height of a stallion?

[ilovecobs]

Im just wandering really, how much say on the height of the foal does the stallion have and the same for the mare? And also i was curious as to if a stallion is huge like 18.2 hands and a chunky sort as-well, could this be damaging to a chunky 16 hands mare? (I used my mare as an example, i would like to breed from her one day in the distant future and was just curious)

Thanks for reading

 

[Enfys]

I think it varies hugely, I usually take a halfway point between the two, eg, a 14h mare and a 15h stallion, I'd guestimate at a 14.2h - 15h foal at maturity.

I have a filly here now, out of a 16h mare by a 13h (so I was told) stallion, I'd guess at 15h at maturity, give or take a bit.

There is some sort of string test to get an approx height, but I've never used it so couldn't say how to do it or how accurate it is.

 

[Dexter]

I've got a 14month old colt here who is out of a 14.2hh mare by a 17.2hh stallion, not my choice! Hes already a good 14 hands and while I'm hoping he makes a nice 15hander I think we are looking at more like 16hands+

 

[magic104]

On average I would agree mid way between dam & sire, but there always exceptions. My 15hh QHxWelsh 4yo stands just under 16.2hh by a 16.1hh Trak. Her breeding shows you have to go back several generations both sides to find horses over 15hh where as the Trak sire shows the grd sire Karon stood 16.3 as did Marduc his dam's sire. Yet the 15.3hh mare's offspring at 3yrs by a 16.1hh ISH by Coolcorron Cool Diamond who stood 17hh was just under 15hh.

PS, both mares are both roomy so plenty of room for the foal to have grown when inside. This was the 2nd foal for the 15hh mare & the 1st for the 15.3hh.

 

[KarynK]

Height at maturity has many influences some of which are genetic some not. So the heritability of height from the parents is affected by environmental factors so is relatively low.

Prof Twink Allen did some research on identical twin horse embryo's some years ago now, one was implanted in a horse and the other a pony. The surface area of the uterus available to the developing embryo in the pony was less than that of the horse and the twin from the pony never made up for that disadvantage reaching much less of a height at maturity than its sibling from the horse.

Also at the equine fertility unit at the time was a 13.2hh pure TB stallion. The reason for his unusual height was the damage that his dam had sustained to the lining of her uterus from a previous foaling, so he had received less nutrition much like if he had been a twin. He threw full height foals!

A 13.2 hh Quarter Horse cutting stallion bred to similar sized QH mare but ET'd into a large mare produced a 16hh + foal!

Technically you could breed a shire to a Shetland using AI of course and the mare would only produce a foal that she was capable of birthing (PLEASE DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME BTW). Equally a reverse of that mating could give you a very large Shetland!!

So you see that conditions in the uterus and subsequent nutrition at a young age can have quite a large effect on adult height over and above what is inherited.

 

[Kao]

I think there was a study at the University of California, where they bred Shires to Shetland mares and all the mares foaled fine.
The foal will only grow to the size of the uterus. But, I'd only go within a 3 hand mark of the mares height.
Also, the longer you leave it, the more risks will be involved as her hips will fuse when she's older.