If doing live covers with mares etc when would you recommend covering the mare.
When we see the mare in season we tend to cover on the first day of her season and then every other day. However, I note in another thread that you said that it could be as late as day 3 or 4. Is this correct?
The reason I ask was that last year we covered a mare on the first day of her showing in season and she only stayed in season (heat) for that one day, because when we tried her on the 3rd day she was out of season.
If there is a good teasing program in place, the standard is to start breeding the mares on the third day of standing heat and then every other day until they will not accept the stallion. Note that it may take up to 15 minutes of hard teasing for some mares to break down and display estrus, hence my comment about a "good teasing program". Simply walking the mare past the stallion's stall on the way out to the paddock is not sufficient for some mares. Most mares will be in standing heat for 5-7 days, and will ovulate in the last 24-48 hours of the heat. Overbreeding will increase contamination of the uterus and also result in lower pregnancy rates in mares that are susceptible to delayed uterine clearance as a result of increasing the inflammatory response. It also results in a greater exposure to risk for the stallion and handlers.
The mare you had last year that only "showed" for one day does sometimes happen, but they are the minority. While that mare would have been missed by not breeding on that first day, your pregnancy rates will be higher across the board by not breeding on the first day, and if you encounter a mare like that, you miss the first cycle and breed on day one of the next cycle.
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