Choosing a Stallion for a Mare
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It’s getting to be that time of year when people are pondering breeding their mares. I was asked how I choose a stallion for my mares. It’s a decent question since I have three foals due, by three different stallions!
From my perspective, there are three fundamental questions to consider when choosing to breed a mare:
Do you need to breed? This is the title of a chapter in my first Fell Pony Observations book, and while it may seem annoying, it is based in the fact that there are many, many unwanted equines. I have even seen unwanted Fell Ponies, and it’s not something I want to see again. So if we’re wanting to bring another Fell Pony into the world, we’d best have a pretty good reason to do it. Click here if you’d like to read the chapter from my book. Spoiler alert: breeding a mare isn’t a way to make a profit…! If you decide to breed to produce something to sell, be prepared to keep the foal for as long as four years, which is the longest I’ve had to keep one before it sold, thanks to the Great Recession. So, ask yourself honestly: do I really need to find a stallion for my mare after all?
What are you breeding for? The Conservation Breeding Handbook states: “A basic and guiding philosophy is the single most critical component of any breeding program. A breeder’s first task is the development of a specific purpose in breeding animals. This may seem obvious, but it is very often overlooked, with the result that breeding is done with little progress toward any goal.” (1) Putting another rare breed foal on the ground isn’t a good enough reason (see #1 above). Rare breeds, including the Fell, don’t need randomly bred animals that may cause people to choose what they know instead of something unusual like a Fell. You will want to choose a stallion that will produce with your mare a foal that is consistent with your breeding philosophy. If you are interested in reading the chapter ‘Breeding with Intent’ from my first Observations book, click here.
Where does your mare need improvement? There is no such thing as a perfect pony, so it’s important to choose a stallion that will improve on her. In Sue Millard’s very important book Hoofprints in Eden, she quotes Ivan Alexander of the Lune Valley Fell Ponies as saying, “It’s more of a ‘trying to knit ‘em together,’ than ‘picking two good ‘uns.’ You’ve to try and find summat that’ll suit what you‘ve got. Mind, having said that, you want summat that you like, cause if you don’t like it to start with you’ll never like it, will you?” (2) There is an entire chapter on creating the next generation of Fell Ponies in Hoofprints, collecting the wisdom of the long-time breeders Sue interviewed for the book, so I highly recommend reading it. Click here for reviews and more information.
It's one thing to ask these questions, and another to answer them, so here’s my current answers. 1) I have chosen to continue to breed Fell Ponies despite the unwanted-equine problem because I have a clear view of what is special about the breed and of how to produce ponies that will be good partners for their humans so are unlikely to become unwanted. If I don’t feel I can produce ponies like that, I don’t breed. 2) My breeding philosophy is to produce ponies that have important breed characteristics that I feel are in danger, specifically proper movement (very different than action) and a ‘package’ suited to the breed’s historic versatility: ride/drive/draft/pack. 3) I am my mares’ own worst critic. None of them so far fit the picture in my mind’s eye of an ideal Fell Pony. If you don’t know where your mare’s faults are, find them, because there is no such thing as a perfect pony. I used three stallions last year to see how they could improve the three mares.
I chose to use three stallions for three reasons: First, I’ve used all three of these stallions before, so I have seen what they throw, and I know there’s always more to learn. Second, all three mares have been bred before, so I have seen what they throw, and again I know there’s always more to learn. Finally, each pair had unique circumstances. In one case, I felt an outside stallion was a better fit for my mare than the stallion that I have. In another case, I very much liked what my stallion and the mare produced, and I’m looking forward to another just like it. And in the last case, I bred a very good mare to the father of a filly I own to learn more about the filly.
I was asked whether I prefer stallions that have a history of working. While I have used that criteria in the past, there’s so much more to what a stallion brings to breeding. I was reminded of the late Walter Lloyd’s advice. Walter was the long-time breeder of the Hades Hill ponies and someone who put Fell Ponies to work in numerous ways. Walter’s son Tom is now stewarding the Hades Hill herd and shared Walter’s selection criteria for either gender in a Fell Pony Podcast: 1) will it survive on the fell? 2) will it breed (recognizing that not all ponies will), and 3) can you work with the temperament? (3) Notice that only one of these has to do with working, and it isn’t even about working in the strictest sense of the word. It also occurs to me that a temperament that one person can work with isn’t necessarily one that another person would choose. So again, we as mare owners must answer the three questions above and develop our own unique selection criteria.
Several of the breeders interviewed in Hoofprints said something similar to this advice from Barry Mallinson of the Hardendale Fell Ponies: “People want to look at what to improve. I look at the actual quality of the ponies. You’re just trying to breed better each time as you go along. And it can go wrong. It can throw back to its grandparents and you’re nearly back to step one again.” (4) Breeding is obviously not for the faint of heart!
Sponenberg, D. Phillip and Carolyn J. Christman. A Conservation Breeding Handbook. Pittsboro, North Carolina: The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, 1995, p. 11.
Millard, Sue. Hoofprints in Eden, Hayloft Publishing, Kirkby-Stephen, Cumbria, England, 2003, p. 97.
Lloyd, Tom. “Episode 10: Ruth Chamberlain,” Fell Pony Podcast at https://fellpony.co.uk/podcast/2022/1/10/episode-10-ruth-chamberlain
Millard, p. 97.
© Jenifer Morrissey, 2022
