Breeding advice?

PrettyLittleLiar

PrettyLittleLiar

Member
Joined
1 April 2013
Messages
16
Visit site
Hi! So I'm thinking of breeding from my mare after an injury has stopped her from continuing a showing career, (vet has assured me that she will be able to carry and birth a foal no problem). My issue is that she is cremello. I know that with cremello horses you have to be careful with the colour stallion you breed with but I don't know what colours she would be ok with. I know a homozygous would be ok but iis there any others, or any that I should definitely stay away from?
Thanks.
 
The obvious choice from a colour perspective would be to go for a chestnut stallion as then you would get a palomino foal. A bay stallion that is homozygous for black and agouti would result in a buckskin foal.

Does you mare have grey 'hidden' by the double cream (she would need a grey parent for that to be possible)? You need to avoid having a foal with two copies of cream and one/two copies of grey, so I would avoid a stallion with cream and grey.

Whether or not you should actually breed from her is another issue of course. You will need to think carefully about your financial situation, are her conformation and temperament good enough and what would you do if things went wrong.
 
Given the reason for her unsoundness is down, at least in part, to her conformation what would the foal be like if that was inherited?

As it is late for covering this season give her some time in the field to consider stallions for next year. What is her breeding? Colour wise a bright chestnut would give only a palomino foal.Breed & size is down to what she is.
 
She injured her tendon in the field, it wasn't bad but as I was ill and didn't see her for months, my friend who was watching her saw that she was sound and thought she was fine. Eventually we found out that she had injured her pastern but it had healed wrong so that caused her to be lame. Months of box rest and scans and an operation later, she came completely sound and was back to normal but she injured her leg again so I have decided to retire her, at least semi retire, from being ridden. The vet actually recommended putting her in foal because she is a lovely horse and is a very nice shape with a gorgeous temperament.
She is a 14.2hh connieXirish sports pony. I'm not 100% on putting her in foal yet, just thinking about it.

Her dam was a grey and i'm not sure about her sire so she will have the grey 'hidden' by the cream genes.
Thank you for your replies:)!
 
PrettyLittleLiar said:
The vet actually recommended putting her in foal because she is a lovely horse and is a very nice shape with a gorgeous temperament.
She is a 14.2hh connieXirish sports pony.
Click to expand...

They always do. They know they will be getting several large payouts from it. Of all the people who should be responsible, you'd think vets would be.

There are lots of horses and ponies who are very lovely - that doesn't mean they should all have foals. Please don't breed - there are so many out there already needing homes.
 
A word of warning.
We put my lovely ish mare in foal due to lameness ridden. She carried the foal just fine, she foaled fine, but the foal didn't suckle quickly as she was sore and a maiden and to cut a long sad story short we lost the foal to septicaemia within 36 hours even with vet intervention within hours of the birth. We have a hefty vet bill to show for it. So my advice to anyone breeding is consider it not just from the ethical viewing and the fact the mare is well bred or proven so worthy of breeding from, but most importantly can you afford to breed?

You can run up a several thousand pound bill trying to save a sick foal and still lose it. There are also so many mare deaths in foaling as I found out when I joined the orphan foal sites to offer my mare for fostering.
Sadly those who let colts loose with fillies and breed willy nilly seem to get away with successful foaling of foals with no future and those who do it absolutely as correctly as they can seem to be the ones who fail.
 
Last edited:
I'm just thinking about it for now. I know there are a lot of beautiful horses that need homes, but I would be breeding and keeping the foal to eventually become my competition horse, not breeding to sell. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top