Is a female horse a mare after she breeds the first time or at a certain age? I think after they are about 3 they are a mare, younger is a filly. Some people think they are fillies till they breed the first time. What are your thoughts lol
Much is a culture/taught sense of "coming of age". A mare doesn't require having a foal before becoming a mare otherwise there would be many "fillies" dying of old age because they were never bred at any point in their life.
I was personally taught that the change of filly to mare was at age 5 unless they had a foal before then.
^ ditto. If it went by when they had a foal, I would have had a 32 year old filly last year. I was always taught that 5 was the "magic" age when the switch to mare happened, although I've seen people refer to female horses younger than that as mares so it really is a fluid term depending who and where you are.
I've always known a filly to change to mare status at the age of four. Five or six would probably be better though as they still have maturing to do at four.
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