"Sasha"
(Black Thoroughbred mare)

    "Sasha" is a 6 year old, 15.3 hh black TB mare that we have leased specifically to breed to Ideal. Shire/TB crosses are in great demand now, as they usually carry the fluidness and agility of the TB, along with the added bone and size, with the calmer disposition of the shire. The cross with the heavy stallion on the light mare is the more popular cross in the US, as it will usually give you a heavier TB type horse. These horses are burning up the fields in dressage and hunter/jumper shows across the nation. The cross done the other way (light stallion on heavy mare) will, more often than not, give you more of a small draft horse.  For more info on Shire-crosses, click here.
     Breeding a light mare to a heavy stallion is usually done thru Artificial Insemination (A.I.), and the size of the foal at birth is determined by the mare. The genetic influence of the shire will not cause a mare to give birth to a foal that is larger than she can deliver. Several studies have been done on this topic, one of the most notable was performed by Dr. Richard Allen of Newmarket Veterinary School in England. In his study, Dr. Allen transferred embryos of full-blooded shires into Shetland pony mares. Every mare in his study foaled out a perfectly proportioned small, genetically full-blooded shire foal. No mare in the study had any trouble with delivery and all of the foals lived. The foals grew to be a size very much larger than their surrogate dams, but smaller than a regular shire.

Sasha has a fine black colt born in May of 2001 that is for sale.  Check out Dewey's page for pictures and info