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Member
Posts: 16
| What is everyone's opinion on breeding mares and then running them up until a certain point in their pregnancy? What is that time frame that you can run them and how long should you wait after breeding to ride them? Thanks! |
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  More bootie than waist!
Posts: 18425
   
Location: Riding Crackhead. | I dont. It costs way too much to breed them and I breed to get that foal here safe and sound. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1229
Location: Royal J Performance Horses, AZ | My mare in my profile picture here I gave her a month or 2 off to be sure she would hold it. and then rode her through out her pregnancy. Not hard by any means. But flat work, circles, trot/lope, spin, etc things to keep her soft and supple and keep her in shape. Thats and she LOVES having a job, around Nov/Dec I only took her out on walks that were 30 mins. Then the end of Dec i stayed off her all together.
She's due right about now actually lol, hence why i'm up. Yay foal watch....   |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 898
Location: Mountains of VA | I'm going to be riding one of my broodies this year. She came up open and I have nothing else to ride, just a bunch of youngsters or bred mares, SO I'm bringing her out of her easy life. I will breed her in April and ride her through November, barrels and poles. I did this with her 1st foal 6 years ago and she rode great plus the added bonus of her not coming into heat.
Just use common sense and take extra time to warm her up and cool her down. She will be fine. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1033
Location: Iowa | Pretty sure its ok to ride them and even run them up until the 3rd trimester. I plan to this year. |
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 Reaching for the stars....
Posts: 12704
| Whatever they were doing going in to pregnancy they will be fine doing while pregnant, for the most part. Same as with a human. Be sensitive to changes and the mare will let you know when enough is enough.
I used to ride Zephyr with the saddle until she'd reach around and try to bite me when I started with the girth. Then I'd ride her bareback for as long as she wanted to go, which was usually within a week of foaling. Trail riding, nothing strenous, but she sure loved heading out until the end.
Two years ago I bred one of my competition mares. I entered her in the Colonial National in early July at which time she was running 2D runs for me. By the Colonial, she wouldn't RUN. She still cruised thru, but would not fire. I rode her a few more times on the flat and called it good.
I also understand pampering a broodie when you've spent $5K - $10K to get them in foal. That's a lot of money to risk.
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 Best of the Badlands
Location: You never know where I will show up...... | I've done it in the past with no adverse effects, however it was my own stud that the mare was in foal to so I didn't have to worry about nulling a breeding contract or being out a bunch of $$$$.
Now if I were breeding to an outside stud and spending a bunch of money I would not recommend it. And as I mentioned previously, there are some stallion contracts that will be null and void if the mare is run while in foal. To me, that wouldn't be worth the risk.
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | I ran a pregnant mare until about her 5th month. She bucked me off running poles one day, so I figured she was trying to tell me something. That was her best summer ever tho, she won a lot, because she wasn't coming in season. She was a witch on wheels when she was in... |
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 Midget Lover
Location: Kentucky | With as much money is involved with breeding... I wouldn't. |
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 You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | I don't do it either. |
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 Butter my Biscuits
Posts: 2948
Location: MI | I do it every year with my dun mare. I wait until her foal is a month old and then start legging her back up. I'll run her til about October, then I'll start letting her down and only lightly ride a couple times a week til New Years. She's then allowed to go into baby mode until a month after she foals, then rinse and repeat. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 898
Location: Mountains of VA | BandWranch - 2014-02-21 5:32 PM I do it every year with my dun mare. I wait until her foal is a month old and then start legging her back up. I'll run her til about October, then I'll start letting her down and only lightly ride a couple times a week til New Years. She's then allowed to go into baby mode until a month after she foals, then rinse and repeat.
Just curious............what do you do with the foal while legging up your mare?? Do you leave it with a group of other broodies and foals or let it run around with you?? |
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Impressive!!
Posts: 1954
Location: Idaho | I will be honest... I have always frowned upon those who run pregnant mares and also those who run them and take their new born foals too... flame away... but if I am spending the money to breed quailty stock, I know what it cost me to breed... and it is not money I want to throw away. If your mare is good enough to keep running, then pull am embryo. Can't afford one? Then make her a broodmare for a few years. My broodmares are broodmares. I have a good mare that when the time comes, we will pull embryos... until then, she will not be bred. |
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Butter my Biscuits
Posts: 2948
Location: MI | For the first 45 days I let the foal follow alongside. When it gets to the point that foal no longer follows I start leaving it in stall while I ride. I try to have foal weaned before I start hauling mare to races. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 898
Location: Mountains of VA | BandWranch - 2014-02-21 9:34 PM For the first 45 days I let the foal follow alongside. When it gets to the point that foal no longer follows I start leaving it in stall while I ride. I try to have foal weaned before I start hauling mare to races.
Thank you!
While it may not be suited for every mare, I see no reason for not riding broodies as long as common sense is used. If you stop and think about it, as women, we are expected to get fit and return to work after child birth, why not mares?
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You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | hotpaints - 2014-02-22 6:44 PM
BandWranch - 2014-02-21 9:34 PM For the first 45 days I let the foal follow alongside. When it gets to the point that foal no longer follows I start leaving it in stall while I ride. I try to have foal weaned before I start hauling mare to races.
Thank you!
While it may not be suited for every mare, I see no reason for not riding broodies as long as common sense is used. If you stop and think about it, as women, we are expected to get fit and return to work after child birth, why not mares?
I don't do it because some live foal guarantees will be void if the mare is ridden while pregnant and slips.
ETA- I do intend to leg one of my mares back up after she foals. I am going to leave her alone the first month, ride at home for months 2 and 3, and at 4 months wean and see where she's at if I can haul her. I don't plan on hauling the baby. Too many things it can pick up on the road and if it's stressed.
Edited by casualdust07 2014-02-22 7:44 PM
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| Pretend you are pregnant and your horse wanted to ride you for months while carrying a child .... just how much and how hard would you want to be forced to work during that time frame ... lol
I have not seen one pregnant woman competing at the Olympics ... have you??
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 Canine Carryout Queen
Location: Oklahoma | BARRELHORSE USA - 2014-02-23 12:49 AM Pretend you are pregnant and your horse wanted to ride you for months while carrying a child .... just how much and how hard would you want to be forced to work during that time frame ... lol I have not seen one pregnant woman competing at the Olympics ... have you??
Exactly!!!! I have a whole new respect for the mares after I had our son ... I dont ride preggo mares! |
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Reaching for the stars....
Posts: 12704
| Runnin < C > - 2014-02-23 6:36 AM BARRELHORSE USA - 2014-02-23 12:49 AM Pretend you are pregnant and your horse wanted to ride you for months while carrying a child .... just how much and how hard would you want to be forced to work during that time frame ... lol I have not seen one pregnant woman competing at the Olympics ... have you?? Exactly!!!! I have a whole new respect for the mares after I had our son ... I dont ride preggo mares!
And yet my paint mare ran some of her best runs ever when she was pregnant! Up until she didn't want to run. As soon as there was a change I stopped running her.
And my Zephyr mare would get downright depressed if she didn't get to go out on the trails at least once a week. She would 'escape' her pasture and go for a walkabout if I didn't take her out.
I know of plenty of pregnant women that still work out, walk, jog, yoga, well into their pregnancies. If they were doing it before, and the pregnancy isn't high risk, their docs would have told them fine, just watch for changes and downgrade the intensity when something changes.
If a live foal contract excludes riding the mare then don't. But if a mare is in top condition going in to a pregnancy there is no reason to think exercise at some level is going to hurt her or the pregnancy. The mare WILL let you know when it's time to slow down or stop. |
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Who Wants to Trade?
Posts: 4692
| Many LFGs will be voided if you ride a pregnant mare.
We have run one until she was 3.5m preg, but it was a unique situation. I wouldn't do it in 99% of the cases. |
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