How tall can the stud be?

[luvmyracker]

When picking a stud to breed to my mare, does the stud have to be smaller than the mare? I have been told that if I breed a 36" stud to my 32" mare that the foal could get too big for the mare to birth? Any truth to this?

 

[Lucky-C-Acres-Minis]

I've always kept my mares the same height or taller than my stallion.. I think one of the problems with breeding a small mare to a taller stallion is that the taller stallions tend to put more leg on their foals and with a smaller mare there's not a lot of room for her to get those legs situated right for delivery.. I'm not saying this is the case with all tall stud X short mare breedings and I'm sure there have been MANY successful crosses this way..

 

[Jill]

I think the build of the horses is much more a factor than the actual height. A taller but finely made / boned stallion may be a better choice than a shorter, heavily / coarser made one.

 

[Jill]

PS Think also about all the fancy "sport ponies" that are the result of Welsh mares x TB stallions

 

[Riverdance]

They say the foal only grows to something of the size the mare can handle. Obviously if you breed 36" or 32" ithe resulting foal should be on the taller side. I do not think 36" is too tall for a 32" mare. for a 28" mare, yes, I would wrry.

You have seen very tall human males with very short human females and they do not have a problem.

 

[Laura]

[SIZE=12pt]I agree with the "proportion" line of thinking on this and it has been proven over and over in my breeding program. If you breed a tiny boned 32" mare to a heavy bodied 36" stallion, your mare (IMO) has a good chance of foaling problems. If you breed a mid bodied or larger boned 32" mare to a very fine boned 36" stallion, I think the mare has a much easier chance foaling.[/SIZE]

For years we bred a 36.5" VERY fine boned stallion almost exclusively to mares 32"-34" and few had any foaling probblems.

This is Jammer (aka Flying A Magic's Mr. Big Stuff). I would have no problems breeding him to 28"-30" mares and he is 32.5" I just don't have mares that little

 

[Katiean]

Years ago a barn I was boarding at had a pony mare that was around 37" tall. She was out as usual (she ran loose and never left) and an Arab colt 1 1/2 years old got out. the kids all said they saw Posh breed Misty. The owner insisted the kids saw no such thing and besides the colt was "TOO YOUNG". Well, 11 month later she foaled and yes the sire of the foal was 14.2 hands. The mare foaled just fine. The problem I see with breeding a bigger stud is that you run the risk of you foal going over size.

 

[dgrminis]

We mainly breed a smaller stud to larger mares but our 32" stud breeds our 30.50" mare and she never has any problems with delivery or foal size but she is a "tank" of a mare as well. A couple years ago we were visiting with some people and they bred their 36" stud to their 2 30" mares and they never had foaling issues at all -- guess it just depends on the situation and the mare and the stallion.

 

[windwalker]

Hi ...I have a little 27.50 inch mare built good ..the owner before I got her bred her to a 32 inch appy stud and she had foaling problems and lost the foal..Then she bred her to a 33.75 inch appy stallion and about lost this little mare...When she was bred to a 30inch stallion she foaled just fine...If I breed a mare with a taller stallion he is only 2 inches taller than the mare but I prefer to breed taller mares to a smaller stallion...Irene

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