My 7 year old Lipizzan mare is due to foal the first week of April and I could really use some advise.
My first question is when should I re-breed her? This is her first foal. I do not want to stress her system out and am planning to skip the foal heat, but was wondering if the following heat is when I should breed, or if I should give her an extra month or two to recover. This is assuming that there are no complications.
My next question is about having her bred. Before she was my horse, she was bred AI for three months in a row with no success. Last spring I had her live covered once and she took just fine.
Now, I am looking at two different stallions to breed her to next year. One is on the other side of the states so would be AI, the other is about a two hour drive away and would be live cover.
I am pretty sure that she did not take the AI due to stress. She is a worried mare who will beat at a stall door until it is down or she is down if her buddy is not with her. If I leave her in a stall and bring her buddy 10 feet away she goes nuts and will harm herself (honest, took her to a show last fall and she beat herself silly against the stall door with her buddy just 10 feet away!!!). She was not sent with a buddy to the vet's to be bred. I am hoping that having a foal on her side would be enough of a buddy to keep me from having to drag her "buddy" (daughter's trail horse) with her to be bred, though I am not above it.
When I bred her live cover it was a pasture breeding with her buddy in the pasture and I did it with my own stallion, so she did not even have to travel. If I go with the live cover stallion I can just bring her buddy with her if the foal is not enough.
I like both stallions, though I think the AI one would produce a foal with a faster selling time. Both are about the same cost. Would it be worth my while to enter into an AI contract for over $1000 with a mare that has thus far, only concieved live cover??
TSQH (198.107.233.26)
Posted on Friday, January 25, 2002 - 05:58 pm:
IMO it probably won't make much difference which method you use. The only concern would be if she goes "nuts" (for lack of a better word) worrying about the foal. She may not take too kindly to a stallion being "around" even if she is in heat. Do you have another mare that you could use if you tried the A.I. route again and this mare didn't take again? Some farms will let you use a different mare if the origional doesn't get in foal. Providing the delivery is uneventfull I would start breeding her on her 30 day heat.
Alix (131.107.3.72)
Posted on Monday, January 28, 2002 - 05:35 pm:
Thanks for the opinion, that is what I am looking for. This is my only mare that I have, and the best "quality" horse I own. If I had a mare I could use if she did not catch I would probably be a bit more relaxed about forking over that kind of cash.
If I am breeding a mare with foal I put the foal in a stall and let her (the mare) stand outside of the stall where she can see and tough the foal, I then bring in the stud and breed her. Most of the time mare is more relaxed and we do not have to worry about the foal getting in the way of the stud.
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