Breeding: Small+Tall=Dig a Ditch???

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Marty

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How does everyone else handle this when you are breeding one small horse to a taller horse that

can't reach??? I mean totally, no way no how can reach??? A ditch, platform??? (sigh).....(gasp) :DOH!
 
We are lucky to have a paddock that is on sort of a side hill we have a 20 1/2 inch stallion and so far he has been able to reach even my biggest mare who is right at 34. But that said she helped him a bit as well by scrunching a little. I dont know what I would do with more difference than that.
 
Rosa -Roca has a breeding chute you can build for your stud. Her planns are somewhere on her website.
 
A shallow hole at the side of the garden just big enough to stand the mare in is what we use for the 27.5 stallion breeding taller mares that are hard for him to reach..we've tried the side of the ditch but then if the mare happened to move forward he'd be out so was a chore..
 
We had a load of dirt brought on and dug a channel into it for the mare to stand in while the stallion was on the dirt pile. Take and remove as much as you need. we let it get rained on so it was good and packed we also threw down an old out door mat for traction for the stally.
 
Dragon(28") didn't really like the platform that I built for him and seemed to do better with the ditch, BUT since he was nice to the mares, I put him him with 4 mares( for 2 weeks only) and he bred all four without any problems, 2 of the mares were 33". He did best with pasture.

Robin
 
The one time I had "hands-on" experience working with someone who used a platform, the mare moved, the stallion fell off, flipped over, and landed on his head.

The best way is AI! Teach the stallion to breed a dummy and collect him yourself, then just put the whole ejaculate right in the mare. You don't need high tech when you are doing it right there on the farm. Its a lot safer too, and easy to learn.
 
We also Dig a hole or put on a hill LOL
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Hi Marty

There is a 10" size difference between patches and black. We used a hill and hand bred them. It took a lot of patientce and black being young was able to ummm well you know many times LOL. We have tried for years to breed patches but no one could ever get the job done until Black. (it was always small stallions)
 
please show pictures of what you use
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we are having the same problem.we are trying to bred our 26.50 stud to some mares it is very hard.
 
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This subject came up about a year ago and someone on here told the FUNNIEST story about their breeding a taller mare to their shorter stallion. It involved a woman and her husband, one holding the mare and the woman (if I remember correctly) holding the little stallion up behind the mare with her thighs. I remember reading it at work and trying so hard not to laugh out loud that I got to crying. Oh please, if this is your story..tell it again!!

Jayne
 
I've never done it, but I know people dig a ditch. Think its the best and safest way.

I also know of a certain guy who will assist the stallion and lift him up! Hahaha! I sure wish I was a fly on the wall for that one!!!
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There are a lot of funny stories on breeding minis. THis one actually happened at our farm.

I live in "redneck" area and the old cowboys think the minis are pretty funny to srtart with. Well we had a little Hemlock Brooks stallion (28") and he was pretty good at breeding taller mares but one mare he could not reach. My neighbor said he would come help (they raise QH). He brought his wife and their best friends (the man has a hanflebar mustache and raises mules). They are all really good people.

Well - the neighbor had me hold the mare and we put the stallion up on a dirt hill. The stallion got ready and mounted the mare but was just not tall enough so the neighbor picked him up from the back to give him extra heigth - well he started to slip so his friend got behind him and helped. So you can just imagine what that looked like (and of course we did not have a camera). Of course everytime the stallion thrust the two men had to also. I was laughing so hard I thought I was going to pee my pants. The guys were threatening me with my life not to let the mare move - because they were not doing it again. Well when it was over we turned and looked and the two wives were on the ground laughing and the one had to change her britches before going to dinner. Yes - the mare settled and the little stud colt was named after the two men.

Lisa - Ozark
 
I bred my stallion ( 33") to a 46 " mare using this ..

Get two pallets place plywood over top screw it to the pallents , teach your stallion to walk onto the pallett and stand...Then just back the mare up to the pallet and he can reach her just fine...LOL

Jenn H.
 
We use a hill for our 26" guy. Plus, we teach them it is OK when we touch his "equipment" to put it where it needs to go, and hold onto his front legs so he has leverage. It works- we've gotten several nice foals form him out of 33" mares!

Lucy
 
Your story, Jayne, reminds me of my daughter and I last year.

We particularly wanted to cross the blood lines between my 40" mare and my 32" little spotted boy.

Luckily we managed to find a 'lip' on a grass area - didnt want to use a platform or a ditch in case he fell off and either hurt himself on the platform or fell into the ditch under the mare. This mare is 'big built' and should have been attending weight-watchers!!

Up he jumped with great enthusiasm! But he kept slipping backwards coz he just couldnt get his front legs round her. On the next jump with me standing almost under the mare's head, I grabbed his front feet and held them for him and daughter stepped up behind him and pushed with her body. I let go of one of his legs and grabbed one of her hands, and there we stood with him with one toe on the ground and one in the air!!

You sure have to trust your animals to get this 'up close and personal'!! But bless him he was a gem and it was his first season and he had only covered one mare before this!

Anna

PS - dont panic Robin, I'm not intending to try covering this mare with little Dragon LOL!! But in the future perhaps the filly the two above are going to throw me?

Anna
 
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We only bred her one cycle and she did not catch, but my DunIT @ 31" covered a mare of 38" that I used to own
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We just had him stand on this small rise in the paddock and he did physically get 'r done, but at that point, we were new to handbreeding and were allowing him to date kinda morning noon and night. He never told us that was more than he should do
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