2 quick questions for those of you in the know.
How long do breeders wait after a mare gives birth to breed for the next year.
if a mare has gone a season without being bred when do you consider the best time to breed?
2 quick questions for those of you in the know.
How long do breeders wait after a mare gives birth to breed for the next year.
if a mare has gone a season without being bred when do you consider the best time to breed?
If the mare foals easily and without complications and the breeding sheds are open, she'll probably be bred back on her foal heat. A mare that foals in early January will have to wait until the next cycle to be bred. If a mare has a difficult delivery, they will wait until the vet clears her to be bred.How long do breeders wait after a mare gives birth to breed for the next year.
A commercial breeder would want to get the mare in foal ASAP, because she wouldn't have been bred for either a difficult pregnancy or late foaling, or she may have been bred and been barren or aborted the foal. Some breeders don't mind later foals and may wait a bit to see if they can get a good deal on a stud fee. But the later you wait, you again risk that you're mare may not get in foal, or you'll have a really late foal the next year.if a mare has gone a season without being bred when do you consider the best time to breed?
I don't know a ton of people who routinely breed on a foal heat. I also know a few stud farms who really don't like to take mares on foal heats.
As far as when it's the best time? It's the best time when the mare tells you it is. Most mares go thru a transitional heat that isn't breedable before they really get rocking and rolling.
Nobody said giving Kirstie Alley a colonic would be easy.
It has been statistically proven that mares lose foal heat pregnancys more than 30 day or later pregs. I know of sheds that wont even book on a foal heat, or if they do, they will bump you for a mare not on foal heat.
I have 3 open mares that all were in season last week. Two went to the shed, and the third is doing a transitional cycle, we'll probably let her go out, and wait for the next one. Different for each mare.
I agree with halo and Jas. We skip the foal heat and our mares are usually bred 30 days or so after they foal--or whenever they let us know that they're ready.
Best time to breed an open mare is Feb. 15th when the sheds open or--as above--when the mare says she's ready.
Well, this is going to tell my age - but back in 1987 I worked at Oklahoma Stud in Purcell, OK. They stood Victory Stride, a son of Northern Dancer, and 2 sons of Impressive, AQHA halter sire. All mares were teased during foal heat but not bred. They were then "short cycled" using prostaglandin. A mare will usually comes in heat 5 or so days later. We had a very good pregnancy rate. We bred a lot of TB and AQHA mares that year.
I'd be curious to know if breeding farms are using this method now.
I used it last year on a mare that had a late April foal. Bought some time without having to breed on a foal heat.
Nobody said giving Kirstie Alley a colonic would be easy.
You can gain 2+ weeks on the foaling date. I always used it on one of my QH mares because she would come into foal heat on time but not cycle again for 45 to 60 days. After her first foal she had a delayed 2nd cycle, I took her to my vet to be palpated. This is funny, he gave her the prostaglandin but failed to mention that some mares can have a slight reaction. I was holding her and talking to the vet when I heard a thud. I looked around and my mare has collapsed. She was a real sissy when it came to any type of procedure. Of course, she was really okay.Originally Posted by Jas
Sometimes shortcycling works, sometimes it doesn't. Depends on the mare. Last year we had an open mare who never.came.in.heat. The WHOLE year. This year, she was back to normal and has already been bred and it's almost time to pregcheck her. Lutalyse is a nasty drug - given in the muscle, not IV, and even then within 5 minutes the mare is drenched in sweat and tremendously uncomfortable. I feel awful whenever we have to give it.
Funny story - keeping in mind that the stallions involved breed 25-50 mares/year, not hundreds like in KY. Two maiden mares came to us from the same facility in the fall to go under lights here. One stayed here to be bred to one of our stallions, and one went a little over 2 weeks ago - in heat - to another farm to be bred.
The mare who stayed here has been bred and we're now counting days. The mare who went elsewhere has not yet been covered and the owners are getting fed a line about why not.
"The horse. Here is nobility without conceit, friendship without envy, beauty without vanity. A willing servant, yet never a slave." - Ronald Duncan
Just because a mare is in season doesnt mean they are breedable. I have one in heat right now, under my care, that is not breedable, and likely wont be on this heat cycle. The farm is likely right if the mare hasnt been bred.
Daisy and Halo make excellent points. One of my vets once said that God is not a horseman. He gave the horse an accident prone gut, a leg with an inadequate circulatory system and the mare the least efficient reproductive system on 4 legs.
I have also been involved in purebred cattle breeding. We did amazingly complicated things with cows - super ovulating, AI, retrieving the embyos and implanting them in recipient cows in less time than it takes to deal with a mare with a persistent corpus luteum.
Horse breeding can be very frustrating but also very rewarding. Another thing I learned working on the cattle farm, cattlemen are ruthless when it comes to culling problem cows. The horse industry is the opposite thankfully. We have a different feeling for mares. Look at all the love and work it took for Genuine Risk to finally produce a foal.
I haven't been involved with horses in many years now but I've never forgotten all of my heart breaking times and my times of pure joy.
Funny...my mare who is now in season but with no breedable follicles is out of a Victory Stride mare. Not a name you see too often.
That is so cool. He was an absolutely beautiful horse and pretty good minded.
We had a very scary moment with him once in the collection room. He was shod on his front feet. When he was dismounting the jump mare, his front right shoe heel slid over the hock restraint on the mare's hobble. So there he was, pinned to the mare's rear right leg. The mare handler lossened the hobble quick release but all that did was allow the hock restraint to slid down on the mare's leg to her fetlock. My job was to take the AV from the vet and take it to the lab. He had already handed me the AV so all I could think of was to set the AV in the corner and run to the other side to unstrap the hock restraint. Thank goodness the strap came off perfectly and a disaster was averted. After that we duct taped his front heels. Had he not been a level headed horse all hell could have broken loose and we could ended up with 2 broken legs.
The new protocol is micro doses of lutalyse. It is .02cc so practically nothing given daily. I can't remember if it's three days in a row or five but bottom line is it works and the mare shows none of the awful symptoms that you get with the 2cc dose.
That's good to know. I haven't worked on a breeding farm in years. I'm out of touch!
Last edited by mdh888; 02-28-2012 at 02:27 PM. Reason: typo
Believe it or not a lot of repro vets don't even know that so don't feel bad.
Different subject matter but the catapillars are reported as hatching early in Kentucky due to warmer winter, and warnings to treat tree infestations aggressively or to not graze mares near cherry tree borders abound.
http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...his-year-in-ky
Last edited by Epiphany; 02-29-2012 at 07:59 PM. Reason: I added the link for more info.
I didn't think there were any cherry tree borders in central KY anymore. Most of the farms cut down just about all their fruit trees. Good to know about the warning though.
Yep....a mare can be in heat but not have decent size follicles. It happened when my maiden mare was bred. She would be in a raging heat, but those follicles just WOULD NOT cooperate! We short cycled her, had her under lights (well she was year round anyway), used Lutalyse, you name it. She FINALLY had a good size follicle and the breeder (my trainer) tried to collect the stallion (this was an Champion APHA stallion being bred to my AQHA mare) because other mares were in to be bred as well, and the poor guy wanted NO PART of it. He wanted the real thing, so they did live cover and it took.
Jennifer
My kingdom for a horse.
When was this - recent or in the past? Is the foal on the ground? And did you get color?? Who was the stud??
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