How to pick stallions for mares

Picking the right stallions to breed mares helps greatly in producing healthy and quality foals. Horses and ponies that are required for particular disciplines can be successfully bred with the correct matching. See the following guide for matching stallion horses properly to mares.



Be realistic
To get the best offspring you should breed like to like. It’s important to be realistic as to what your aims are for the foal. 

Build
Take conformation photos of the mare and compare with potential stallion horses. The stallions and the mare should be as close to the same height and build as possible for the best results.

Consider improvements
However, you should also find horses and ponies that can improve on your mare. For instance, if the neck of the mare is short, try to find stallion horses that have longer necks.

Disposition
Visit the owner of a potential stallion so you can see how his disposition is. This is an extremely important part of matching your horses up. If your mare is a bit of a handful and you find it hard to rider her, it is probably best not to breed her. Stallion horses with the best disposition will not override your mare’s bad disposition.

Photo: Bubblejewel96

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