# Thinking of breeding my mare...but what to?



## farmpony84 (Apr 21, 2008)

First you'll want to ask yourself a bunch of questions such as, an you afford to breed your horse. 

Can you pay the stud fee? If so, how much can you afford?
Can you cover the vet appointments that go along w/ a pregnancy?
Can you afford extra feed bills during the pregnancy?
Do you have a place to keep a mare and a baby?
Can you afford any extra emergent costs?
Will you keep this baby forever? This I ask because if you breed with anything other than a TB, then you have a mixed horse that is not registered and will be not only harder to sell but not worth as much money as that piece of registration paper is.
Can you afford training? Do you have the time and the money to spend on training?

There are a ton of other questions as well. Once you've considered all that then I would get into the what should I breed to conversation. My suggestion is a TB.


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## sunshade (Jul 23, 2014)

farmpony84 said:


> First you'll want to ask yourself a bunch of questions such as, an you afford to breed your horse.
> 
> Can you pay the stud fee? If so, how much can you afford?
> Can you cover the vet appointments that go along w/ a pregnancy?
> ...


Yes, I would definitely be planning on keeping the baby forever. If I wasn't then I would just go buy a young project to train and sell. Also I do have a place for the mare and baby. But as for the costs, I'm not sure. I wasn't planning on breeding her anytime soon. Maybe in 5 years... so I'm not sure how much my income will be or how much I'll have saved up. I just wanted some ideas thrown around on what kind of horse I should breed her to if I do decide to breed her, so I can keep it in mind when the time is right and I have enough money.


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## farmpony84 (Apr 21, 2008)

Then I say totally have this conversation now and any chance you get. Breeding for color will make it harder for you. You'll probably have to be willing to consider AI


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## Kotori (Jun 18, 2012)

problem with Friesians is that the breed registry is really strict about no outside mares, or so I've heard. That means that the best stallions won't be available. If you want more of a jumper or eventer, I'd suggest Oldenburg or Hanoveran. Quarter horses are common enough that black would be easy to find, and you can get an amazing stallion for a low fee.


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## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

Questions like this always prove to be a bit of a puzzle to me.

You want to breed your mare because you want another horse just like her. Chances of that are well below 50%. 

You then haven't a clue as to what stallion to use other than it must be black so, basically you are breeding for colour? 

Cannot see conformation from the pictures but she looks a bit goose rumpled. 

You need to list all the attributes you want. All her conformation faults, then look for a stud that has a good stud that doesn't have the bad traits. 

Last thing I would breed for is colour.


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## SunnyDraco (Dec 8, 2011)

Most casual horse owners have rose tinted glasses when they think about breeding their favorite mare. You may think she has wonderful conformation but I am sure that she has large conformation faults (most horses have large conformation faults) and this is where the rose tinted glasses come on. You need emotionally detached critique of your mare's conformation. Figure out all her conformation strengths and weaknesses, if there are potential soundness/health weaknesses, you need the courage to pass up ever breeding her. You need a stallion that compliments her conformation (regardless of his breed) as stallions have conformation faults as well and you need to know which faults you don't want to double up on for better odds of an even better put together foal. It takes a lot of study, research and patience when breeding responsibly. Also, build up a large emergency fund in case something happens (side story, my cousin has monstrous vet bills and feed costs piling up at this very moment because she is doing everything she can for her 1 month old foal... Started at birth by being rejected by her maiden mom, then ulcers, ammonia, equine hospital stays, milk replacement powder, milk replacer pellets and now ringworm)


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## Regula (Jan 23, 2012)

Can't see the picture(s), so don't know what color your mare is. 
The only way you can get a black horse with 100% certainty is breeding two black horses, and at least one of them needs to be homozygous. All other combos have a chance of bay/brown or chestnut.

Friesian registries are very restrictive with crosses, and for a good reason. Friesians don't really cross very well, and bring their own conformational challenges to the table.

If I were looking to breed a good TB, I would probably either look for a warmblood with a lot of TB behind it (can make for really nice, sane, refined horses), an Arab for an Anglo Arab, or a QH for an Appendix. Kinda depends on what you are wanting the baby for.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## sunshade (Jul 23, 2014)

Foxhunter said:


> Questions like this always prove to be a bit of a puzzle to me.
> 
> You want to breed your mare because you want another horse just like her. Chances of that are well below 50%.
> 
> ...


I never said anything about breeding her because I want a horse just like her. I know that the foal is probably going to be nothing like her, but I'm completely okay with that. There are a few traits that I would like the foal to have, but in the end I'll be overjoyed with whatever comes out of her.

And I'm not just breeding for color... I do want it to be black but there's other things that are more important than that. Most of all, I want the stallion's conformation to compliment her's, but I'm not sure which breed would do that best, especially knowing that other breeds may have faults that could double up with hers and make the foal's worse. And I want the baby to be a super smooth ride too. 

But thank you for the help. I'll post a conformation critique thread for her as soon as I get some shots on my phone.  Also what does goose-rumpled mean??


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## Textan49 (Feb 13, 2015)

Putting myself in your position as I also have a TB mare, and thinking no farther than what would be a good cross on a TB to produce a nice all around riding horse. I think Arabian would be a good choice.


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## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

Goose rumped is when the quarters drop away steeply, as seen in the picture of you cantering.


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## Zexious (Aug 2, 2013)

Base your stud choice off what, ultimately, you want to do.

Can I ask what breeding your mare will get you over selecting a baby or young prospect (or even a proven horse) already on the ground?
From your post, it sort of seems like you're thinking of breeding just for the sake of breeding, and you don't really know exactly what you're looking for.


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## SunnyDraco (Dec 8, 2011)

sunshade said:


> Most of all, I want the stallion's conformation to compliment her's, but I'm not sure which breed would do that best, especially knowing that other breeds may have faults that could double up with hers and make the foal's worse. And I want the baby to be a super smooth ride too.


If you want to find a stallion that compliments her faults the most and gives you the best chance of producing your dream baby, you have to look at individual stallions, not by breed. There will be many stallions within a breed that would be a poor choice and a couple stallions within that same breed that could be the perfect cross. Each stallion, regardless of breed, is an individual and has a different set of strengths and weaknesses. 

Many stallions should be gelded due to genetically poor health, conformation and/or temprament. Many stallion owners have rose tinted glasses when it comes to the value of their stallion, many are stallions just because of their pretty color or their bloodlines (usually popular bloodlines that are already extensively used so they are actually quite common and not rare) or because babies are cute or they think he is just super special and sometimes a stallion who should be gelded isn't because their owner wants to collect on stud fees and they see the stallion as a cash machine with little to no concern about the quality of babies he will produce, after all, babies are just so cute...
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Remali (Jul 22, 2008)

I've seen a lot of Friesian crosses that are really nice! I agree about looking at the individual stallion, of course, that is obvious. But, as far as what breed, depends on what you want to do with the foal. But, for an all-around nice riding horse, like you mentioned, I know a couple of people who have Friesian crosses and they seem to do well in anything, nice dispositions for the most part, too.

While it is true that the Friesian registry is strict, I would not say that the stallions who do breed to other mares (i.e. non-Friesian mares) are of lesser quality... absolutely not! I know a few very successful upper dressage people who have bred their Hanoverian mares to Friesians, these Friesian stallions are outstanding.


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## Zexious (Aug 2, 2013)

^I agree that they are definitely out there, but so many times I see people wanting to breed their mare to a Friesian just because they can, and it's cheaper than buying something already on the ground :/


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## LoriF (Apr 3, 2015)

Remali said:


> I've seen a lot of Friesian crosses that are really nice! I agree about looking at the individual stallion, of course, that is obvious. But, as far as what breed, depends on what you want to do with the foal. But, for an all-around nice riding horse, like you mentioned, I know a couple of people who have Friesian crosses and they seem to do well in anything, nice dispositions for the most part, too.
> 
> While it is true that the Friesian registry is strict, I would not say that the stallions who do breed to other mares (i.e. non-Friesian mares) are of lesser quality... absolutely not! I know a few very successful upper dressage people who have bred their Hanoverian mares to Friesians, these Friesian stallions are outstanding.


I agree. I have a half friesian mare. She and her sire (the friesian half) are gorgeous. He sire was a first premie colt and is used for out crosses. Her dam was nothing to sneeze at either though. I can say that I am very happy with my half friesian mare in every way.


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## LoriF (Apr 3, 2015)

I do agree with the suggestion of thinking long and hard about what you want to be doing with the foal if you do breed. I went through the same thing. I originally wanted to breed my mare to a friesian stud to get a 3/4 friesian foal but had to wait due to a pasture accident with my mare. While she was healing it gave me time to think more on what I was doing and what I really wanted and I ended up changing my mind on what stallion to cross her with. If I could have bought a weanling for less I would have done so though.


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## kb755779 (Jun 28, 2013)

*Think about a QH*

Like someone else mentioned, there are some really nice QH sires out there, black and well bred, who could complement your mare well. PLUS your baby would have papers which would open up some options in terms of showing and maintaining value (or if you wanted to breed THAT baby down the line it being registerable). There are so many 'types' any more within QHs (halter, pleasure, running, reining, cutting, ranch) you can generally find a really nice one to complement your mare. I know of several very nice black racing studs with excellent conformation that have very reasonable stud fees that would complement a TB mare well.


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## chl1234 (Jul 10, 2015)

You have been given some good advice...these are the things you should consider, not necessarily in order:
1) What is the purpose or goal of breeding?
2) Can you afford it (not just stud fees, but all the other costs)?
3) What are your mare's strengths and weaknesses, the stallion should be strong in areas where she needs help; if the both have the same conformation fault, it could get added.
4) Are you prepared to wait up to 4 years after you have bred the mare before you have a rideable horse (1 year for pregnancy, 2-3 years before the foal can be ridden)?
5) The age of your mare--if she has never had a foal, the older she is the higher the risk to her in a pregnancy and the higher the risk of the pregnancy not going full term. You mentioned waiting up to 5 years before breeding...if so age might be a real factor.
6) When you have found a stallion you like and think complements your mare, consider his temperament (it DOES get passed on) and his size relative to your mare--also try to see some of his foals--do you like them? How big are they? Would the foal be too big for the mare?
7) Is your mare registered? Do you want the foal registered (cross with Arabian could be registered half; some color registries will register anything that has the coloration)?


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