Smallish mares & breeding

[HISGEN65]

Hi all
I have a mare who is retiring from the track soon...she is extremely well bred but is on the
smallish side both in height & frame
From your personal experiences what are the pitfalls when attempting to breed from smallish mares...foal size,health dangers to the mare etc

cheers

[mightymo]

Hi James

There are a number of things to consider. Firstly, just because she is small, doesnt mean she will throw small foals. What are other members of the family like? Even if she does throw smaller foals, that doesnt mean they wont be any good. There is certainly a mindset amongst yearling sale buyers that small is not good. However, there are many examples of this not being the case. The most famous probably being Courage Under Fire. Baby Bling was a very small yearling and is still on the smaller side.

If you are going to race the resultant progeny, then i would say you should absolutely go for it. One of the best broodmares of recent times was French Flair - she produced 2 millionairres in Fleur De Lil and Miss Galvinator and another in Our Galvinator has won over 600k. She would barely have been 14hh and her foals whilst a little bigger, were still on the small side.

I would suggest you breed her to a stallion that tends to throw some size into his foals, but other than that, I wouldnt be put off from breeding from her.

Regards

Harvey

[Triple V]

G'ay James,

For mine there are small mares & there are small mares.
If they're 15h & under & they're fine boned it's not a deal breaker. If however they're also short coupled then that's 3 strikes and they're out. I just can't envisage small, fine boned, short coupled mares as becoming successful producers.
If however they are small & fine but they are long bodied then IMO you've got something to work with. That being said these are generalisations, there are examples of exceptions to every one of them. Sakuntala is as good an example as I can think of at the moment.

The size aspects aside, mares that displayed great gait & point to point high speed, even if it was only for a furlong are right up there on my list...and even if they were unraced, just as long as they showed those two things when in work/being broken it. Trust your gut instincts mate. If she is well made, she had speed & she a good gait then I'd go for it.

[LisaB25]

Hey James, we are in the same situation with a small mare we have nicely bred but small in size,very solid and well put together though. She's a cuf out of a 16h mare. I think we will give her a shot and hope to get some of the grand dams size into her foals.
One of my mares would just be 15h but consistently throws foals closer to 16h even if the sires arnt big. Works both ways I Spose, we sent a couple of big mares to cuf hoping to get some size in them but still got small foals, but hopefully they can still run.

[HISGEN65]

thanks so much for the replys & advice everyone...I appreciate it.
I'll see how she lets down & go from there..cheers

[Richard prior]

Hi James, i have an ambro operative mare that's only just touching 15 hands. Her first foal is by artistic fella and measured 15.3 hands just after he was 2 years old and I expect him to grow a little more. The mare is fairly solid and artistic fella has bred size and muscle into the young fella. I would be trying to get a stallion that suits her pedigree and be giving her a go for sure. I also have a bettors delight mare whom I sent to rock n roll heaven for her first mating. This mare is taller and I thought heaven would be a good choice, as he's not very tall and her filly foal is very tall. There's just no rules with breeding, and a lot of smaller mares certainly leave bigger foals. As Harvey touched on previously, there have been a lot of good smaller horses over the years.

[HISGEN65]

thanks for that Richard...yes the compact smallish type of race horse is really making an impact of late..again,thanks everyone for the info much appreciated