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Member
Posts: 8
| I have a mare who was born in 1995 and has never been bred. She was a 1D horse before her stifle injury and has been my pasture pet for three years. People I know encourage me to breed her. She is line bred Jet of Honor/ Jet Deck. To look at her you wouldn't know she is "older" . She still has spunk and her body looks good too. I'm just to worried about breeding her , but I really want to because she is a nice horse and I've had her for most of her life. What would you do? |
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 Total Germophobe
Posts: 6443
  
Location: Montana | I would speak with your vet and have a breeding soundness exam done. If your mare is in good shape, and the vet sees no reason why she shouldn't or couldn't conceive or carry a foal, I don't see why not. But there is always a risk. Personally, I'd talk to your vet first. :) |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 576
| Vets can't always tell I bought a 17 year old mare that had never had a colt, always been a barrel horse. Took her to the vet for breeding exam and he told me I was crazy to even think about breeding her, not to waste money shipping semen that she would never settle. Well I took her home turned her out with the neighbors stud and she got pregnant the first cycle...had a nice colt and I shipped semen on her the next spring and she settled the first shipment so it can happen! |
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Member
Posts: 8
| Thanks for your info ladies.
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1095
Location: GA | It really depends on the individual mare. I have a 1996 mare that we tried to breed for the first time 4 years ago. We had a breeding soundness exam done, and did AI shipped cooled/frozen semen, and my mare never took. The stud was also older, but his semen looked good. The next time we tried breeding my mare was 2 years later, did another breeding soundness exam (just incase) and she looked perfect. We found a local stallion, so we took her to him to get fresh semen. We heard that some mares take better with fresh semen rather than cooled or frozen. This stud was also much younger than the first stud we tried. This second time, we did AI, and the stallion stood at, and the breeding was done at a well known veterinary dept at a University. My mare never took. We tried the last time this year-we did a local stallion and we did live cover. We also heard some mares take to live cover better than anything else. We took her to a trusted friend who owned this stallion, and they bred her for us. She was pregnant at the 20 day mark, and then at 30 days, no baby. We really just are now giving up. Its expensive to breed a mare 3 times 3 different years, 3 different studs and 3 different methods and get nothing from it. On the other hand there are some maiden mares that are 18, 19 years old and take on the first try and carry a foal to term..just depends on the mare honestly. |
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Breeding older mares