Are you planning on breeding your mare? If so then you’ve come to the right place. Breeding horses can be a very exciting and rewarding process and we are so excited to be able to work with you through the process. However as many people know, breeding can also be very stressful and costly experience. We have highlighted some keys areas of the breeding process to consider before you make your final decision.
- The Mare
Mare selection is a very big area to consider before breeding. Just because you have a mare in the paddock does not necessarily mean that she will be a good candidate to be bred. The mare needs to be sound and have a good temperament. Some people believe that breeding a mare can aid in behavioural issues which tends to be untrue. However ensuring the mare has a good temperament helps to reduce the risk of her becoming dangerous to handle during the breeding process, rejecting her foal or being unable to handle the foal safely if she becomes over protective.
Another common misconception is that lame horses can add value as broodmares when unfortunately not all career ending injuries are suitable for breeding. We also have to consider that these horses will have a lot of extra weight on during their pregnancy which can exacerbate a lameness. Older horses are also often thought of as being good candidates for breeding when it is actually usually more difficult to get older mares pregnant especially if they have not carried a foal previously. These are just a few examples of some common misconceptions when it comes to breeding mares.
- The Facilities
When breeding, the mare will be required to have multiple scans to check different aspects of her cycle and pregnancy. When scanning a mare they are required to be in a crush to ensure the safety of the mare, veterinarian and owner. Having a mare crush at home to facilitate scanning your mare for breeding can be beneficial however if you do not have one we are able to use our mobile mare crush on your property or we have two crushes that can be used for scanning at our breeding centre.
The mare will also need somewhere to foal down, whether this is in a small yard or a large stable is up to you. Foaling should be a very quick process and if unhindered can be over within 30 minutes. For this reason a lot of people use foaling monitors that can be used to detect the mare lying down or a change in heart rate. These can be useful rather than getting up at set times throughout the night to check the mare. Another option is to send your mare to a professional facility where they are foaled down.
- Time
Breeding mares takes time in many different forms. The appointments before and during the insemination process can take time out of already busy days, not to mention feeding a pregnant mare and then feeding, handling and training a foal can also take up a lot of time.
Breeding a mare has many steps and appointments involved which means there is more costs than just the stud fees to consider when breeding horses. Some of these costs include pre-breeding exams, follicle checks, artificial insemination, semen collection and shipping, medications, agistment and other unforeseen expenses. Unfortunately not all mares follow the reproduction textbook and some do not fall pregnant on the first or even the second attempt. This can make it a very frustrating process which is why we need to budget for the possibility of having to try multiple cycles before venturing down the breeding path.
If breeding your mare is still for you, we can definitely help you out. There are a few different options for mare breeding listed below with some details of what each entails.
- Live cover
Depending on the stallion chosen and the stud’s protocol, this usually involves scanning the mare to set her up for a day to go to the stallion to be covered.
- Chilled semen
This usually involves preselection of the stallion and establishing what days the stallion is collected and his semen is shipped. After this has been established the mare can then be set up and scanned before ordering the semen and inseminating her. This is a more involved process than live cover and has a lower success rate.
This is again more involved than chilled semen. We usually prefer for the frozen semen to be shipped to us for storage before we start to set the mare up to cycle. This is to ensure that we are not delayed by transport issues and subsequently miss a cycle we have set up for. This process tends to begin the same as the others with the mare being set up to cycle, however once she is almost ready to ovulate we will bring her into our breeding facility where she will be scanned frequently to ensure we are inseminating her as close to ovulation as possible. This will also involve a post-insemination flush to minimise the risk of introducing an infection.
This is the most complex option. This involves the same process of inseminating the mare with either chilled or frozen semen depending on stallion choice and availability. An embryo is then flushed at 7-9 days post ovulation and another recipient mare that is at the same stage of the cycle is inseminated with the flushed embryo. An embryo is not always flushed from a mare and the recipient mare does not always implant the embryo and maintain the pregnancy. This is a much higher risk procedure but it does allow the possibility of multiple foals from the same mare in a season, and the mare does not always have to take 12-18mths off work to foal down and then wean a foal. This is appropriate for high value mares who may still be in work.
If breeding your mare is something you would like to pursue please don’t hesitate to give our team a call on 07 4982 2552 and we will do our best to answer any questions you may have.