she is a maiden? |
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  Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
 
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | 14.2 mare bred to a 15.2 stallion will usually get you 14.3-15 hand horse. Just my experience. |
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 Reaching for the stars....
Posts: 12708
 
| I bred a refined cutting mare 14.3 hands tall to a bulldog built but racing bred stallion 14.2 hands tall and got a 15.3 hand big built colt. Same sire bred to an average built 15.1 racing bred mare resulted in a 14.1 hand filly. Same sire bred to a 15.2 hand very big built race mare resulted in an average 15.1 hand filly.
My other stallion, a 15.1 hand heavy built, Zan Par Bar gs, throws nothing shorter than himself and up to 16 hands, all big built, no matter what mare size or heigth he is bred to. |
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Veteran
Posts: 158
| Sorry I should have been clearer- I'm concerned about breeding her to too large of a stallion and having issues with a giant foal, she is pretty petite and is also a maiden, I've heard they will usually have smaller foals as a maiden, sort of natures way of protecting the momma? Is this true? |
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Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | gunner07 - 2017-03-26 8:48 AM
Sorry I should have been clearer- I'm concerned about breeding her to too large of a stallion and having issues with a giant foal, she is pretty petite and is also a maiden, I've heard they will usually have smaller foals as a maiden, sort of natures way of protecting the momma? Is this true?
I have always heard that the mare will carry a foal that she can have. It's not like calving with needing a lower birth weight bull. |
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Veteran
Posts: 233
| Horses are like humans. Unless there is an underlying metabolic disorder, the body won't grow a baby it can't deliver in the vast majority of cases. |
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Reaching for the stars....
Posts: 12708
| gunner07 - 2017-03-26 10:48 AM Sorry I should have been clearer- I'm concerned about breeding her to too large of a stallion and having issues with a giant foal, she is pretty petite and is also a maiden, I've heard they will usually have smaller foals as a maiden, sort of natures way of protecting the momma? Is this true?
For the most part yes, mare's will not grow a foal too big for them to foal out. How big it turns out in the end does not relate to how big the foal is born - as in you can have a pip-squeek foal turn into a very large horse. Sometimes a mare's maiden foal will be smaller, sometimes not. I had to cut a large foal out of a maiden once (episiotomy, not c-section), so it's not an always thing.
I would not let your mare being small or a maiden stop you from chosing the best cross for her.
I worked for a breeding farm breeding TB mares to Shire stallions. The resulting offspring were HUGE - but not at birth. A few tough births, but no complications. The only orphan happened because of a more typical mare issue (ruptured uterine artery). |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 380
| In most cases I don't think size is too much of an issue except when the mare is artificially small. Like stunted from not having good care when they were young. I had a mare like that and she did have trouble foaling one and that was a big baby compared to her size. I had to help towards the end of her pushing because we were going on an hour of pushing and out of my comfort zone. |
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