Stud to big for my mare?

My mare is 4, 14.3hh and i'm going to wait a WHILE to breed her. But i'm impatient when it comes to my questions lol
I'm wanting to add some height and bigger bone structure to her foal, with a sport horse build, and have a good chance of it coming out as a paint.

So.. I was window shopping, and I found this beautiful warmblood, 17hh with a gypsy coloring, and great conformation! He's exactly what i'm looking for and I thought the chance was too good to pass up to at least contact the owner.

Then I go to the barn and i'm all exited and wound up about my horses future mate, and i'm telling this girl about him, and she starts shooting me down saying "you have to have a birthing stall, he's way to big, you'll injure her, what are you going to do with a baby anyways?!, blah, blah, blah." but anyways I have a birthing stall in mind, and I have big plans for her future offspring :) BUT is he too big?? Will it hurt her?? I wouldn't want to risk harming her for anything.

Im no expert on breeding though if she is a maiden mare maybe something smaller would be a bit better.. though have a talk to the stud owner =D

You could always do artificial insemination... though I wonder if a colt form such a big guy could be too big for her... Never really though about it... I am interested to hear more responses.

It does depend on the mare and stud. I've talked to someone who had an Ardennis x Shetland and the mare and foal survived. I've seen a Dartmoor x Andalusian foal for sale. Personally I'd rather use a similar size stud to avoid the risk of her carrying a foal that is too big for her to give birth easily but then I'm not a breeder so I'm not sure if it would hurt her. Best talking to the owner really.

There should,ent be any problem

I don't think there should be a problem either. I would like to know more about the stud, though, and what kind of crosses he has produced on what kind of mares. In any case, on whatever stud I chose, I would definitely go AI .

Yeah I would definitely have to do ai he's all the way in oregon! And ill put up some pics of him, he might actually be shorter than I thought I think I looked at his clydsale buddy's info (: i'll see what info I can get on the foals

He's so gorgeous and he's a beautiful mover if you watch his video, and he is 17hh. See why I want it to be him though?

Wow he is GORGEOUS!!!

He may have grown since that photo, but compared to his handler (who is standing downhill from him and stooping forward a bit) he doesn't look that tall in the photo you posted, unless she is very tall. 17 hands is 5' 8" at the withers.

I went and looked a the videos they have posted and they are just short clips, and all are just of him loose as a 2 year old, and are in slow motion. They have a couple photos of him under saddle on his page-- do you know if they have a current video of him with a handler, or better yet working under saddle and not in slow motion? (Sorry, slow motion just bugs me, as it can make everything look "fancier"-- not saying he isn't a good moving horse, I would just like to see some of his real natural movement! LOL)

Regardless, he has some nice qualities, and size-wise the difference is probably not dangerous for breeding-- but its best to have your mare vet-checked by an experienced reproductive vet before breeding to make sure everything is OK and ready to go with her, and also to ask an experienced repro vet about the size difference.


Your mare and this stallion are both attractive. You said you wanted to breed for more bone and height with a sport type build--But with the stallion and your mare being different sizes and different types (the stallion is a draft cross sired by a Clydesdale and out of a TB/arab/paint cross with an upright build, higher set neck, and your mare is QH type with a more level stock horse build), it might be tough to predict what traits and movement the foal would inherit from each parent, given the "mix".

It would be great if they had foals by him from more QH-type mares to compare to, but I don't see any on their website-- they are out of Warmblood and TB mares, and they are all still babies since he is a young stallion, so assessing adult height isn't possible yet.

You mentioned wanting a "paint"-- Do you want a registerable foal? The foal would not be eligible to be registered as Paint (registered Paint, QH, TB lineage only) or Pinto (no draft within 4 generations.). The website mentions that they have the stallion registered AWS and are applying for the NASDHA-- do you know if a foal from your mare would be eligible for either of those associations?