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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 324
| I was having a discussion with a friend about this and would like some outside opinions... What's the absolute youngest you'd breed a filly? And your reasons too please. Thanks! |
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 Bulls Eye
Posts: 6443
  
Location: Oklahoma | Zipping up my flame suit. I bred my mare as a 2 year old last year. She foaled a healthy filly this year at 3. It wasn't ideal, but the way we were set up I really had no choice. I put her out with our gelding who mounted her and ran her through the fence. Her two pasture mates were out with our stallion. After a discussion with our vet over her size, maturity, etc. we made the call to go ahead and put her back out with her pasture mates and our stallion and just see what happened. She had a text book delivery and pregnancy. She's big... pushing 15.3 and it didn't seem to hurt her. We will not be breeding her again. She will be broke under saddle this fall once her baby is weaned and my baby is born. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 324
| Here's why I'm asking-- My friend has a 2 year old filly that will probably never be sound for riding. She's considering breeding her as a 3 year old (foal at 4). The filly stands 14.3hh now and and should mature 15/15.1hh. She's lean like her mama so there's no telling if she'll be all that thick by the time she's 3, but she's fairly solid as is. Opinions? |
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 Guys Just Wanna Have Fun
Posts: 5530
Location: OH | **Cowgirl Up** - 2016-05-09 11:49 AM Here's why I'm asking-- My friend has a 2 year old filly that will probably never be sound for riding. She's considering breeding her as a 3 year old (foal at 4). The filly stands 14.3hh now and and should mature 15/15.1hh. She's lean like her mama so there's no telling if she'll be all that thick by the time she's 3, but she's fairly solid as is. Opinions?
Why is she not sound ???? |
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Bulls Eye
Posts: 6443
Location: Oklahoma | Mighty Broke - 2016-05-09 10:51 AM
**Cowgirl Up** - 2016-05-09 11:49 AM Here's why I'm asking-- My friend has a 2 year old filly that will probably never be sound for riding. She's considering breeding her as a 3 year old (foal at 4). The filly stands 14.3hh now and and should mature 15/15.1hh. She's lean like her mama so there's no telling if she'll be all that thick by the time she's 3, but she's fairly solid as is. Opinions?
Why is she not sound ????
I agree with Mightybroke's question. Is it hereditary unsoundness or is it caused by injury? There is definitely a lot to factor in. Many thoroughbreds are bred at 3 and have their first foal at 4. |
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 Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | TwistedK - 2016-05-09 7:18 AM Zipping up my flame suit. I bred my mare as a 2 year old last year. She foaled a healthy filly this year at 3. It wasn't ideal, but the way we were set up I really had no choice. I put her out with our gelding who mounted her and ran her through the fence. Her two pasture mates were out with our stallion. After a discussion with our vet over her size, maturity, etc. we made the call to go ahead and put her back out with her pasture mates and our stallion and just see what happened. She had a text book delivery and pregnancy. She's big... pushing 15.3 and it didn't seem to hurt her. We will not be breeding her again. She will be broke under saddle this fall once her baby is weaned and my baby is born.
We had one get accidentally bred at 2 also and she was fine. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 324
| Her lameness is due to injury as a foal. Not hereditary. |
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| I would consider AI over live cover and a smaller stud if she's not all that big, but I think you'd be okay. |
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Bulls Eye
Posts: 6443
Location: Oklahoma | My mare and her filly are in my avatar picture. I would have your friend talk to a repro vet about the mare first. |
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  The Color Specialist
Posts: 7530
Location: Washington. (The DRY side.) | Depends on the individual. I have a 2yo that I would NEVER even consider breeding. She is very immature looking and acting. (Reminds me of a yearling. She is also a June foal so not even 24 months old yet.)
Personally, I wouldn't breed one younger than 3yo.That said, I have had 2 fillies that foaled at 3 (bred by other people) and both did fine. They were both also race bred, which tend to be early maturers.
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 Good Grief!
Posts: 6343
Location: Cap'n Joan Rotgut.....alberta | 4...imo.....m |
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 Champ
Posts: 19623
Location: Peg-Leg Julia Grimm | RacingQH - 2016-05-09 10:23 AM
Depends on the individual. I have a 2yo that I would NEVER even consider breeding. She is very immature looking and acting. (Reminds me of a yearling. She is also a June foal so not even 24 months old yet.)
Personally, I wouldn't breed one younger than 3yo.That said, I have had 2 fillies that foaled at 3 (bred by other people) and both did fine. They were both also race bred, which tend to be early maturers.
Ditto ^^^
I've bred a couple of fillies but not before they were 3. When it's my choice I wait until they are 3. But if the filly is well taken care of and well fed, it probably won't hurt anything. But not to a stallion that sires large babies. |
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 Expert
Posts: 2097
Location: Deep South | **Cowgirl Up** - 2016-05-09 10:49 AM
Here's why I'm asking-- My friend has a 2 year old filly that will probably never be sound for riding. She's considering breeding her as a 3 year old (foal at 4). The filly stands 14.3hh now and and should mature 15/15.1hh. She's lean like her mama so there's no telling if she'll be all that thick by the time she's 3, but she's fairly solid as is. Opinions?
We bought a a 4yo filly once that had a weanling by her side when we went to try her out. Stud got out while owners were out of town and bred a few mares.
So she was bred at 3, foaled as an early 4yo. Like your friend is thinking of doing. She was perfectly fine. Went on to have a long and successful barrel career afterwards.
She was an average size mare. 15.0-15.1hh. |
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 On the Countdown
Posts: 2934
Location: Texas | I sold a 2 year old that was not sound for riding due to some cartlidge damage and could possibly be rode later as a 3 or 4 year old per vet. The people bred her to DFP, and never registered the baby... The mare was bred nicely, but not something I would have crossed her on. I got a email later on asking if she was able to be rode that they wanted to ride her! UMMM no not if you bred her. |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | 3 to 4 years, no younger then 3. To me a 24 month old filly is still a baby.
Edited by Southtxponygirl 2016-05-09 2:26 PM
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Regular
Posts: 85
| We have a cutting mare that wasn't ever going to be broke (due to an injury) and bred her at 3. She was AI and foaled as a 4y/o with no issues. She just had her 3rd foal and hasn't ever had any trouble. I would definitely assess the situation...projected foal size vs. the mare's size etc... but this particular mare didn't have any issues.
Edited by Lph88311 2016-05-09 2:31 PM
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 415
| Bred my injured 3 year old (not heridetary) AI while she healed and she was 15.2 and big so I knew she'd be big enough. She foaled just after turning 4 and is a great mom, no complications, and will be broke out this year |
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 Expert
Posts: 1430
Location: Montana | I read an article years ago by a really good reproductive specialist. Horses were selling well and there was a lot of interest in breeding two year olds.
He said only if they were at least a full 24 months old, had been on a very good nutritional program their whole lives and would remain on one throughout the pregnancy, lactation. Then of course the mare should be big and healthy and mentally mature. If any one of those items wasn't the case, then she wasn't a candidate for breeding as a two year old.
He also warned that it would affect the mare physically. Her legs will end up a little shorter than they would have been. Her ribs will be sprung a little. Neither of those really matter if she's just going to be your broodmare forever.
I always appreciated this article because it was written by a man with a solid academic background in addition to decades of experience breeding many, many hundreds of mares. I like that combination much better than anecdotal evidence. But I have one of those stories too.
My Dad, who is now 91, got his first broodmare when he was 7. She was two. She was also his first saddle horse of his own. And she was pregnant. Bred as a yearling and foaled at two. She had a colt every year and was his ranch horse for years and years. I guess she kept having foals well into her late teens although Dad no doubt moved on to other riding horses before that. The colts just followed along. That was normal back then. I tell that story to stress that just because something went wrong or went right for a mare someone had doesn't mean it's a great idea.
Go with the advice from the experts!
We don't breed twos but do breed threes. But we don't feed tons of grain every day - ours are on pasture a lot.
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Guys Just Wanna Have Fun
Posts: 5530
Location: OH | OhMax - 2016-05-09 12:47 PM I would consider AI over live cover and a smaller stud if she's not all that big, but I think you'd be okay.
Size of the mature stud does not play into the size of the newborn foal. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1631
Location: Somewhere around here | I'd say the youngest would be 3 or 4. We bought a young OTTB a few years ago and had a knee injury. Got her for a good price so we decided to spend the money on the surgery to fix her up, having a high success rate, and planned on riding her and barrel racing her afterwards. Lo behold, she died on the operating table.  We wished we just kept her home now and just bred her to a good stud. |
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