Mokete

Mokete is the first Corolla born of our off site breeding program. Her mother is under 13 hands and her father is 13.2. She is on a track to be much bigger than her father. At birth she was about 1/3 bigger than any of the wild Corolla foals that I have seen. I have another foal that was born in the wild in Feb. of 2008. She and her mother had to be removed from the wild when she was less than a week old. From that time both mare and foal have had first rate nutrition, yet Pomioc remains a normal size for a still wild foal. Sampson and Porter were captured as weanlings because they had each received injuries that required vet care. Both have been quite well fed and cared for. Sampson is tall. He is now over 14 hands. Porter is getting taller in recent months and will likely top out at just under 14.
When the Corollas actually lived in Corolla where they had access to better forage, some were much larger than those now found in the area of Corova, a site adjacent to Corolla where the horses were driven in the 90's in order to keep them from being killed in the highway. One foal is too few to build a hypothesis on but I am open to the possibility that good pre natal nutrition will produce a bigger adult than will poor prenatal nutrition and good post natal nutrition.
Another surprise is the size of my 1/2 Corolla foals. They are all much larger than were any of the foals produced in previous years even when bred to a stallion two hands taller than Croatoan. The real question will be whether a cross between a Corolla and a Shackleford will also result in off spring larger than either parent. Perhaps I will know that in two years.
Unfortunately, it may be easier to breed larger Corolla horses than it is to convince many adult riders that a 13.2 , 750 is large enough to carry them all day long. ( see our web site http://www.msindianhorses.com/ under the tab, I ride Ponies for a full discussion of this issue.)