Breeding again!

I have finally decided to breed my appaloosa mare again, after 4 years. It will be with the same stallion. Blaze, an 8 year old, blood bay Arabian Belgian cross. We sadly lost the foal 4 years ago due to a mouse in his ear. (it happens.) So we decided to try our luck again.
My mare:

Note, she has mild arthritis in her front left leg. Due to her age and her past career. She is 17.

Blaze:

(I have no pictures, so I will use his brother as a reference. He is identical.

Why are you breeding and creating a grade horse?


And how do you loose a foal due to a mouse in their ear?

Welcome to the forum. You will find that the majority of people (myself included) are not huge fans of breeding an ungraded = unpapered/mix breed horse, as there are so many of them already.

With so many unwanted and or free horses it is just not the responsible thing to do.

And please, how does a foal die from a mouse in the ear? Did no one check on the foal for a week?

I really think you should think again about this. Why make more mutts? Not to mention HOW does a horse die from a MOUSE in it's ear... Go deaf in that ear? Maybe but it's not like they breathe through their ear.... We've already been over the breeding mutts on another forum..

I would like to reminds all posters of our conscientious etiquette policy, linked here: http://www.horseforum.com/horse-foru...e-policy-6069/.

I have removed multiple posts from this thread either were not on topic or were not in keeping with the policy.

The OP did post photos of her mare in a section that invites critiques, so reasonable critique of her horses and her breeding plans are to be expected.

Please keep it civil.

I'm curious about the mouse in the ear, it's something I've never heard of. Was it still a foal when it happened or older?

I'm also curious what you'll be using this foal for? Like, what discipline?

I'm not quite sure what the point of this thread is. Are you asking for opinions on what the foal may be like? Or if this is a good breeding match? General questions about breeding? I'd just like to know so I can respond appropriately. :)

I fail to understand how a foal can die from a mouse in the ear. I mean if you checked on the foal daily you would have noticed and any person would have thought to get it checked if there was a mouse in it's ear.

I can't be hypicritical(spelling?) so it really is your choice to breed a grade foal though the best you could do is at least use a stallion where the foal could get registered for something as half or color.

Please, if you do breed again don't let the poor thing die by a mouse crawling in its ear.

He was a foal. An older man (98) that lives down the road from us, pulled out a dead mouse. He said that it caused balance problems, and this led to him falling down and killing himself.

I am asking opinions on what you guys will think the fola will be best suited for, etc.