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Thinking about possibly crossing my 15'2 mare with a pony stud.?
I'm looking to find out if anyone has any experience with this and how the results went. Basically ponies seem to be pretty hard to come by where I live. I can get a Shetland foal, but I want something bigger and the only other ones I've come across are in their mid to late 20 and their asking prices are just far to high. Besides in my brain it simply does not equal out to replace a senior horse with a senior pony. I've been looking for a good one for the last couple years, to replace my 14'2 Arab that is getting up there in years.
I have thought about shipping one but the good ones I can find are going to cost 3000 to ship when I add that into their price and then flight tickets to go and see the pony, stabling cost to keep the pony until it can be shipped, it's just getting a little out there for an animal I can't ride personally and is mainly for my new crop of young nieces that will start riding in the next 3-4 years and start really riding in the next 6-7.
Ideally I would like a 12-13 hand pony with a good temperament so my thought on this is that I can cross my mare who has a fantastic temperament with kids and is just a really well rounded all around horse, with a well rounded pony stud and possibly get what I'm looking for. But of course I have no experience with this whatsoever and I very much know that genetics are funny things and I could end up with something very different then what I'm picturing. I am leaning towards crossing her with a nice welsh stallion (going the AI route if I do it) So wondering if anyone has any experience and could give some advice.
Also my mare is well balanced horse, who has competed in extreme trail events, shows, endurance and of course playdays. She is always in ribbons. Although I never showed her in jumping she was clearing 4 foot jumps on her own and 3 1/2 with a rider. I've watched her clear a 5 foot fence (with ease) for no other reason then to get to the empty pasture on the other side, I guess she thought the grazing was better. So she has a lot of natural talent for jumping, I simply don't enjoy it anymore and haven't had a child around who was interested.
I'm sorry I wasn't clear I am experienced with breeding I am not experienced with cross breeding a pony and a horse. My mare is a lead mare, she is in foal now, and she is in very good health. We walk hand in hand with our vets through our mares carrying their foals and are well aware of the cost and risks involved in breeding. Loosing your mare and foal, when your mare is in good health and experienced is very rare, especially if you walk hand in hand with your vet like we do. Yes I am aware it does happen but it is not that common. So no for us breeding is by far the cheaper option. Now ending up with a strange mutation of a horse, if that is common then no that wouldn't be worth my time at all.
Oh for goodness sakes, I have already stated that it would be by far cheaper to breed. We my husband and I have rescued many horses and placed them in good homes, our older Arab was a rescue, I am well aware of the fact there are horses that need rescuing! I am talking about a pony for my nieces one they can ride for a long time and that is good quality that they can event on. You can show me a hundred pictures of ponies and yes they are nice doesn't take away the shipping prices and flight costs when you add it together no it is not cheaper not by a long shot. I'm sorry I have done the research.
I've read that the foals of pony/horse crossing tend to lean towards the mothers height. When I talked about this with a pony breeder she told me on average if I bred a 10h stallion with my 15'2 mare she would guess the foal to be between 13-14h when grown. So I was keeping that in mind good to know though.
3 Answers
- Jeff SadlerLv 78 years agoFavorite Answer
Not a good idea. I have seen horses crossed with ponies. Some have good conformation, but others are atrocious. The worst I saw was a horse sized body with pony sized neck and legs and a draft horse shaped and horse sized head. It reminded me of a horse off of tumbleweeds.
You may be too young to remember the old Tumbleweeds comic strip in the Sunday paper.
- catxLv 78 years ago
Wile on paper it seems like an ideal solution, it's really not.
Remember that putting your mare through pregnancy is incredibly risky, you could kill her with the pregnancy and end up with no mare and no foal. You would need to spend a small fortune on vet fees to get the mare through the pregnancy, the foaling, and the first few months in any case. Then there's the weaning and training of the foal.
All in all the cost of breeding your mare vs importing an already existing ideal pony isn't that different! Breeding is NOT a cheaper option.
- LilianLv 68 years ago
My daughter had a very well bred AQHA mare that had great disposition and was super trained and was classy beautiful she wanted to breed her to a small beautinfu show winning welch stud. She did and the foal is going to be as large as the mom. she is very pretty but big. So crossing small and tall will not guarantee you would get a pony size horse.
