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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 972
  
Location: Texas! | How long after a mare foals should you wait to get her back into conditioning/riding/training? I have a mare due mid June and want to get her back to is as soon as health wise possible. What are y'all's take on length of time? She is a young maiden mare, turns 6 this year. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1229
Location: Royal J Performance Horses, AZ | My barrel mare that I bred last year foaled out about 3 weeks ago and i have lightly ridden her. Like just walking pretty much. I plan on giving her another couple weeks before i start working her and really getting her into shape.
Brace your self, most people will comment and say a BROODMARE IS A BROODMARE dont ride them let them be mommas.
but personally if the mare is sound and healing well from foaling and the foal is okie dokie. There is absolutely no reason she cant be ridden lightly. As said though giver her 3 weeks to a month. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1218
Location: Great NW | I always rode my mares right up to foaling time. the last couple weeks was just walking and troting - what they could do - depending on how big they got. Then I started them right back up about 3 weeks after a normal delivery. if they had a difficult delivery I waited longer to make sure they were good to go. I wish you luck and have fun with that new baby. |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| It is a lot of stress on a foal as well as the mare. Stress can cause colic, in both mom and babe, also if you start early the baby's bones, joints, and tendons are still soft and not fully developed and this can cause all kinds of problems later in life.
I have never started riding my mare until at least 3 months as technically babies can be weaned then.
For you, you need to weigh the pros and cons and decide what is more important, and what you are willing to live with. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 972
Location: Texas! | Thanks for the responses, I have no problem waiting as long as is needed. She is only green broke so would start back slowly anyway with her. My thought was hot walking her for a while just to get a little work to her and then eventually work to roundpen again. I am moving down to Texas this weekend so running into winter isn't a concern now. |
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  The Color Specialist
Posts: 7530
Location: Washington. (The DRY side.) | What are you planning on doing with the baby while you are working the mare? |
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 Living within my means
Posts: 5128
Location: Randolph, Utah | I plan on staying off my mare until the baby is weaned. I don't want the hassle and worry of taking a baby with me to ride. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 972
Location: Texas! | RacingQH - 2014-03-11 8:55 PM What are you planning on doing with the baby while you are working the mare?
Guess it would depend how clingy they are, which with the way she buddies up to her pen mare and defends him so much I'm fairly certain she's fun a be a momma bear kind so who knows if I will be able to do much. I don't mind waiting until weaned just wondered what some others have done? |
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 You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | I got one one of my mares after she had her foal because I was told she knew the pattern and was curious as to how much she knew. I think the baby was around 1-2 months old?? It was one ride and short. The filly ran around the arena like nothing was going on.. and the mare was fine. But, since it was a one time ride, I wasn't really seeing how it would be long term.
I do plan on getting on my mare Lucy after she foals, but I have no idea when. I plan to play it by ear. Mainly- I don't want to be exercising her if the baby is pulling her down. So if she looks at all like she's thin.. I won't exercise her. Also, I don't want to stress either of them so if it looks like it'll be an issue.. I'll stay off. |
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 Reaching for the stars....
Posts: 12708
| Walking and trotting a mare and foal around isn't going to stress either the mare or foal. Mares sometimes get tons of exercise chasing their new foal around for several weeks, so a little more directed walking and trotting isn't going to cause a colic. I have always gone into an empty arena and left the foal loose. The mare may watch the foal more than she pays attention to you at first, but I've never had any issues starting to leg a mare up this way. As the baby get older, haltered, leading, etc, you can keep the baby on a lead line and ride with the lead in hand, or you can tie train (tho I've always found that to cause more stress than any other way),or you can continue to take them in to the arena together but leave the foal free. By about 8 weeks the mare won't stress that the foal isn't right by her side, and the foal will have a ton more confidence to wander on its own and won't panic if it wanders off a bit and sees its momma across the arena. The worst thing I've ever had happen is the foal running into momma, which was tough on my leg, but if you watch mommas and foals in the pasture they run into their mommas ALL THE TIME! LOL! |
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