# Size Difference when Breeding?



## equus717 (Aug 20, 2009)

petitepyromaniac said:


> None of us would breed a mini to a draft for obvious reasons, but what is the cut off? How many hands difference is too much?
> 
> I'll give a hypothetical example: You have a mare that is 14.2, and you want to breed her. Would you look at studs between 13.2 and 15.2? 12.2 and 16.2? Etc.
> 
> ...


My mare Cinnamon that I had is 12 3 she is the dam to Caddo. Sire is 15 2.
Caddo will probably be 15 hands. He was already taller than his dam at a year old. My last report from Lacy was that he is taller than Farah. I would guess it depends on the horse and what the foal is going to do.


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## NdAppy (Apr 8, 2009)

It's not just height... You need to look at the horse itself. If your breeding a narrow mare to a wide stud, you are probably going to run into more issues than breeding a narrow shorter mare to a taller but also narrow stud.


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## petitepyromaniac (Oct 12, 2010)

NdAppy said:


> It's not just height... You need to look at the horse itself. If your breeding a narrow mare to a wide stud, you are probably going to run into more issues than breeding a narrow shorter mare to a taller but also narrow stud.


Good point. But tell me, why would it be "more issues"?


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## NdAppy (Apr 8, 2009)

Shoulder width of the foal causing complications while foaling. You would essentially have a "wider" foal. Yes it can be done with few problems, but it isn't a chance I would want to take. You're better breeding like to like in terms of body type.


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## petitepyromaniac (Oct 12, 2010)

Ah, I see. Thank you for clarifying that!

Lets say for the sake of argument that all the horses we are considering are medium width. But logically, the taller the horse the 'bigger' it is in general. In that case, what would you say the hand-difference limit is?


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## NdAppy (Apr 8, 2009)

I would have to say it would depend. It would depend on what each (mare and stud) have produced in the past (not bred to each other) and what size foals were at birth.  Lots of research lol


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## CheyAut (Nov 26, 2008)

My 13.3h mare was bred to a 16h stallion, no problems. Well, foal is huge IMO (but my first non-mini foal lol) but foaling went fine.


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## petitepyromaniac (Oct 12, 2010)

I guess my question isn't if the mare would be capable of birthing the foal, it's more along the lines of... Well, genetically, if you breed something 16 hands to something 17 hands, you're not going to get a foal exactly 16 1/2 hands. You don't get a perfect mix of parts, you get some of this and some of that, and it's not always equal. So isn't the bigger the difference between the sire and dam, the more likely that the foal is going to be put together oddly?


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## WildAcreFarms (Apr 6, 2011)

i have not seen a huge number of foals but they always look about the same size at birth to me.... My primary experience is with Arabs that range from 13.2hh to 15.2hh. I have raised a LOT of puppies English and French Bulldogs and again they seem to be born about the same size (even the Frenchies and the English are the same size at birth just grow at different rates) I wouldn't breed a first time mare to a much bigger stallion but after shes had a foal i wouldn't think it would be a problem to breed her to a horse 2-3 hands bigger. I'm assuming that you want to get a bigger foal to make a better size riding horse. I' mean look they breed Arabs ALL THE TIME to draft horses for some of the warmbloods and many of the horses they use for the crosses are smaller then draft horses which are kind of the Giants of the Horse world.....also i've had several short girlfriends with super tall husbands and they have all had their babies just fine....


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## horseloverd2 (Jan 23, 2009)

I have a mare (Shannon, she's about 14.2) I have been thinking about breeding to a Friesian. I was told by one person the foal would be much too big and possibly kill her. I can't say I agree, though. I'd try to breed her to a smaller built one... I can't really decide. She is a successful broodmare. I'll probably stick with a purebred Rocky so the baby can be pedigreed and worth more, but I'd love to see what everyone thinks about breeding a small, but thickly built, RMH to a friesian.


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## Super Nova (Apr 27, 2010)

petitepyromaniac said:


> None of us would breed a mini to a draft for obvious reasons, but what is the cut off? How many hands difference is too much?
> 
> I'll give a hypothetical example: You have a mare that is 14.2, and you want to breed her. Would you look at studs between 13.2 and 15.2? 12.2 and 16.2? Etc.
> 
> ...


The mare's uterus determines the size of foal while in utero......after its born than genetics take over..........and they have breed a draft to smalls ponies with no issues.......having said that there are always exceptions to the rule but that would also go for breeding like sizes horses together as well.

Super Nova


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## WildAcreFarms (Apr 6, 2011)

*how tall is trhe stallion*

How tall is the stallion you want to breed he to? your mare is 14.2 Ive seen 14 Hand mares matched to 16 hand horses very often and I've never seen one have trouble due to foal size. as long as shes healthy and it's not her first foal i wouldn't worry about the size.


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## petitepyromaniac (Oct 12, 2010)

That was a hypothetical situation. Let me repeat my question for clarity, because I feel like the point is kind of being missed:



petitepyromaniac said:


> I guess my question isn't if the mare would be capable of birthing the foal, it's more along the lines of... Well, genetically, if you breed something 16 hands to something 17 hands, you're not going to get a foal exactly 16 1/2 hands. You don't get a perfect mix of parts, you get some of this and some of that, and it's not always equal. So isn't the bigger the difference between the sire and dam, the more likely that the foal is going to be put together oddly?


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## sarah wood (Apr 12, 2009)

horseloverd2 said:


> I have a mare (Shannon, she's about 14.2) I have been thinking about breeding to a Friesian. I was told by one person the foal would be much too big and possibly kill her. I can't say I agree, though. I'd try to breed her to a smaller built one... I can't really decide. She is a successful broodmare. I'll probably stick with a purebred Rocky so the baby can be pedigreed and worth more, but I'd love to see what everyone thinks about breeding a small, but thickly built, RMH to a friesian.


 
I don't think breeding a RMH mare to a fresian stallion is a great idea. I don't imagine there would be much of a market for that sort of cross-breed. Feather is recessive, so the foal would be unlikely to have anything more than fuzzy ankles, and you can't know if it'll gait naturally or not. If you're wanting the foal to be more stout than your mare, I would just find a very stout RMH stud.


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