I'm the sort to prefer pure bred over crosses, but I do love some mixes, lately warmblood x Fresian being one of them. If I breed her to a selle francais stallion then the foal would be roughly 75% SF so thats pretty good, the cross might just add some bone and color. The only problem with crosses is that I might not be able to take the foal to some competitions.

You're right that does seem a bit odd, I'll look into it.

hmmmmm

Septic Shock has a survival rate of 50%–81% so they probebly didnt take care of the foal careful enough with the wound.

Yeah seems to be a accident its a shame but its no bad mark on the mare so thats good.

The seller said she had a normal pregnancy, that she was brought into the box overnight when she had the foal, but she normally was outside 24/7 as per her usual life. She's never had any medications.

She lives with a group of mares and geldings, and depending on the group she can be a little dominant.

I've been trying to find her background and I've come to a dead end. The owner does not know the name of the mother, nor is the name of the owner at the time of her birth recorded. I'm not sure what else I can do, I could perhaps look up SF mares that foaled in 2003 but I'm not sure there's such a list out there. Could her microchip have anything?

http://i68.tinypic.com/2s7jdx4.jpg

Confirmation Pic. Are there any faults that I should be concerned about? My thought is that her head is a little small? Here's her head:

http://i67.tinypic.com/iyik5u.jpg

Another pic of her:

http://i65.tinypic.com/2142fc4.jpg

And now here are three of the colt, one at birth(ish), one at six months, and one as an adult. He was half Lusitanian.

http://i63.tinypic.com/2mmtvtf.jpg

http://i63.tinypic.com/xg9qo1.jpg

http://i68.tinypic.com/34ijs3t.jpg

Im really not sure what to do now. My parents have been turned off pretty much completely because she's a lot thicker built then they expected. That doesn't really bother me, sure I wanted a slimmer horse but the colt seemed to slim up nicely and she's still athletic and successful. She's 15.3 so not as big as I would have liked, but she's big enough. We've had bad experiences with various 'dumpy' horses or ponies, and we really don't want anything like that. To me she's got so much of the SF in her that the slight extra bone doesn't bother me, she's not cart-horsey. I've been doing my research and looking at different stallions and what people look for in stallions, and I came across a lovely boy that in my unprofessional opinion would slim her up really nicely I think. Obviously I can't know until I've seen her etc..but I think the possibility is there. What are your thoughts? If she had her papers etc..just from the look of her alone would consider her to breed?

But I wouldn't take it seriously as I have no professional opinion on correct proportions so wait for the experienced members to rock up XD

Good Luck finding a mare and with your future foal! :D

I came across DNA testing this morning, which is relatively cheap, however I'd have to do it after the sale. The owner is moving and needs to move her a long pretty quick, it'd only take a week to get results but I'm not sure she has much more patience with me lol.

She looks alright for me, her head is fine for being a crossbreed with a unknown full background. Yes it is a little small but as we dont know where it comes from its nothing to worry about, Her neck is a little short which could possible be a issue for balance whilst riding, but thats something you have to try out when you go see her as you will need to ride her.

As a Showhorse she sure is something, seems to have a nice strong backhand which is good for the jumping but i cant really 100% go by that unseen ofcorse from seeing the pictures i would say a good horse to get further competion wise.

About the Breeding, all information you have found out so far she seems alright for breeding however you need to think about what you would want to breed her for. Is it to own, train, ride the foal yourself? then yes go for it. If you want to breed her to sell the foal, no i wouldnt go for her as she has no background info on the mothers side and not many people would want a cross breed unless its registered breeding which she is not as she is not registered.

The Foal that came from her looks actually good, nice head, legs and back, good gentle eyes from what i can see on the pictures, ofcorse its always better to give judgment on that when seeing them proper.

So what i suggest on doing is, go see her, look her over, ride her and check her balance. Then get the Vet to check her over and then make your decission and only then. Dont go there and try and say yes i buy no matter what, you can like her but then vet comes and says she has something and you get your heart broken. Vet Check should make your decission nothing before that.

Also have a think about that breeding part (what i wrote above).

I didn't even notice the short neck so thank you for pointing that out, Ill keep that in mind when I ride her.

As for the foal I want, ideally yes it would be my next riding horse when this one retires, I have no intention of selling it unless absolutely necessary. However I do need the foal to be able to compete in amateur classes as I hope to be at that level soon and also if I need to sell it on there's more value. Around here there are a lot of 'club' level horses so I'm not sure how much of a market there is. Its the plan at the moment to go the UK in three or four years, at which point as far as I know it doesn't matter what papers it has, as long as it has the ability it can compete up the levels. Also there will be more market for its type. We shall see how it goes!

Im glad that it's positive, but yes, a vet check is a priority. I really can't have a injured or ill mare on my hands (or my family's) no matter how great she is.

So I guess the next step is to ask a few studbooks about their requirements, and then set up a meeting if that goes well! Hopefully it will all be fine, she'll certainly have a happy home with me if we get her.