Is she good enough to breed from?

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Charliexx

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My mare is a 10year old TB, and has been off work since June due to hindlimb suspensory problems. I am considering breeding from her but dont know if she is good enough to breed from. She was bred to race, although never made it as she didnt make the height they wanted, she is only 15.1hh.
I have a couple of photos of her, bear in mind she is standing on a slight uphill slope.
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If you think she is worth breeding from, do you have any stallion suggestions? I would like to get something a bit bigger, with more bone, and good feet.
 
She has a few conformational weaknesses and her feet look not great.

I wouldnt- there are plenty of tb mares being bred which have acheived more and proved their soundness but there isnt that much market for the babies unless theyre by a smart stallion and the damline shows some evidence of quality
 
Hi,
i have a TB mare also and i have had 2 wonderful foals from her, she is 12 years old also and a dark bay.
We put her to a hunter stallion first time and with her second we put her to a holstien stallion.
Your mare def looks good to breed from she looks amazing.
We had our mare checked out with the vet to make sure she was ok to breed from and never looked back. Good luck.
 
that depends on what you want to achieve?? if you want something to sell on with a career you need to look at her confirmation closely. she looks very upright behind to me - that would suggest weakness in joints/tendons? Was she useful before her injury - look at her strengths and see if they out weigh her confirmation issues? Not being critical of your mare, but there are thousands of horses with indescriminate breeding - many end up in charities or sales with little or no use - please bare this in mind when making up your mind
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I would like to get something that I could keep for myself as a general allround riding horse. Before her injury I was competing in unaff dressage, and she was doing well with her show jumping and XC. She has a very trainable attitude and loves her work. And she had never had any soundness issues until now. The vet has said that her injury is just general wear and tear, and shouldn't be an issue as far as breeding is concerned.
 
She looks in very good condition & a lovely type. Not sure the pictures are helping but she looks to have a short neck, and be over at the knee, with a weak front end also her pastern angle does not look great. I would think carefully before breeding her.

If you are breeding to keep then it matters less but there are a lot of average horses about AND, it will cost you a great deal to breed and keep a horse until it can be ridden. You might do better buying one you can work with sooner.

Also, I would be wary of just breeding from her as she no longer has a ridden career.
(and this is just my personal opinion so apologies if it sounds harsh).

Welcome to the forum by the way!
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Unless she has an heridatory conformation fault - which to be honest, can't really tell from the photos - there is no reason why you can't breed from her - especially if you're looking to breed for yourself. What is her bloodline because that will naturally have a bearing on who to go. As to being told she didn't make it because of her height at 15.1hh, that's absolutely rubbish - there are a lot of 15.1hh race horses (and smaller) and we know that for a fact because we've had them. Good luck and if you're looking for a small TB stallion (all-rounder) then PM me.
 
Conformation wise I think that (from the photos) she looks good (except maybe her pasterns and feet) on all but her back legs. However she probably has quite a lot of power from those back legs (they look similar to a lot of the QHs that I ride that have a lot of power just not a very active hind end).

Personally I would breed from her but I may go with warmblood stallion with really strong conformation and not too tall (and not the Sandro Hit sons as they throw tall and fine and they don't have the best walk).

If I were to look at stallions I might go for a sire such as Contendro (Holstein) or Axis (Trakehner) or any of the Donnerhall sons.

Hope this help.
 
If you pick the right stallion then I dont see why you should not breed from her. What is her breeding? What has she done with you? I have seen mare's with worse conformation then your's throw some very nice foals. Have you thought about getting her graded? Being a full TB you can either go BSHB or somewhere like the Trakhner society. How well does the mare move? What are you looking to breed? What sort of temperment does she have? There are lots of questions you need to ask. But take into account that you are very unlikely to make your money back. As for stallion she is TB you have a wide choice. Years ago I got a cracking filly from my TB mare using a full ID. I think if she has the temperment a Trakhner or Hanoverian would suit her. As you want to breed up I wont suggest a native, though that cross make very nice SJ especially the Welsh, Conni & NF cross. Good luck, but give it some real thought.
 
Thanks for all your replies.
Penniless, her bloodlines are, Dam is Black h'penny and Sire is Greensmith, who I understand is standing at stud in India.

magic104, She is a full TB, before she went lame I was doing a bit of everything with her with the intention of trying to event her. We had done a couple of unaff ODE's and she had shown great promise. Temperament wise she's great, very trainable, loving nature, loves people, and very trusting, although ther stubborn TB mare streak does show occassionaly, but she is generally very laid back. She moves fairly well, but not brilliantly, has quite a good jump on her. Ideally I would like to breed something that I could try and event, but I do enjoy the dressage side a lot, so would like to try and improve on her paces. Haven't ever thought about getting her graded, how would I go about doing that?
 
You have 2 options either put her forward in-foal or once she has foaled. You will have to use a graded stallion & if you use a Trak then you can (so long as you are a member, this applies to all socities) put her forward in Sept. Or you could wait until the foal it born, apply for membership & reg the foal in the same yr. Before you go ahead just contact the society concerned (or someone on here maybe able to confirm) how her injury may effect the result. You may have a problem if she trots up unlevel.
 
To be brutally honest, I would not breed from her if I were you. She is clearly a much-loved mare, with a very nice temperament, but IMO her conformation just isn't good enough. From the photos she appears to have a weak neck; straight shoulder; somewhat back at the knee; a very weak back end; straight hocks and poor feet. Her conformation has not stood up even to the relatively small amount of work that has been asked of her. And there is nothing distinguished about her competition record or her pedigree.

Sorry - I am being very harsh, but I think one has to be when making these decisions. I applaud you for having the guts to come on here and ask the question - and for recognizing that the mare might not be good enough to breed from.

Far too many people just go ahead breed from unsuitable mares, often because they are injured and the owners can't think what else to do with them. You are clearly genuinely concerned about making this mistake, and I really respect that.
 
Im not sure how you can make a proper judgement from a photo, but I was told not to breed from this mare & she went onto get Grade 1 with the old HIS & the judges comments were that the filly was outstanding;
Mare
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With the filly
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Grown up
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There is a bigger market place for the decent sane all rounder, as most of us are not able to ride a worldbeater.
 
I think you need to think long and hard. I actually like her - although she DOES have conformation faults - some perhaps accentuated by the way she's standing in the pics.

First, breeding a foal is hellishly expensive - (one mare owner told me - "Oh it's much cheaper for YOU because you have your own stallion!" It's not!) To put her to a nice, small RID (my recommendation for reasons I'll go into) will cost you in the region of £700 if you're lucky and she takes in the first two cycles. Then there's the cost of keeping her for 11 months, vaccinations for EHV, etc. Either sending her away to foal - or hiring a foaling alarm and taking time off work - will add another, say, £500! Chances are the foal will have cost you between £1,500 and £2,000 by the time it hits the ground - and you can buy a nice IDxTB weanling for that!

Of course there's vet's fees at foaling (one mare of mine had FOUR vet visits on foaling day thanks to complications and just ONE of the drugs she was given cost £80 for one shot!!)

And this very expensive foal might die - or at best be not what you want (after you've kept it for an expensive 3-4 years!!) There is a very good reason for the saying: "Fools breed horses for wise men to buy".

If you DO decide to breed your own, I would suggest a smaller RID stallion with GOOD feet and a fantastic back end. I'd like to suggest mine, but he's a bit big for a 15.1 TB who is a maiden.

Warmblood on TB can often be very sharp. Your mare isn't very big and while she may throw a foal bigger than herself, it may not be big enough to be of interest to a 'professional' if it proves not to be an amateur ride. With a good RID, you'll improve the shoulder and back-end, add bone - but most important - produce something a bit more laid back!

BUT - think on it and then think on it some more. I've seen worse mares bred from too - that doesn't make it necessarily smart, or sensible, or responsible. There are far too many unwanted horses in the world - and we know how a lot of them end up.
 
one thing to consider is whether the hindlimb suspensory problems have been bought about by the faults in her conformation, although it isn't a 'heriditory' problem, a lameness problem related to conformation can reoccur in the foal if the foal inherits the same conformation.

There are plenty of horses forced to retire due to conformation related lameness, and unfortunately as your mare has already had to retire due to lameness i persoanlly wouldn't breed from her
 
Agree with Htobago and Racingdemon. If you want to get a horse for yourself, go and buy one. Then you can be brutally honest with what you want, without the danger of breeding from her and ending up with something useless. Sorry, completely blunt, but from what you said, other than her temperament (not knocking this AT ALL!) she hasnt got alot going for her. You may breed from her and have something nice, but then you may not, and then what?
 
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