Hi all, I am trying to breed to race, so i'm not opposed to mares who are little in stature when the goal is not commercial. However, I do want foals with more leg under them than our mares have.
So here's my question. If the mares are 15.1 all the way down to slightly under 15 hands, are stallion types around 16 hands such as Mizzen Mast, Quiet American, Include, Stephen Got Even, War Chant, likely to give the resulting progeny enough leg? I'm a little scared of really tall stallions like Pleasantly Perfect, especially for a maiden mare.
Thanks if anyone has experiences to share. Two of the mares are: Lady Alex by Benchmark, and Mission Park by Dixieland Band.
stallion choices for small mares
Moderators: Roguelet, WaveMaster, madelyn, Diane
Love Love Love Stephen Got Even. We have two clients with med sized mares who bred to him last season and their mares just came back to our farm this year who are going back to him! They love their foals!
For Lady Alex I would look at Summer Bird at Winstar. We have his Grand dam on the farm and she wasn't a huge mare but throws size. The Summer Bird foals I have seen have lots of leg to them!
They also have a couple other stallions that have size and are decently priced.
For Lady Alex I would look at Summer Bird at Winstar. We have his Grand dam on the farm and she wasn't a huge mare but throws size. The Summer Bird foals I have seen have lots of leg to them!
They also have a couple other stallions that have size and are decently priced.
We have had two small mares, and with both we would like to have added leg to the offspring. With one it was possible, she produced bigger than herself. But with the second it wasn't; she simply reproduced her own short-leggedness over and over. We bred her to several big stallions (Tiznow, Lemon Drop Kid, and Fusaichi Pegasus) and never really got more leg than she had herself. So depending on the genetics of your mare, you may be limited in what you can accomplish.
Good to know LB and thanks Crystal. Exactly what i'm trying to find out...are some mares going to convey short legs no matter who they are bred to. Always a risk...but at least if the mares were runners, it is not a foregone conclusion that the progeny can't be runners as well even if short-legged, is what at least I am hoping for here. Hand-wringing on how much to spend on stud fees though if mares may end up reproducing themselves. Thanks for your feedback.
I can share what I have learned if you want although in my case my mare has a ton of leg so it's the opposite. She is the fourth generation with it and her first foal has it to so that makes five so I will say genetically speaking it is dominant and I expect her foal with Artie Schiller to be the same. There's a misconception that if you take a horse with a lot of leg and breed it to one without that you will get medium but you wind up with either/or not in the middle as it's either something you get from the genes or it's not. I believe the same is true of some other parts of the horse.
I will speculate that if you have a family that throws to itself generation after generation that the odds would be that no matter who you breed to, that's what you will continue to get. This is JUST my opinion but I spent a lot of time over the years trying to understand how various genes worked and what might get passed on.
I'd be more inclined IMHO to focus on the best matches on paper and then talk to the farms. I have seen several Tiznow stallions and they are all huge, but I do not know if they took after their dams or not.
I will speculate that if you have a family that throws to itself generation after generation that the odds would be that no matter who you breed to, that's what you will continue to get. This is JUST my opinion but I spent a lot of time over the years trying to understand how various genes worked and what might get passed on.
I'd be more inclined IMHO to focus on the best matches on paper and then talk to the farms. I have seen several Tiznow stallions and they are all huge, but I do not know if they took after their dams or not.
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springboro
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tappiano, springboro, lisann, madelyn...thanks! Wow, I go to my day job, spend a day in the conference room of a high stress meeting, drag myself home from that and then get to cheer up on pedigreequery benefiting from all your insight. Thank you thank you all!
So some of your smaller mares CAN throw a 16 hander...good to know..
Yes I like Kipling too, tried to breed to him several years ago. Did, in fact, but mare didn't get pregnant.
Forgot about Century City...liked him a lot a few years back. Thanks for that suggestion!
I haven't even seen Lady Alex yet. I bought her off a trainer at turf paradise a week ago, she was on her last racing legs and was scratched from some bottom level claimer. I did get to give her a vet assessment of breeding soundness. Trainer said she is 15 1 and light-boned, but correct. Hope the last part is true anyway! Thanks again for your feedback.
So some of your smaller mares CAN throw a 16 hander...good to know..
Yes I like Kipling too, tried to breed to him several years ago. Did, in fact, but mare didn't get pregnant.
Forgot about Century City...liked him a lot a few years back. Thanks for that suggestion!
I haven't even seen Lady Alex yet. I bought her off a trainer at turf paradise a week ago, she was on her last racing legs and was scratched from some bottom level claimer. I did get to give her a vet assessment of breeding soundness. Trainer said she is 15 1 and light-boned, but correct. Hope the last part is true anyway! Thanks again for your feedback.
It works both ways, Thunder Gulch sired Point Given and Birdstone sired Summer Bird... I just saw Thunder Gulch this afternoon and he's nowhere near the same size as PG and while it's been a few years since I saw Birdstone, I just saw Summer Bird yesterday and other than the head being the same (IMHO), he's got quite a bit more leg under him.
Mac this is the female family that produced Alysheba and Lear Fan plus a couple of G1 winners in HK, albeit a few generations back but this ff was very strong for several generations if you look tail female. Why don't you post a thread asking for opinions on how to re-ignite the fuse per se? If spending $150k on a stud fee isn't an option be sure and state that too.
I hope she's a gem for you. Best of luck.
I hope she's a gem for you. Best of luck.