Selecting a Stud: Choosing a Stallion to Breed with Your Mare

Many people assume equine breeding is simple. After all, it's natural. If you have a mare, you may wish to breed her, so that you may produce and preserve some of her best qualities in a new generation.

This can be a costly prospect. Breeding and stud fees can add up, along with veterinary bills and mare and foal care. Although you may begin ground training your young horse almost immediately after foaling, it may be three or four years before you can begin saddle-training your young horse.

Breeding is not a vastly complicated science, but several variables do come into play, if you wish to increase your odds of gaining quality offspring from your mare.

Before you can select a suitable stud for breeding, you will need to ask yourself several important questions.

What equestrian discipline do you prefer? Does your mare go English or Western? Is she an athletic jumper, a speedy barrel racer, or a quiet trail horse? Is she a high-stepping saddlebred, a perfect piaffe dressage partner, a driving draft horse, or a rigorous reiner?

What are your plans for her offspring? Will you keep or sell them? Will they be pleasure horses, or do you want to compete in shows?

What are you willing to pay, in terms of stud fees? These can vary dramatically, from a few hundred dollars to many thousands. (Remember Barbaro, the Kentucky Derby winner in 2006? While he was alive, breeders booked dates with him for $10,000.)

Choosing a Stallion

The gestation period for a horse is eleven months. Keeping a mare throughout her pregnancy (covering her board, care, and medical expenses) can be a major investment. Picking the best sire for her offspring is vital.

Before you begin traveling to view several stud candidates firsthand, you will likely want to do some research. Begin with breed association websites. Read equine publications. Look at stallion listings and ads. Attend horse shows, and walk down Stallion Row to see what other breeders are offering. This will give you a basic idea of pricing, values, and quality.

Seven major considerations come into play, in your choice of a stallion.

Breed

Generally, high quality breed-registered mares are bred to stallions who are registered with the same breed association. If you have a branded Holsteiner mare, then you may wish to retain breed integrity and select a Holsteiner stud. Freesian owners, in particular, are quite strict about this.

Increasingly, however, equine breeders are purposefully cross-breeding to improve the quality of the offspring that are produced. In particular, the American Sporthorse is growing in popularity. Half-Arabian and half-Warmblood (such as Westfalen or Hanoverian), these extremely athletic and trainable horses offer the best of both breeds. Such foals may be double-registered as warmblood crosses (American Warmblood) and Half-Arabians.

Conformation

The conformation (body type and structure) of a prospective stud is critical. A wise breeder will attempt to trade up, as it were.

Carefully evaluate the conformation of your mare. What are her best features? What would you like to improve, in her offspring? Seek a stud that carries complementary conformational assets. Are you looking for a more refined neck? Do you desire a hotter temperament? Look for a stallion that may accentuate her best features and compensate for her shortcomings.

A word of caution here: The color of a horse is one of the least important considerations. Sure, a stud can throw color to his get (offspring), but this factor falls way behind skeletal and muscular structure in priority. (Paint horse breeders will certainly investigate the genetics of color, however, as they seek to produce flashy foals.)

Do not rely merely on glossy, airbrushed professional stud portraits. Seeing a sire firsthand is essential.

Temperament

A kind and tractable temperament is a considerable asset in a young horse. Conversely, a high-strung aggressive nature is a major drawback. A stallion can certainly pass on personality to his offspring. Spending time with a sire before signing a breeding contract for him can pay big dividends later.

Pedigree

It's all on the papers. A stallion's registry may be available online as well. The All-Breeds National Database lists stallions, mares, and their progeny. Virtually every breed registry will carry listings of premium studs. Breeders may wish to choose a stud that carries a prodigiously promising pedigree. Thoroughbred breeders, in particular, seek champion ancestry in a stallion. If you do opt for pure pedigree, you can expect to pay dearly for it.

Quality of Offspring

Before breeding to a stallion, it is important to evaluate the foals he has already produced, particularly from similar mares. (Breed-based horse shows often offer Stallion's Get classes to showcase a sire's offspring.)

Have any of his offspring begun competing? How did they fare? How are they performing? Do they have solid conformation?

Stud Fees

Stud fees can be a sizable investment, from hundreds of dollars to millions. Compare costs, as well as features offered. Evaluate breeding contracts and what they include. Ask stud owners if they will provide a live foal guarantee, which assures you that they will rebreed your mare, if the first breeding does not result in a colt or filly.

Breeding Methods

The actual reproductive act may be accomplished through either artificial insemination or a live cover.

Depending on the breed, some stallion owners will not allow live-cover breeding. Simply put, the hooves can fly, and it can be dangerous. Artificial insemination may be done on-site (after collection from the stud) or through frozen semen. Associated costs may include semen collection fees, veterinary fees for implantation, and more.

In other cases, as with thoroughbred racehorses, breeding is exclusively live-cover. This eliminates any question of paternity. The mare's owner must transport the hopeful dam to the stallion's farm, where he is welcome to witness the transaction, as it were. Booking fees and boarding costs may apply (if the mare must stay overnight).

Dinner and flowers are not required, although the mare might enjoy some clover or a bran mash with molasses afterwards.

The Waiting Game

Whatever stallion you select, and whichever breeding method is done, you will likely discover within a few weeks whether your mare is successfully in-foal (pregnant). If she fails to cycle (come into heat), then you will know. This can be confirmed by a veterinary examination and ultrasound.

Eleven months later, you can hope to have the foal of your dreams!