Is my mare too small for stallion

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I have a 13hh New forest x Cob mare who i am thinking of sending to stud but the stallion i want to use is 15.2hh but a lightweight sports horse type.

Do you think the mare is too small? Ideally i am wanting the foal to mature around 14.2hh.

Thanks
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My 15hh stallion served my 12.2hh mare. No problems during pregnancy or birth. We were hoping for a 13.2hh - 14hh but I think our filly will only make about 13hh. That doesn't matter though as this filly will never be for sale and will still be ridden when she is a "big" girl.
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I have a 13hh New forest x Cob mare who i am thinking of sending to stud but the stallion i want to use is 15.2hh but a lightweight sports horse type.

Do you think the mare is too small? Ideally i am wanting the foal to mature around 14.2hh.


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I am always reluctant to advise on this subject because it's such a lottery! Some people (even some vets who should know better!) say the mare will 'limit' the size of the foal. Frankly - this is rubbish! If it were true, repro vets would have a very easy time during foaling - and they don't! And the MAIN cause of dystocia is NOT mispresentations - it is simply that the foal is too big for the mare's pelvis! I have seen 2 foals removed in bits for exactly that reason - it's a horrible experience for everyone concerned!

A mare MAY foal early if the foal is getting too big - it MAY be mature enough to survive. A mare may also prolapse or rupture if the foal gets too big. These are not very satisfactory methods of the mare 'limiting' the size of the foal.

That said, if your mare is a stocky type with a good broad back-end - and the stallion is lightweight (and his parents are similar types!!) you SHOULD be ok. But I would be particularly careful not to let the mare get too fat during pregnancy - that is the other major cause of foaling difficulties.

As to eventual height, it would be nice to think you get an 'average' of the size of sire and dam. Sometimes you do - just as often you don't. I have a 2 year old out of a 15.2 mare by a 17 hh stallion (both RID). The colt is just over 16.2 now and will be bigger than his sire when he is fully grown! (He already towers over Mum!)
 
My mare got out when she was three rising four and just barely 14 HH (she has since grown an inch or two) and had her first fling with my neighbors 16+ HH QH ( a huge old beast -- thankfully though with a lovely disposition).
She did foal about 2 weeks early; but even so delivered a HUGE filly foal with little difficulty. We had the vet out to take a look at the foal the next morning cause the poor lil dear was kinda walking on her hocks (hard to describe). He told us to watch her but by the next day she was up and on her hooves properly. He thought that she was just so skrinched up in there before birth that her legs just needed more time to unfold. (!) We sold her as a yearling and she was almost 15 HH at the time.
 
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My mare got out when she was three rising four and just barely 14 HH (she has since grown an inch or two) and had her first fling with my neighbors 16+ HH QH ( a huge old beast -- thankfully though with a lovely disposition).
She did foal about 2 weeks early; but even so delivered a HUGE filly foal with little difficulty. We had the vet out to take a look at the foal the next morning cause the poor lil dear was kinda walking on her hocks (hard to describe). He told us to watch her but by the next day she was up and on her hooves properly. He thought that she was just so skrinched up in there before birth that her legs just needed more time to unfold. (!) We sold her as a yearling and she was almost 15 HH at the time.

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Young mares tend to deliver BIG foals easier - their pelvis is still 'soft'. Older mares having a first BIG foal have a much rougher time.

Wonky legs are very common in over-sized foals - either very down on the pasterns - or contracted tendons with the hooves knuckling under - I call it 'over-cooked'! They usually come right very quickly.
 
My 12.2hh mare foaled 2 weeks after average due date. No problems foaling and foal was correct size. Mare was 14 years old when she foaled and hadn't had a foal for 10 years.

Sometimes these things are just against you but more often than not, there are no problems.
 
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Sometimes these things are just against you but more often than not, there are no problems.

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And you REALLY want people to take the chance that they'll be unlucky - and have to watch the vet pull pieces of a dead foal out of their much-loved mare!!! Just because some people get away with it, doesn't make it sensible!

Every year I get people wanting to send 15 h TB-type mares to my BIG 17 hh RID stallion. I suggest they speak to their vet and if HE tells me it'll be fine, I'll take the mare. Funnily enough, no vets have disagreed with me yet when it comes to a mare THEY'll have to foal down (or perform an embryotomy on!) There are quite enough risks in breeding without adding to them!
 
I've wondered a lot about this myself, and I suspect that the build (breadth if hips / shoulders ) of stallion and actual body size (as opposed to height) of mare need to be taken into account. I wonder if some breeds of stallions are more prone to cause problems than others.

However I do think that some individual stallions get big foals, and maybe if you have any doubts (maiden mare, narrow mare, small mare) its best to look at what the stallion has produced already & avoid these. The individual male has apparently been proven to affect size of offspring in sheep AND in humans & I think personally it could be the same in horses.
 
I've always thought you get more predictable, and to some extent 'safer' results when you breed like with like...so approx same height, build, etc....avoiding two horses with the same weak points, obviously.
I'd be reluctant to go too much bigger or smaller for a stallion.
I did once work with a Highland pony x Shetland....if I tell you his name was 'Stumpy', I'm sure you can guess whose body and whose legs he'd inherited....
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S
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I'm no expert on these things, but these things can turn out in a very peculiar way, the YO put her 16.1/ 16.2 mare to a 15.2 stallion and the filly that was born now stands at around 17hh and is now 3, she was also huge as a foal, so you can never tell!
 
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I did once work with a Highland pony x Shetland....if I tell you his name was 'Stumpy', I'm sure you can guess whose body and whose legs he'd inherited....

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How on earth did they.... er...

Although my 16hh TB did have a 13.2hh gelding friend who had not lost all of his colty instincts and I once saw her stand in a ditch for his benefit.

Sorry, I seem to have lowered the tone here.
 
I'm quite interested in some of the replies, when I looked at putting my 12hh mare in foal earlier this year I was warned against anything bigger than 13.2 on pain of death lol

I didnt bother in the end as I wanted something bigger but then as already said you cant tell till after the event.
 
A friend of mine used to own a pony, which was 13hh its father was a huge 17h cleavland bay, its mother, a shetland! this was accidental by the way!
 
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I've always thought you get more predictable, and to some extent 'safer' results when you breed like with like...so approx same height, build, etc....avoiding two horses with the same weak points, obviously.
I'd be reluctant to go too much bigger or smaller for a stallion.


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Totally agree, IMO this is the only way to have any degree of certainty in the outcome. But I would go further and check on the sizes the next generation back too, just to be sure there isn't some enormous throwback potential.
 
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