preparing for breeding

as a lot of you know, i am planning on putting my mare to a stallion. im hoping to take her to the stallion around mid march.

my support network (my biological dad) is not well at the moment and i dont want to bother him with a hundred questions so i thought id ask a few on here.

the first q is about feeding. at the moment she is on a rather mixed diet. she gets lucerne chaffe, fibre plus chaffe, cracked lupins, rice bran, wheat bran, pony pellets, economix, mollases, a COMPLETE supplement, lucerne hay, oaten hay and rhodes grass hay along with normal grazing which is minimal though. do i need to add or take away any of that feed in preparation?

do i need to keep her by herself when she comes back from the breeders or can i leave her with jarred? he tends to pick on her a bit. not much but im worried that his bossiness over her would stress her or something.

basically im looking for any hints on preparing her for the breeder. someone said they need good condition but not too fat. what is the ideal conditioning for a mare going to the breeder?

any hints would be appreciated :)

First off, I would have a breeding exam done on her, and have her cultured to be sure that her uterus does not have any infections. (You cant tell if they have an infection unless cultured.)

She does not need to be seperated from other horses unless 1) there is a certain horse that picks on her. Keep her away from that horse. 2) she is generally "low on the totem pole". Meaning that if she is not very dominate, keep her seperated for a couple of months until you are sure she wont be hurt. I know there aren't any guarantees, but, if she generally gets along in the "herd" there shouldn't be any problem.

Basically she should be "in shape" but not fat. In shape meaning, she should be of good weight, but not overweight. Most American horses are overweight due to overfeeding and lack of exercise. She can continue to do any exercise that she is used to doing, but don't start anything new or strenuous.

Your feeding program sounds fine. (as long as she's of good weight.) She should have free-choice hay at all times. If she gains too much weight from that, then decrease her grain intake. A good vitamin supplement is fine too. Just don't "over supplement" her. Some of the vitamins and minerals can be dangerous because they don't "flush out" and build up in the body. Follow the guidlines, but don't give her extra "just because"

I would ask these questions and any more that you can think of when you get her breeding exam done. I certainly don't mind answering questions, but I am not a vet. Always get a vets opinion before starting or changing any feeding programs etc on your horse.

If there was anyone on here to answer breeding questions it would be Txhorsemom. I would check out the post I made on mare and foal care too. There is a section on assessing your mares body condition that I found interesting. I'll copy it here so you dont have to go back
http://www.foalcare.com/

txhorsemum - thanks! i forgot to say in my OP that a vet check will be done before hand :) i wouldnt think of having it any other way :) thanks for answering my q's :)

vida - i saw that link this morning and had a look at it. theres some really good things in there :)

ok, heres another question. someone told me i should look at a stallion her size or smaller for her first. is this true? i really want a tb x wb but my girl is only 15h. should i forget the warmblood daddy?

Thanks Vidaloco! That was a good link too.

As for the size stallion and mare, to a point they are correct. You certainly wouldn't want to breed (for example) a 17h stallion to a 14h mare. But, within reason the stallion can be a little bigger. I would say you could be comfortable breeding a 15h mare to a 16h - 16.2h stallion. I don't know that I would go much bigger. To a certain extent, the mare won't carry a foal bigger than her body can handle. But IMO I wouldn't want to push it.

I have heard of much larger stallions breeding small mares, but I am a bit conservative and wouldn't want anything happening to my mare.

Good luck, Theres nothing more exciting than foal watch!!

^^^ ooo i know :) i cant wait. 14 months to go lol and counting hehehehe i think the most exciting thing is waiting to see what it looks like :)

heres a random question...what do i do if/when my mare gets all cranky? ive heard that its good to put a halter on and off bub from day one but how do i do that if she gets all protective and cranky at me? i know this is a long way off but theres a bunch of questions i think of and if i dont ask when i remember i will forget again for ages :)

on that note, is it a good idea to put a halter on the foal for short periods from day one? i realise you wouldnt leave it with the halter on but i was just wondering

^^^ ooo i know :) i cant wait. 14 months to go lol and counting hehehehe i think the most exciting thing is waiting to see what it looks like :)

heres a random question...what do i do if/when my mare gets all cranky? ive heard that its good to put a halter on and off bub from day one but how do i do that if she gets all protective and cranky at me? i know this is a long way off but theres a bunch of questions i think of and if i dont ask when i remember i will forget again for ages :)

on that note, is it a good idea to put a halter on the foal for short periods from day one? i realise you wouldnt leave it with the halter on but i was just wondering

when a baby was born at our barn the owner was out 2-3 times a day just imprinting on him for 20 minutes. She would introduce the halter slowly, rubbing it on his body, his face.....but make sure the baby is use to you first.

Make sure that anything you use on the baby you introduce to the mare first.
If it has another foal or mares scent on it the mare might take an offensive stand.
I have heard of mares going after their babies that are blanketed with an unwashed blanket. Or a washed blanket that has been put where it can pick up other scents.
Always better to be safe.

thanks guys :) anything for the foal will be brand new as this is my first foal but thanks foe the tips :)