small stallions on a large mare

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vthrossel

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I have a 16hh (3yrs) maiden mare and would like to try and breed a 14.2 out of her. what size stallion should i consider using? i have looked at 12.2hh stallions, would these be able to cover naturaly or should i search for somewhere that does AI?
 
I only have one experience of this, in that my old horse was a product of such a union! His mum was a 16hh TB mare and dad was a 14.1 new forest stallion. Guess what size my horse turned out?? 16.2!!
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He was bred to be a small hunter so everyone was gutted!

I think the mare was covered naturally, but this was quite a few years ago now. Good luck in your quest, personally I'd be looking at ~13hh stallions as your mare is a maiden (hence probably a smaller foal).
 
We used a friends small(13.2hh) connie stallion on our two 15.3hh TB mares the year before last. The poor little chap was a bit to short to reach so we stood him on the muck heap to give him that little more height!(reminded us of the old yellow pages ad!). We ended up with two cracking filly's who sold very easily.
 
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I have a 16hh (3yrs) maiden mare and would like to try and breed a 14.2 out of her. what size stallion should i consider using? i have looked at 12.2hh stallions, would these be able to cover naturaly or should i search for somewhere that does AI?

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Well - you can try. But do remember a couple of things:

1. Size is a product of genetic potential AND the size of the mare's uterus. Now the mare could - genetically - control the size of the foal and it ends up 16 hh WHATEVER you put her to. And - being a 16hh mare, even if the genetic potential of the foal is the average of the two heights (and it rarely is!) chances are the foal in utero will grow bigger than you'd expect a 14.2 foal to be at birth - and that 'good start' means it will outgrow its genetic potential!

2. Breed type to type. Crossing extreme types CAN work - or you can end up with a horse that does FUGLY for England! While you hope for the best of both breeds, you can just as easily get the worst of both breeds. So foal could have a 12.2's head and body - with 16hh legs, for example. So, I'd happily put a 14.2 Connemara on a 16 hh Irish Draught mare if I was aiming for a 15.1 show cob - because they're very similar types and not TOO far apart in size. But I sure as hell wouldn't put a 12.2 Sec.A on the same mare.
 
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