When you want to breed for under 34".....

[Maxi'sMinis]

If you wanted to optimize your chances of not going over 34" what height stallion would you breed with what height mare?

Are there specific heights that people breed, like small to tall, average to average, do you ever do tall to tall? If you breed 32" to 33" would that be pushing it? What are your height selection methods when planning breedings?

Do you also research heights in pedigrees when trying to predict the height you might get out of a breeding?

Have you ever found a particular horse always produces small, average or tall no matter what they are bred to?

Of course this is also considering conformation of your breeding stock but specifically addressing desired height of offspring.

 

[Little Wolf Ranch]

Are you stating that you "must" stay under 34" for AMHA or just people who have either double registered or straight AMHR horses?

Either way. . .I breed for AMHR foals (long story short - it's cheaper, more local shows and is just my preference) but I also want them under 34" if I can help it. My stallions are 27.5", 31.5", 32.5" & 33.5" and my mature mares are 31.25", 32.5" & 33.5" and I like them about thoses sizes. . .I won't ever keep a filly/mare that is under 31" because I am one of those people that are afraid to breed too small of mares for health reasons (and my own stress reasons lol).

I have a foal due this season from my 32.5" stallion our of my 31.25" mare - the stud is pretty refined while the mare is more heavy boned with some "wide load" hips. I would love to use my 27.5" stud with my 33.5" but I need to get a stand or something like that for him to be able to reach lol.

Preferably I like to breed smaller stallions to larger mares but it really depends - some of my stallions and mares are pretty close in height so for me, as long as the resulting foals are 36" or smaller, I am good!

Hope this helps some!

 

[Maple Hollow Farm]

Most of our stallions are under 30" and our mares range anywhere from 28-34" I do have one 34" mare that is bred to our 33" stallion, he is the tallest stallion we have. I am prepared if that foal goes over, I did the breeding simply to get an outstanding performance horse and it will have AMHR papers too in case it does go over.

We have one stallion that always downsizes the mares, another that produces the mares height most of time but downsizes other times, and some that we dont know yet

.

I generally dont breed a stallion to a mare that is shorter than him unless it is by just like an inch or something and the mare has to be wider and the stallion more refined.

 

[MindyLee]

I breed for 34" and under double reg minis. My stallions are known for throwing very small and they are both at 30.5" and 31.75" tall. My mares range 29"-34" so I dont really have to worry about going over. BUT if it did by chance at least the foal is double reg and still will be reg. with "R".

 

[Reble]

We where breeding our 32.25" stallion to mares 30" - 33.50" and as far as I know, all 15 of his foals stayed under 34"

We did keep back 2 fillies, they are around 30"

We do have now, a 27.75" stallion, which we hope to have several foals from him this year, his mares are 30" - 31.50"

We did downsize a couple of years ago. We had about 15 broodmares, we now have a manageable size herd (5 mares,) (1 colt, he will be gelded in the spring,) (2 geldings,) and 1 stallion)

We did keep, what we where looking for in our breeding & show program:

Conformation, Size and Colour.

We want to be able to keep all our foals double registered

 

[minie812]

We are breeding for the 30" and under and had 2 of the 3 that are tiny (one mares was 28"-produced a colt that is a yearling and 26") and a mare is 30" and filly is a yearling and 24". The other born mare was 33" and foal is tall I think 30" as a yearling? We go back at least 3 generations and check for height but there is never any guarantee. Fiesta is 29 1/2" and the sire to the three. Fiesta has bred to a 36" tall mare and got her in foal both times the first time. Quite a feat for a 20 yr old ole man

 

[Katiean]

IMO if you go with a 30" stud you need to make sure that he has mostly small behind him. You should also use smaller mares. I have a 31 1/4" mare that was bred to a 33" stud. Even though the mare has mostly smaller horses in her background, she produced a 33 3/4" (mature height) foal. I think for the best chances of staying small is to use small on both sides.

 

[ohmt]

It's always a gamble...you just never know what you're going to get! I have a 28.5" mare that I have bred to my 31" Iowas Little Kernel son three different times. Two were colts and matured under 28"-both just TINY! The filly was on track to mature right about 29"-30" before I sold her. I bred her to a 30" son of the 31" Iowas Little Kernel son and WHOA! I got a HUGE filly!. The filly was born 22.5" and is 33.5" as a 2 yr. old. Wasn't expecting such a long legged foal from my 28.5" mare! She's gorgeous though and definitely a keeper, even if she does go a little bit over

I have a 34.5" mare that I just adore so have kept her for the past 19 years even though we breed for 34" or under only. She has been bred to a 33.75" stallion, 36.5" stallion, and a 37" stallion. All 6 of her foals have matured 34" or under. I always wonder whether or not they'll stay 'A' sized for me because they're usually born 22"-23", but not one has ever gone over 34".

I have a FWF Little Wardance son that gives me my smallest foals no matter what mares he is bred to. FWF Little Wardance is around 33" I think? And his dam is 34". His full brother is Willow Creeks Dun Dancin who is right around 34". Cool is 30.5" and so far we haven't had a foal born over 18.5" and I breed him to my taller mares, 33"-34".

We have a lot of mares that only produce really leggy foals, others that only produce really small foals. Almost all of my stallions produce smaller than themselves. There are some crosses that have given me some pretty big babies though!

 

[HGFarm]

LOL, that's the $64000 question!!

I have had horses that were both borderline almost 34 produce foals that matured between 29 to 32ish and have have a mare that consistantly has produced smaller than she is, even when bred to bigger stallions, though her background is not teeny tiny. I have also seen horses that are very small- in the 30" range for both parents - a case in particular, the foal matured at 36"!!!!

If anyone has figured out a sure fire way to guess the right formula, I'd sure like to have it, LOL

 

[Songcatcher]

Like many others have said, there is no guarantee. I have seen foals go over 34 when both parents were under 30. Also seen foals mature under 30 from both parents in the 32-33 inch range. Of course, chances of getting small foals are better by breeding from small parents with small horses in their pedigrees.

 

[Becky]

I breed for under 34" horses. I've been breeding miniature horses since 1989 and what I do know is that what is in the pedigree generally determines the adult height of the foals. Grandparents and beyond. So, to breed for small, it's best to have a small pedigree.