i have a 21 year old mare im wanting to breed this years. She not maiden, has 7 foals from previous breedings. 

my question is, is she too old to bred? She doesnt have any health concerns 

No answers. I have the same question as you.  I can't wait to read some of the responses that will come in.

I am giving one of my mares off in 2025. She will be 20.  Every baby is a blessing and I know every delivery is a  risk to a mare at any age. Looking into my herd to see who is stepping in for the 2 breedings I have in 2025. 

If they are healthy with no past issues, I've not had a problem. Just have her vet checked first make sure her reproductive organs are all healthy. 

I have a now 23 year old mare that I was trying to breed when she was 20 to no avail.  She had two foals previously.  She was still cycling and ovulating, just wouldn't stick.  Vet couldn't find anything wrong with her that would explain why she wouldn't take either.  

I have a 20 year old who has had three foals. She has a strange heat cycle where she develops a dominant folicle but no folds, then ovulates, and then holds the CL for an extended period of time (2-3 weeks). She will then develop another dominant, no folds, ovulate, turn around and within a few days another dominant with folds developing and that one had always been a breedable heat cycle. The past two seasons we could not get her to settle. There is little to no research on hormone imbalance for horses and this is most probably a hormone issue. I tried to get the place to not give ANY hormones to her last year but they continued to give an oxytocin shot post breeding. I do believe that interfered! This year I will be live covering her at home and see what happens. Sometimes they just quit settling, but I really think if I could get her hormones tested and adjusted right I could get her pregnant again. 

I have found that giving an older broodmare a year off can be tricky---it is best to keep them in foal otherwise it will be tough to get her to catch after the year off.

Dealt with this scenario for two years---mare would not catch and there was no real explanation for it. Vet finally said, ok---time to try some voo-doo stuff. We drew 7 vials of blood and he took it the th elab and spun it down and we AI'd the plasma and then bred her the next day---boom, she caught. His explanation was that the uterus can get tough and the embryo has trouble latching ahold and the plasma stimulates it. Maybe it was all just shear coincidence but I bred this mare for two years and after this she settled.

Maybe I need to send Xena up to your vet!! Mine is pretty dang experienced but seems more 'by the book' and uses shots to push, pull and try to control everything. Older mares have their own ideas, and I've never known one to repsond well to all the hormone shots. 

Some mares are just done. I had the best repro vet and a couple of my older mares were just done. Broke my heart but I had to except it. They lived with us regardless that they couldn't have anymore foals. We loved them untill God took them home. 

I will say this. Breeding is not for the faint of heart. So many things can happen. I have lost babies, and I have lost mares leaving orphaned foals. Raising a baby horse is not easy!  By the time you pay a stud fee and breeding fees at the vet, you could buy a youngster. The positives for this are that you get at least a one year head start on getting one to the point of riding/competing. You can pick more modern bloodlines that are winning. You can choose sex and color and age of your youngsters. You need to have you place baby proof. The can get critically injured in the blink of an eye. My orphan would not drink milk. Not outbid a bottle, not out of a bucket. She wouldn't be here if it was for my trainer. 

I bred my 20yo mare and the stud farm was amazing to work with.  Due to her age they started her on Regumate the day after she ovulated.  They recommended I keep her on the daily dose until I could get her progesterone levels checked at 14 or 16 days.  She was very low and would not have stayed in foal without it.  I opted to give her a shot once a week and she had a beautiful filly for me.  Good luck! 

You will probably be fine, you just might need drugs to help. We used to breed them until 25/26 and then let them retire. Some of them in their 20s did an embryo transfer early into a recip & then we bred them again to let the mare carry one. We had a couple absorptions, but probably a 95% success rate overall. I'm not with that farm anymore, but we do 1-5 babies a year where I'm at & several of the mares are 19+. So far so good. I think you'll most likely be fine