"Leggy" Stallions?

[dray33]

In your opinion, who is:

a) the "leggiest" stallion (conformationally)?
b) the sire that throws off the "leggiest" foals?

Thanks, I would like to check them out at stallionregister.

Dray

[dray33]

100 views and not a singly reply. I ask the question as a hypothetical. You own a mare, shes thrown off foals a little short legged. She is short legged herself. Pedigree worthy of trying however. Who do you breed to, to try and get a leggy foal?

[ageecee]

Dray good question-how much are you looking to spend on a stallion stud fee? I guess you would have to ask around on which stallions throw foals where there confirmation is correct. Myself i dont know the answer because im not a big time breeder. But i would ask around, word of mouth would probably be your best bet.

[LSB]

OK, I was one of your lookers and non-repliers. For what it's worth, here are my thoughts.

Genes don't "average". If you had a mare with a long back and you wanted a foal with medium length back, you wouldn't breed her to a horse with a short back. Because--generally speaking--neither the long-backed mare nor the short-backed stallion necessarily carries the medium-back gene. At least neither one is showing that they do. And if they don't, they can't produce it.

However that's not what you asked. As for "leggy", your mare has already been to a horse that I consider to be one of the "leggiest" around: Forestry. I'd probably also put Unbridled's Song, Vindication, and Tactical Cat on the list.

[Ruffian]

Personally if I had a mare that throws short legs (and I do) I put her to a tall stallion with a decent length of leg- I bought the mare with a foal at foot & infoal- and both times they have been 'midgets' so she is going to my stud who is about 16.2/3 and very leggy- fingers crossed she takes- she stands about 15.2 but is all body and pretty nasty to look at

BTW- this is my first visit to this topic

[henthorn]

Dray, I viewed the post and didn't know what you were looking for, decided to let others get the preliminaries out of the way first. In general, many Northern Dancer-type horses are strong-bodied with shorter legs. Unbridled and his offspring cover a lot of ground, tall and long. The best way to determine is to look at the geographic and stud fee ranges of stallions that might interest you by pedigree or commercial value, and picture each of them with your girl. If they have similarities without the same stubby legs, and you otherwise like the match, visit the farm and see for yourself.

You want good strong underpinnings for a full-bodied horse, not twigs. Leg length is most important for sales potential, but not for racing. I tend to go for a medium-size, well-balanced athletic stallion to help balance out a mare that's not balanced, or that's too small or large.

[louis finochio]

When I want to breed to a stallion, I look at the conformation photos of his ancestors 4 or 5 generations back.

I am looking for the type of conformation that is dominating the stallions offspring. If the legs or body is tall then the neck will follow suit.

If the body is short coupled with short legs then the neck will follow suit.

You will get a composite conformation of all ancestors in your mind when you look at your own mare.

You will want to avoid a double faults, that are reproduced when breeders make the mistake of breeding to a stallion that has the same fault as the mare.

Look at the stallions offspring and see if most of them are a carbon copy of the stallion, as most of them are.

[Nessa]

Go to Country Life Farm and have a look at Unbridled Jet's foals. They all look alike long strong legs, and nice strong bodies. On most of the pictures you can just move the cursor over the photo to see the sire of the foal.

http://www.countrylifefarm.com/Foals/index.cfm

[louis finochio]

Great site thanks a million, I can smell the oats hay and alfalfa and fresh country air by justing looking at those photos.

When I walk the bridal paths in the backstretch and see TB with underpinning with the strength of steel I now they were bred in Argentina.

The soil in Argentina is rich in minerals and those Argentina TB dont have 9 or more crosses of the (Phalaris) sire line to add to their unsoundness.

The answer is to cross those Argentina mares with our stallions to breed soundness and strong bone back in our domestic TB.

[dray33]

Thanks for the replys, all. Is there a sire "notorious" for leggy-ness? What Argentinian sire would you be looking at louis?

[louis finochio]

My favorite Argentina sire was Lord at War, but he passed away a few years ago. Lord at War has become a top BMS, as his daughters are passing his soundness on to their offspring.

Charlie Whitingham used to go to Argentina to purchase their TB.
Charlie would always buy the top quality TB and import them to the US, Cougar was one of Charlie's gems that raced well here.

Because everyone knew Charlie world wide, Charlie had to pay out of his pocket more that anyone else that was a non-de-plum.

I still miss Charlie, as I think of him every time when I walk into his barn at Santa Anita now occupied by Richard Mandella.

[zinn21]

Just a minor correction regarding Mr. Finochio's post. He implied that Cougar was bred in Argentina which is not true. Cougar was bred in Chile. In his racing days the press refered to him as the "Big Cat from Chile"

Don Sandri

[lovethesales]

Thanks for the replys, all. Is there a sire "notorious" for leggy-ness?

As someone else mentioned, Unbridled's Song. He popped to mind immediately.