Blog Hop: Let's Make A Baby

L from Viva Carlos came up with a GREAT blog hop this week and I can't wait to read everyone's answers.  She asked:

"If you could/were so inclined to breed your horse (1.. let's not get into the issues of backyard breeding and 2.. let's pretend your horse is a mare if it's not) WHO would you breed your horse to and Why!"

Okay first off.... thinking of Chrome as a mare had me and my husband laughing our butts off!  I don't know why it was so funny, but it's really hard to think of him as a mare.  Then I started thinking about what stallion I would pick and it's HARD!  I would never breed Chrome because of his weak stifles and sweet itch not to mention he's not even purebred.  What the heck would you breed a Friesian/Arabian cross to anyway??  Picking out stallions for a purebred is hard enough on it's own, but trying to guess what a cross would look like crossed with something else..... yeah right!

Then I remembered reading about the Arabo Friesians.  Here is more info on them (LINK),   The gist of it is they are only 5-20% Arabian and the point is to improve athleticism (I think).  So I guess I would breed him... err her back to another Friesian.  Then it gets even more difficult because of how inbred Friesians are.  They said they usually breed Arabo Friesians from the Age or Ritske lines because 90% of Friesians come from the Mark line (Chrome does) and also because they are more known for their athleticism supposedly.  I'm just parroting this from the website.  So then I had to research which stallions come from the Age or Ritske line.

Teunis 332

My first thought is that I would breed him... her to my favorite Friesian stallion Teunis 332, but after looking he has Hearke 254 three generations back and Chrome has him five generations back.  And he's from the Mark line so that didn't work anyway.  For more info on Teunis go HERE.  The pictures at the top are not him, but there is one at the bottom (which I posted above).  He was gorgeous, but he died young so it's hard to find info on him.  I did however discover that he received Preferent status several years ago which I had no idea about.  Kind of exciting!  ETA:  Another stallion I always liked was Laes 278 but he's from the Mark line as well.  Both of them are dead too, so I'd actually have to breed to one of their approved offspring if I were going to... and Laes doesn't have any approved offspring.

Anyway enough about him.. sorry for rambling, but I really liked him.   I forgot to give you the link to Chrome's Friesian grandsire Brandus 345 so here it is (LINK).  Now you can see his pedigree.  You will also notice that waaaay back in his pedigree he has Ritske in there, so if I was aiming for lowest inbreeding percentage I would probably need a stallion from the Age line.  This is so complicated and one reason I don't breed lol.

So after digging around I found the stallion Sape 381 (FB page, website & pedigree--those are three different links FYI) that they claim is descended from the rare Age line..... but looking at his pedigree he also has the Mark line.... so then I got frustrated and screamed (okay not literally) and gave up thinking THIS is why I don't breed horses because I have no idea what I'm doing or how to find a friggin horse mine isn't related to in such an inbred, complicated breed.  Besides my goal of breeding him... her back to a Friesian would be to add a little height and bone... well with this "modern" fad going on in the Friesian world it's almost impossible to find the old Baroque style anyway......  and the sad thing is I could only base my decision on inbreeding percentage and how baroque the Friesian is because I have no idea what else to base it on.  Approved Friesian stallions all look alike to me these days... and I don't know enough about conformation to pick one that would specifically compliment my horse's conformation.  I don't have what it takes to be a breeder.

Then..... I realized I couldn't breed my Chrome-mare to any of these anyway because they are APPROVED Friesian stallions!!!!  He... she would have to be bred to an unapproved stallion..... by this point I was too frustrated to care... so either my Chrome-mare is not getting bred or she's not getting bred to a Friesian.  I can't breed her to an Arabian either because I have no idea what his... her dam's breeding is.  That would also defeat the purpose of the things I would want to improve in him.... her (height, bone, stifles, etc.).  Although breeding to a Friesian probably wouldn't improve the stifles anyway.

So what other breed would cross well with a Friesian/Arabian??  I have no idea!  I thought about Andalusian, but that wouldn't really increase height/bone I don't think... maybe it would.  So since I FAIL at this whole pretend breeding thing (over think much do I?) maybe you guys could make suggestions on what breed you would cross my Chrome-mare to?  My only requirements would be a little more height (around 16hh), a little more bone (I like heavier horses... don't ask why I got an Arab cross.. just don't ask), improved stifles (no clue how to even go about that), preferably not gray because even though it's gorgeous on him I don't want another one lol (he only has one gray gene so it would be 50/50 if bred to a non-gray so no Lipizzaners!)... and I think that's it.  I would love to keep his personality and intelligence because those are my favorite things about him.  Also I'd want to keep his endurance and athleticism, so when I say heavier I'm not necessarily talking about Belgian heavy lol.  Just a little thicker boned like a Cleveland Bay or something.

Gorgeous Cleveland Bay!  

Look at those thick legs!

This is a random image from Google. 

Forgot to save the source.. sorry!

So what do you think?

L. this was fun, but very difficult!!!  It's definitely a great reminder why most people (like me) should not breed horses (especially cross breed crosses ahh!!) LOL!!!!!  It's not an easy thing to do.