Are small mares at a disadvantage as a broodmare?

[Blue feather]

I have a small mare(15HH) who was a solid racehorse(6 wins in 15 starts) with a good family(Stakes placed dam, multi stakes winning 1/2 bro). Is her size a serious negative factor when considering breeding her or like race horses, do they come in all sizes and shapes?

[springboro]

I'd say there is a stigma against the very small mares. I have had a few, and the KY stallion owners HATE them! Small foals don't sell well.

[Tappiano]

If the mare's family tends to throw small then yes it would be a concern for me, but otherwise who's to say it was not the exception? I can probably tell you that no matter what size stallion I send GiGi to she'd likely still put something big on the ground because there are four generations of big in the family and in the event she had a smaller foal I'd still bet that anything that foal produced would be big.

[cng]

Yes, just as small horses are at a disadvantage on the racetrack. She will pass on her small size to the foals. All things being equal, small horses have to try a lot harder to cover the same ground a big horse does. The cards are stacked against all race horse breeders but running ponies against horses is one handicap you might not want to start out with.

[fastappy]

Coincidentally today, Megahertz's foal Causeithertz ran 2nd in a MSW at Santa Anita (1st race on the card, 4yrs old & up) today and the TVG guys were commenting on how small the horse was compared to the winner.

The following is comments (in segments) taken from Dan Rosenberg (formally of Three Chimmeys Farm) regarding mare selection. (by Rick Simon
from THE THOROUGHBRED OF CALIFORNIA, November 1996)


But Rosenberg does look for some conformation traits when selecting broodmares. He likes a "big and roomy mare" who can carry a big foal, because he feels a small mare cannot develop a good foal in utero.

"I remember in high school biology learning about Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics," Rosenberg said. "He bred tall peas to short peas, and he didn't get any medium peas. You either get tall or short; that's the way genetics works.

"But I find people who have a great big mare and breed her to a tiny horse thinking they are going to get an average size foal, or they've got this tiny mare and want to breed her to a stallion 17 hands to breed some size into her," he said, carrying the pea analogy to horse breeding. "I don't find it works that way at all.

[LB]

Race horses come in all shapes and sizes--like the tiny but mighty Goldikova.

Successful sales horses only come in one size--large.

I certainly wouldn't dismiss a small mare as a potential broodmare before finding out what she's capable of producing. We had 2 mares both of whom were 15.1. One produced foals that grew up to be her approximate size and shape (even when bred to Tiznow, lol). The other produced large foals that quickly outstripped their dam's size and kept on growing.

[dublino]

Northern Dancer was 15.3h

Frankel is another small horse 15h something, I believe he grew over the winter it will be interesting to see to what size this little monster has grown to.

[Joltman]

Race horses come in all shapes and sizes--like the tiny but mighty Goldikova.

Successful sales horses only come in one size--large.

I certainly wouldn't dismiss a small mare as a potential broodmare before finding out what she's capable of producing. We had 2 mares both of whom were 15.1. One produced foals that grew up to be her approximate size and shape (even when bred to Tiznow, lol). The other produced large foals that quickly outstripped their dam's size and kept on growing.

I think you can get a well conformed smaller horse that can run like crazy. Part of it is heart (I loved Lady Tak). But you better plan to race them yourself. Whatever you do, breed to a smaller size stallion to try to avoid mismatching the type and getting a 'weak link' conformationally.

jm