This may be a silly question but what should be the biggest height difference in mare and stallion? meaning, if breeding from a 14.3hh mare,would 16+ stallion (chilled semen) be too large for the mare?
2. "RE: mare/stallion height?"
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The mare doesn't necessarily detemine the height of the foal any more than a mother alone determines the height of her child, but in the case of equine breeding, the mare does determine the SIZE of the foal at birth. Maiden mares and smaller mares often have small foals that grow much bigger later on. We have had quite a few ponies go to Richmeed Medallion wanting pony dressage mounts that move like warmbloods - there's been far more than a two hand difference there with no dramas. Ditto for 14hh arabs being served by Byalee Romance, who is almost 17hh. There were plenty of small mares put to Ludendorf and Salute - they were both over the 17hh mark, and many of the mares were nowhere near that size.
4. "RE: mare/stallion height?"
In response to message #3
I have a 14.2hh mare and I bred her 3 times to a 15.2hh stallion. One foal was average size, I was large but she managed to give birth unassisted, but the third was too big for her to foal without help. It took 2 of us, and alot of strength to get this foal out of this mare. If I had not been there, I would probably have lost her.
Just recently a women lost her mare due to the foal being way too big for the mare to foal. She lost both mare and foal, and vet was present during the birth.
So even though most foals are born to the mares size, this is not always the way it is. Just be careful.
5. "RE: mare/stallion height?"
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And also, it depends what breed the mare is.
My stockhorse mare is only 14.3, and she has had two foals to 16.1 warmblood stallions, one chilled, one frozen. She is back in foal to the frozen. Both foals were big, she foaled with no problems but did get a bit colicky after the 2nd foal, the vet said this is common with big foals as there is a lot of empty space for the internals to fill in there after the foal is born!
Yes, generally speaking, the size of the mare will determine the size of the foal at birth. I have a 14.3 part-arab mare who was put to a 16.1 warmblood stallion, and the foal (she was a maiden) was only 75cms tall at birth, and at 2yo is still only 13.1hh, likely to mature around 14.2. The mare is due to foal any day to my pally warmblood colt, so it will be interesting to see what size the foal will be, as she doesn't seem a lot bigger than she was for her first foal.
Many times I've come across the old addage, to look to the height of the mare's sire to determine roughly how big the foal will grow. So far that's been very true for me.
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