Horse x shetland pony mix??

[preppy*hippie*chick]

I don't know... the foal my welsh mare gave birth to was as big as a Morgan foal.

 

[muscovy94]

is this combination sterile like mules?

 

[greathorse]

NO they are not sterile a mule is sterile because the cross between the horse and donkey. This creates a hybrid that is sterile.

 

[muscovy94]

but I though horses and ponies were different species, kinda like horses and donkeys?

 

[greathorse]

preppy*hippie*chick :

That sounds dangerous. I know Pasos aren't very big, but when I was a kid a Morgan stallion got loose and bred my 12 hand Welsh mare. She had an awful time having it and the very sizable foal died. That's the problem with crosses like that - you never know which characteristics they'll inherit. For example, National Showhorses (half Arabian half Saddlebred), Ideally they have a beautiful Arab head and are big movers front and back. A few turn out like this, but so many have the saddlebred head and can't trot. For those not in the know on this, when I say can't trot, I don't mean literally - I mean they don't have the high animated gait of an American Saddlebred. In my ever so humble opinion, the friend with the paso pony got really lucky.

Preppy make no mistake I am not recommending that folks go out and breed Clydesdales to miniatures. I was merely commenting that equine foal size is largely controlled by the uterine capacity of the mare and in most cases foaling problems are not because of oversized stallions. There are of course cases in horses that the uterus allows for a foal to develop that is too large for the foaling canal in the mare, no matter the stallion size.

It is my understanding that there have in fact been a lot of studies done around this, and as a matter of fact it was my vet that gave me the information that large stallions can and have successfully crossed with small mares. This in contrast to calving problems caused by using the wrong bull especially in heifers.

I would recommend anyone desiring to cross any animal out of the norm to consult a good equine vet.​

 

[greathorse]

Quote:
Nope.... same species just a lot of different sizes. It would be a bit like a bantam and a Jersey giant being the same species just a lot different in size. Now a guinea and a chicken are a different species, they can mate, and I beleive in almost all cases are sterile just like mules.

There have been very rare cases where mules have reproduced by the way. We had one here in Colorado a couple of years ago.

 

[patandchickens]

Ponies are just shorter horses. Same species, no problem there.

Short stallions can perfectly well cover tall mares if the mare is put in a bit of a hole or any other arrangement to help with the mechanics.

It is not however a very good IDEA, because rather than something evenly middlesized, what you tend to get when you cross animals of vastly different sizes/proportions is a foal with some momma-sized parts and some daddy-sized. Thus you can get a giant tank on wee short legs; or a pony with a huge clunky head and neck; or other weird and not really desirable arrangements. (Dont' argue about genetics, I am a biologist -- I am telling you what ACTUALLY HAPPENS the majority of the time when you breed two very dissimilar horses)

There is an additional reason not to put a small pony mare to a large stallion. While the foal will not grow *as* big as if it'd been in a larger mare, it still has a significantly higher chance of being large enough to cause problems being born. So you can end up with no foal at all, sometimes no mare either, and lots of bills.

Really, horses should be mated on the basis of "this is a superior mare, what stallion can I find that will maintain her good qualities an improve on her weaknesses". Period.

Pat

 

[conny63malies]

Quote:
I have seen a doxiexST Bernard cross, take a guess who the dad was!!!

 

[muscovy94]

wow a dachshund st bernard mix? THats an odd combination....(could you please post a pic of him?

 

[Appytaz]

I had a shetland Quarter cross pony. Sire was the Quarter. She was (and still is) the prettiest pony I think I have ever seen. Soild Blood bay with not a hair of white on her. She was about 12 hands and had perfect Quarter Confirmation on a smaller body. She has the personality of the Quarter also. By far the best pony I have never met or owned!