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Live cover. The mares look at each other and giggle when they see a Q.H. taking a leak now.

I have rode just about all the big name quarter horse lines out there and have found good horses and bad all the way down the line. My favorite has always been a dark gold colored skipper horse. I like the way they look and they seem to be very good at whatever you wanna break them for.

I have an impressive bred horse that can really move and will go up or down anything you point him at but he is thin skinned and always seems to come up lame! Lol.

I also have a leo bred red horse that is crazy as the day is long but never goes lame and you can't wear him out. Hell of a horse. My inlaws have grade horse that grew up in this country and I have decided they are the way to go. They are way cheaper and usually stay sound in the end. Just my 2 cents.

Spencer wrote:stupid question, but can you do live cover with a draft like that and your QH, or do you have to do AI???

You can do live cover

IMO, the words "half draft' are a bit of a misnomer...There are so many types and breeds of drafts that a half draft could be 100% different than another half. I have ridden quite a few and 4 years ago I managed the largest draft horse importing ranch in the US. We had Gypsy horses and Shires. And, after seeing literally HUNDREDS of foals out of many breeds, I beleive that the Shire cross is the best. Shires are without a doubt the most agile and athletic of the drafts (not trying to start a pissin match). They also tend to throw the best mixed horses. Breed to a Belgian or Percheron and you end up with a small tank...a smaller workhorse version MOST OF THE TIME (not all)...JC, I sure like the shire stud, he looks like the perfect one to cross QH mares to.

When I managed the ranch we had 2 main draft studs. One was a drum horse (google it) who used to stand in the Queen of Englands stud farm. Galloway Warriar was his name and he was HUGE 19++ . But, we had a shire stud who had won everythin in the UK then we brought him over...Damn horse was 20+ hands and ATHLETIC...we obviously never crossed him on any mares other than Drums and Shires but man was he cool....

This guy sure has shown some real potential. We've been thinking about crossing him with one of the mares... think it will make a good mountain horse? LOL!

Brady Davis wrote:IMO, the words "half draft' are a bit of a misnomer...There are so many types and breeds of drafts that a half draft could be 100% different than another half. I have ridden quite a few and 4 years ago I managed the largest draft horse importing ranch in the US. We had Gypsy horses and Shires. And, after seeing literally HUNDREDS of foals out of many breeds, I beleive that the Shire cross is the best. Shires are without a doubt the most agile and athletic of the drafts (not trying to start a pissin match). They also tend to throw the best mixed horses. Breed to a Belgian or Percheron and you end up with a small tank...a smaller workhorse version MOST OF THE TIME (not all)...JC, I sure like the shire stud, he looks like the perfect one to cross QH mares to.

When I managed the ranch we had 2 main draft studs. One was a drum horse (google it) who used to stand in the Queen of Englands stud farm. Galloway Warriar was his name and he was HUGE 19++ . But, we had a shire stud who had won everythin in the UK then we brought him over...Damn horse was 20+ hands and ATHLETIC...we obviously never crossed him on any mares other than Drums and Shires but man was he cool....

Brady IMO a 1/2 is going to be too big especially shire. What many of the packers have going is about 1/4 draft usualy Percheron blooded here in BC....A nice cross I have seen was Percheron x standarbred and back again on standardbred. Another common way to get a bit more bone is to cross onto a big pony like a haflinger. Thorbred crossed on a haflinger can make a real nice mnt horse.

horshur wrote:

Brady Davis wrote:IMO, the words "half draft' are a bit of a misnomer...There are so many types and breeds of drafts that a half draft could be 100% different than another half. I have ridden quite a few and 4 years ago I managed the largest draft horse importing ranch in the US. We had Gypsy horses and Shires. And, after seeing literally HUNDREDS of foals out of many breeds, I beleive that the Shire cross is the best. Shires are without a doubt the most agile and athletic of the drafts (not trying to start a pissin match). They also tend to throw the best mixed horses. Breed to a Belgian or Percheron and you end up with a small tank...a smaller workhorse version MOST OF THE TIME (not all)...JC, I sure like the shire stud, he looks like the perfect one to cross QH mares to.

When I managed the ranch we had 2 main draft studs. One was a drum horse (google it) who used to stand in the Queen of Englands stud farm. Galloway Warriar was his name and he was HUGE 19++ . But, we had a shire stud who had won everythin in the UK then we brought him over...Damn horse was 20+ hands and ATHLETIC...we obviously never crossed him on any mares other than Drums and Shires but man was he cool....

Brady IMO a 1/2 is going to be too big especially shire. What many of the packers have going is about 1/4 draft usualy Percheron blooded here in BC....A nice cross I have seen was Percheron x standarbred and back again on standardbred. Another common way to get a bit more bone is to cross onto a big pony like a haflinger. Thorbred crossed on a haflinger can make a real nice mnt horse.

I've seen great results with ShireXQH crosses. You just don't wanna use a 19+ hand stud on a 16 hand mare. I like a smaller stallion on a 15 hand mare...Of course, I personally prefer my horses to be between 15.2 and 16.2 hands...Personal pref I guess

I also dont like anything crossed with any thouroughbred...reason is, I've seen thousands and shod thousands of thouroughbreds and have YET to see one with decent feet....they don't exist

B-N-Trees wrote:This guy sure has shown some real potential. We've been thinking about crossing him with one of the mares... think it will make a good mountain horse? LOL!

Make the cross James! Breed that stud to ol' Choco! Oh wait, isn't Choco a gelding...hmmmmm

brady........you have any pics of these smaller shire crosses???

Quarterhorses do not have a much better track record these days regarding feet.

horshur wrote:brady........you have any pics of these smaller shire crosses???

Quarterhorses do not have a much better track record these days regarding feet.

Very true on the Qhs...I'll look for some pics...

Boy I sure agree with feet being a problem with T-breds and appendix Qh's.

In fact some of what we call foundation horses have a lot of feet and leg problems but I think some of that is due to improper breeding practices.

For instance Take some of the later Skipper W. horses. The show folks for a long time went wilf for these horses becasue of their pretty little baby doll heads and 6 axehandle wide asses. they just kept breeding more weight and more muscle on these frames but electing to get their feed down to double aughts and keep them there. You have horses that should be wearing 1's or even 2's and the got needle feet and wimpy pasterns,and canon bones. Holy smokes talk about a recipe for disaster wheen you start trying to get those tanks on pins doing something athletic. this trend swept over into ther lines but not as much. You had the King(Poco Bueno Bred horses and they were bull dogs but not great big bull dogs with little bitty feet. I have seen a ton of them Roy Rodger's pretty palimino looking Skippers limping around crippled cuz there wasn't enough tire to support the chassis.

I will say those old morgans have kept pretty good feet on them. I have a little solid sorrel QH gelding that is a tuff footed rascal and I thought his hooves were pretty hard. Wow! you talk about a rasp wearing foot this morgan is like filing on flint. I make sure to get him after a good rain or snow when they are a little softer.He is only a little over 15 h. and he wears a 1

These are 1/2 crosses.....Percheron and quarter. My father in law bought them out of Tennessee. We had big plans but the horse market went to crap so we ended up selling all of them but two.

Here are a few pics of Frosty showin off on Zeek and Whiskey. We put 10 days on them and he went to using them after that. Pretty wild.......lol










Here is a 1/4 draft filly. She was out of a 1/2 percheron and quarter stud and a poco bueno mare. She is a tank now and the color wont hurt her either.

Just thought.....scary, i know. I have seen quite a few pick up horses that are a draft cross. They sure aren't cutting horses but when they get ahold of something it moves. I was pretty impressed last year when they had trouble with a bull, they already had him caught but he wasn't budgin, pretty good sized paint horse too, well the draft cross got in there and put his head down and the bull was pulled out of the arena.

My wifes cousin does alot of branding on some big ranches and said that those guys riding draft crossed don't have to switch out like the others. Course if they are like dumb hound guys they probably have too many to ride just one.

poser wrote:Just thought.....scary, i know. I have seen quite a few pick up horses that are a draft cross. They sure aren't cutting horses but when they get ahold of something it moves. I was pretty impressed last year when they had trouble with a bull, they already had him caught but he wasn't budgin, pretty good sized paint horse too, well the draft cross got in there and put his head down and the bull was pulled out of the arena.

My wifes cousin does alot of branding on some big ranches and said that those guys riding draft crossed don't have to switch out like the others. Course if they are like dumb hound guys they probably have too many to ride just one.

That's exactly why I got into the 1/2 SHires....for pickup horses. I have ridden Saddle Bronc horses for years and always admired a big nice stout athletic pickup horse...Brett Reeder in Corrine, UT bred a BUNCH of QH mares to a shire stud for bucking horsess about 6-7 years ago and they didn't really buck too good. I was buying them by the trailer load, starting them and selling them to pickup men all over....great mounts for that.

Those are some good looking pics Poser.

Talking about feet on a horse, IMO the reason that QH feet are so poor is because of the enviroment they are in. You don't see very many guys saying "man this morgan makes a great performance horse." but if you get an out fitter they will swear by them. The same with mules. If you take any breed of horse put them in an arena and correls or pens and keep shoes on them 365 days a year from the time they are 2 they will not have a chance to develope good feet. My horses feet change two or three times a year depending on where they are turned out and what the weather is like. It is our fault for having a horse's foot not hard enough. I very seldom shoe any of my horses and I ride them up and down the face of the mountain. But at the same time you can't just jerk the shoes off and expect them to hold up. it takes time.