[Agheera]

So, where I live almost every mare is a breeding machine. They have their foal and in the first heat after that, they breed them again. For me, that's not ethic at all, but I guess if the horse was "free" they would reproduce every year... I see my neighbours breeding their mare every single year and I kind of hate it haha (but maybe I'm humanizing this?? -- is humanizing a word in english?).

I'm not talking about high competition or performance horse, but just horses used for trail riding and light work (we don't have many horse breeds here or purebreds). Here with high competition horses they take the mare's egg, fertilized in vitro and the result is implanted in a receptor mare (or they make a natural mount, then take the embryo and implant it in a receptor mare) that's used for gestation and upbringing.

The mare I bought was used as a brood mare for the last 8 years (she's 10 now), I was able to meet 3 of her progeny and they are all beautiful horses. I do not want to breed her again (even though she tries really hard to mate with my gelding, and he loves it anyways ) until her actual foal/colt has the age to be ridden.

So I think this post is just to continue learning from different "cultures" and learn what you guys do there, or what types of handling you do about this topic!

 

[QtrBel]

The advice here is unless your horse has excellent conformation, a great temperament- so sound in body and mind - as well as having proven himsrlf/herself in some discipline then you don't breed. Even if you have your own stallion to service your mares it isn't cheap or guaranteed to make you money. Actually by the time you're posting sale ads if you don't have a proven cross and a demand you've lost money.

 

[Agheera]

The advice here is unless your horse has excellent conformation, a great temperament- so sound in body and mind - as well as having proven himsrlf/herself in some discipline then you don't breed. Even if you have your own stallion to service your mares it isn't cheap or guaranteed to make you money. Actually by the time you're posting sale ads if you don't have a proven cross and a demand you've lost money.

Perfect! So as a veterinarian who works with dogs (mostly) and cats, I see this the exact way for them. Lots of clients wanting to breed their dog because its papered, but lack conformation/temperament and are not titled in sport or confo.

Here people do make some money because most horses are just living their life in the mountains (they don't spend money on them) and every year or 2, the owner goes trail riding and get the horses down the mountain, catch the young ones and train them to be ridden and then sold.

If they need quick money, they will sell an older horse for human consumption (makes me so sad, especially being vegetarian).

Here a horse with no training or papers and just in time for being trained, can cost from US 430 - 615, a trained one US 920 - 1100 and if the horse is papered and competing in rodeo US 3.5k+, just papered and "good bloodlines" US 1.5k+. It's a different story for thoroughbreds, they can cost millions.

I do wish we could have more horse breeds; we mostly see thoroughbred, arabians and chilean horse. Many of them are not papered and I can assure they come from a shaddy place.

 

[Zimalia22]

Speaking as a breeder (retired), breeding the mare back every year is easier on them than if you were to skip years inbetween.
Not all mares fit into the category of being able to be bred on foal heat. I have bred on foal heat with a lot of mares over the years. But to fit into this, the mare should have foaled without any troubles at all. It's a good heat to breed on especially if you want to back her up a month in foaling dates.

As I said in another post, not all mares should be bred, they are not broodmare material, meaning, they are just not quality enough to be bred. The mare that makes it to broodmare status is not one that nothing else can be done with her. Far from it. She should be of outstanding conformation, trainability, breeding, mind and preferably have a record of some sort. Not all mares get the opportunity to be performers. Many are chosen to be broodmares just because of their breeding and conformation. I'm good with that. They they must be as near perfect as you can get.

The process you are talking about is embryo transfer. The mare is bred, typically by AI, then in a few days, the embryo is flushed and put in a surrogate mare. Very expensive procedure, but it's a useful one if the mare is actively competing, or she is unable to carry her own foal.

 

[Dreamcatcher Arabians]

So, where I live almost every mare is a breeding machine. They have their foal and in the first heat after that, they breed them again. For me, that's not ethic at all, but I guess if the horse was "free" they would reproduce every year... I see my neighbours breeding their mare every single year and I kind of hate it haha (but maybe I'm humanizing this?? -- is humanizing a word in english?).

I'm not talking about high competition or performance horse, but just horses used for trail riding and light work (we don't have many horse breeds here or purebreds). Here with high competition horses they take the mare's egg, fertilized in vitro and the result is implanted in a receptor mare (or they make a natural mount, then take the embryo and implant it in a receptor mare) that's used for gestation and upbringing.

There are a lot of breeders here who breed on foal heat (first heat), I prefer not to for many reasons, none of them having to do with humanizing (that's a real word but we use anthropomorphizing more often) the horse . I prefer to allow the mare to raise her foal to weaning, then after the foal is weaned, I like to put the foal back with the mare for the next 6 months or so. Before weaning, I put mare and foal out with other horses, then pull the mare after the foal is comfortable with the other mares and has chosen an 'auntie' or gelding 'uncle'. After a couple of months, once the mare has stopped lactating, I put her back in the group and let them all go on together until the mare has had a full year off. When I was breeding more mares for myself, I bred each one every other year, so they would have plenty of time off to get healed up and healthy. Now that I'm not breeding but 1 or 2 foals each year, and my mares are getting older, I have one who needs to be bred each year or she'll soon not be able to conceive. I have had most of my mares since they were very young mares, and I keep them until they're old and pass of old age. As I'm getting older, I'm breeding less and not wanting to breed as often, so my oldest and best mare may be allowed to go barren in a couple of years.

We, as a nation, do quite a bit of ET (embryo transfer) and leasing out recip mares is actually a pretty good industry for some folks.

Ideally the horses should be well bred, well conformed, proven in some kind of discipline, and really good natured. Not everyone subscribes to those particular ideals. Many people breed 'paper to paper' just looking at pedigrees and not looking at the mare in front of them and looking for a stallion to strengthen the strong points and make up for any weak points. Too many breed ill tempered animals because they're bred to death or superb performance animals, but you can't trust them for a minute.

 

[Linoone]

Here people do make some money because most horses are just living their life in the mountains (they don't spend money on them) and every year or 2, the owner goes trail riding and get the horses down the mountain, catch the young ones and train them to be ridden and then sold.

Ah, so those horses are semi-feral then. Technically owned, occasionally rounded-up, but left to fend for themselves otherwise. Barely a hundred years ago great swaths of America raised horses that way. The dubious "legacy" of that time period is the mustang.

Many places still breed horses that way. Including some places you wouldn't expect, like Great Britain. The Dartmoor, Exmoor, Fell, New Forest and Welsh Ponies all have semi-feral populations there.

Germany, France and Spain also have notable semi-feral populations of specific breeds.

 

[Horsef]

Around here (Serbia) we overall don’t have many horses 10.000 in a country of 7 million - people are generally not well off enough to keep horses. There is a small population of around 80 to 100 feral horses on one specific mountain but no one breeds from them.

There is a clear distinction between urban and rural horse keeping.

Urban population keeps horses recreationally and very rarely breeds even if they keep their horse in a rural environment. A private owner will maaaybe get one foal out of their mare but even that isn’t very common.

Rural population keeps Lipizzaners and a specific type of “farm mutt”, usually a paint. They keep their mares in foal all the time. They don’t care about conformation, track record, temperament or anything really. We have a glut of really ugly Lipizzaners.

The third group would be racing enthusiasts who keep a few TB or trotter mares but nothing large scale. They also keep their mares pregnant most of the time but they also get lightly ridden - from what I’ve seen it seems better for them to be kept in shape. They do pay attention to breeding lines and performance as much as possible (which isn’t a whole lot with so few horses in the country).

People who want a decent sports horse for jumping import trained and proven horses from abroad. We don’t have any warmblood breeders locally. A few foals from private owners but not very often and they usually keep them for themselves.

Roma people used to breed quite a lot but they scaled down significantly as well.

 

[EliRose]

"A pregnant uterus is a healthy uterus." If your mare meets your breeding requirements then it is generally best to keep her in-foal. I don't breed off of foal heat, I breed off of the mare's second heat after foaling. My older broodmare is going to be bred until she will not take off of the 1st or 2nd cover, then she'll just be retired. She's easy to get pregnant and easy to foal out, she is 17 and this is foal #11 for her. After this one I might try for an ET Appendix for a riding horse. She's a beautiful mare with not a mean bone in her body, who makes incredible foals. Her progeny have sold cumulatively sold for over a million USD at auction.

Her daughter meanwhile is getting a planned year off this season so that her first three foals can start proving themselves. I was offered a free breeding to a stallion this year after she'd already had her second post-foaling heat, and her ovaries wouldn't cooperate so I didn't even send her to the stud. It was too late in the season to deal with her nonsense. As her two year looks like a star she'll be bred to a better stallion early next season.

 

[Agheera]

"A pregnant uterus is a healthy uterus." If your mare meets your breeding requirements then it is generally best to keep her in-foal. I don't breed off of foal heat, I breed off of the mare's second heat after foaling. My older broodmare is going to be bred until she will not take off of the 1st or 2nd cover, then she'll just be retired. She's easy to get pregnant and easy to foal out, she is 17 and this is foal #11 for her. After this one I might try for an ET Appendix for a riding horse. She's a beautiful mare with not a mean bone in her body, who makes incredible foals. Her progeny have sold cumulatively sold for over a million USD at auction.

Her daughter meanwhile is getting a planned year off this season so that her first three foals can start proving themselves. I was offered a free breeding to a stallion this year after she'd already had her second post-foaling heat, and her ovaries wouldn't cooperate so I didn't even send her to the stud. It was too late in the season to deal with her nonsense. As her two year looks like a star she'll be bred to a better stallion early next season.

My mare is not of breeding quality (I do like her a lot how she looks and she produces really nice looking mare and stallions, but Idk if it was because they were kept in tiny places with many other horses, but they acted crazy hahsha still one of her daughters was the most beautiful horse I ever seen)

I think it is easier keeping the mare pregnant because then you don't have to deal with all the heats she has until she gets pregnant or months pass by (and see her with my gelding having fun hahaha). On the other hand keeping her pregnant (choosing the stud) would make life easier in many aspects.

This is my first and last mare though hahaah

 

[Dreamcatcher Arabians]

I think it is easier keeping the mare pregnant because then you don't have to deal with all the heats she has until she gets pregnant or months pass by (and see her with my gelding having fun hahaha). On the other hand keeping her pregnant (choosing the stud) would make life easier in many aspects.

This is my first and last mare though hahaah

Mares are no different than geldings. I don't put up with any nonsense from them just because they are in heat. They're expected to behave and give me their attention just as if they were not in heat. Same for my stallions, they are not to act at all studly unless we're in the breeding shed. I ride them in mixed groups, do mixed lessons, classes, trail rides, you name it. I will put a gelding next to a stallion on the side of the trailer and tie mares on the opposite side of the trailer, that's the only concession I give to their being intact or not. If they can't behave, the stallion would get gelded and the mare would get sold.

 

[Agheera]

Mares are no different than geldings. I don't put up with any nonsense from them just because they are in heat. They're expected to behave and give me their attention just as if they were not in heat. Same for my stallions, they are not to act at all studly unless we're in the breeding shed. I ride them in mixed groups, do mixed lessons, classes, trail rides, you name it. I will put a gelding next to a stallion on the side of the trailer and tie mares on the opposite side of the trailer, that's the only concession I give to their being intact or not. If they can't behave, the stallion would get gelded and the mare would get sold.

Yep, but you can't control that when all the horses are free lol. Literally my mare will put her butt IN my gelding's nose and push him against a wall until he gets up 🤣😂. She behaves well when in heat + riding, no problem at all. They know how to behave during rides, but being free they make their own parties and also gallop to the horizone during the sunset.

 

[Dreamcatcher Arabians]

Yep, but you can't control that when all the horses are free lol. Literally my mare will put her butt IN my gelding's nose and push him against a wall until he gets up 🤣😂. She behaves well when in heat + riding, no problem at all. They know how to behave during rides, but being free they make their own parties and also gallop to the horizone during the sunset.

Oh yes, I thought you meant under your control. When mine are free, well, they're free to do as they please. I keep stallions in one pasture, mares in another. Gelding (one and only) is out with the mares only because he prefers them to the stallion, though they are friends. I don't care if they tease him, he could care less about them. Just goes and eats somewhere else in the pasture. His main job is traffic cop when the neighbor's cows break a fence. He stands in the middle and tells the mares, "NOPE! Back over there ladies, these are not our kind!" and then tells the cows, "Back where you came from! NOW! We don't rub elbows with your kind over here!". And he keeps it up until someone sends the cows home and fixes the fence. Silly horse, but I suppose everyone needs a job.

 

[Agheera]

Oh yes, I thought you meant under your control. When mine are free, well, they're free to do as they please. I keep stallions in one pasture, mares in another. Gelding (one and only) is out with the mares only because he prefers them to the stallion, though they are friends. I don't care if they tease him, he could care less about them. Just goes and eats somewhere else in the pasture. His main job is traffic cop when the neighbor's cows break a fence. He stands in the middle and tells the mares, "NOPE! Back over there ladies, these are not our kind!" and then tells the cows, "Back where you came from! NOW! We don't rub elbows with your kind over here!". And he keeps it up until someone sends the cows home and fixes the fence. Silly horse, but I suppose everyone needs a job.

Omg I love that hahaha. My gelding is WEIRD! He will lick everyone and everything. He tries to lick my dog, he licks stallions that are being confrontational, he loves to lick the colt (he will end up WET), and of course he licks the life out of my mare when she's in heat. I just love him. I will get close to him and he will lick me hahaha. Your gelding sounds like so much fun! Please post a picture <3

We had a problem with him only at the beginning when my mare still didn't exist here. He was being way too territorial with other horses that passed by or needed to be in our house. But that stopped when my mare arrived and they become really good friends with my mare's colt. The previews owner said that initial behavior came because "HE'S TOO FAT!", "that horse is way too fat and that's why he's behaving that way" (in other words, he had too much energy and didn't know what to do with it but harrass other horses).

 

[ACinATX]

I am not sure if your question was addressed only to actual breeders, or to any horse owners? I'm not a breeder. I have a mare. I believe she has been bred before. She is a nice color and has a wonderful mind. Her conformation is decent although her feet aren't too great. I think she'd make a great mother. I'd love to have a foal.

But it's not like the world needs any more randomly-bred grade horses, plus I don't have a good enough eye to pick a stallion that would suit her. I will never breed her. If I ever get a foal, it will be one that I bought.

 

[EliRose]

My mare is not of breeding quality (I do like her a lot how she looks and she produces really nice looking mare and stallions, but Idk if it was because they were kept in tiny places with many other horses, but they acted crazy hahsha still one of her daughters was the most beautiful horse I ever seen)

I think it is easier keeping the mare pregnant because then you don't have to deal with all the heats she has until she gets pregnant or months pass by (and see her with my gelding having fun hahaha). On the other hand keeping her pregnant (choosing the stud) would make life easier in many aspects.

This is my first and last mare though hahaah

On the other hand some nice mares get EVIL when they're dealing pregnancy hormones. I know a few mares that you can tell are pregnant before the first scan. Same in the opposite direction too!

 

[Dreamcatcher Arabians]

On the other hand some nice mares get EVIL when they're dealing pregnancy hormones. I know a few mares that you can tell are pregnant before the first scan. Same in the opposite direction too!

I had a mare who was, not nice when not in foal but an absolute LOVE BUG the minute she got pregnant. That didn't cut it around here, I don't put up with nasty, but the Jekyll-a/Hyde-a switch was interesting to watch, once. One of my friends bought her and absolutely loved her because she produced beautiful foals and they were very sweet, respectful and imprinted on humans almost immediately. I said it was because she was such a witch to them, they couldn't wait to wean and get away from her.

 

[Dreamcatcher Arabians]

Your gelding sounds like so much fun! Please post a picture <3

Cloney is an absolute NUT. He loves attention, does anything you ask and just basically loves to show off.
First pic is Cloney checking fence. Second is Cloney checking his "herd".
He's a thumb sucker. The vet just cracks up. Instead of a tranquilizer or twitch, I just let him suck my thumb or even just let him have my whole hand in his mouth when he's getting his exam. Keeps him totally quiet and relaxed. Vet can't believe that "crazy Arab" is such an easy going, big baby. He's totally changed his mind about Arabian horses because of Cloney.

 

[knightrider]

He's totally changed his mind about Arabian horses because of Cloney.

Not surprising. He is gorgeous! And it sounds like he is very fun and funny.