The title speaks for itself, I wanna hear it all! I'm thinking of breeding my mare for the first time, I'll be back in school next year for a 12 month accelerated nursing program and won't be going to any shows . I don't have any experience with breeding or foaling anything out.. I currently have a mini I'm waiting on to foal but I bought her without knowing she was bred. Lol so tell me what you wish you'd known before getting into the world of breeding! 

Breeding and having a baby is great, but  there can also be a lot go wrong for almost the same money you can buy a weanling your choice of breeding, color and sex.  

Sometimes they are smooth as silk, others have very rough pregnancies that can get quite expensive. Honestly, unless I had an absolutely amazing, well bred, well put together, great mind, proven in the barrel/ pole/ roping etc. pen... I'd just buy a yearling/ 2 year old unless you just want a baby baby. :) 

You will pour your heart and soul into a baby just to have it die from some freak accident. Sounds harsh but it happens too often. And yes, for the same amount of money if not less, you can get one that's ready to go now. Breeding is not for the faint of heart. 

My sister was in the same boat, she was in nursing school so she bred her mare. She bred her and rode most of the summer she was pregnant. Then the next summer when she was deep into school the mare had a foal on her side. 

The baby is now 2 and getting ready to be started. 

It worked out well for her, but her mare has had a hard time coming back. She's had lots of soundness issues. not saying having a baby caused them but they started after. 

Raising babies is both heartbreaking & rewarding. I had my first foal in 2009 and now have 5 mares & a stallion, I love it in spite of the heartbreak. I lost my first 2 foals I raised, the first one broke his leg as a yearling & then a couple months later I found my 3 month old dead in the pasture. I've also dealt with some ugly injuries. But for me the rewards outweigh the expenses and heartbreak. 

We bred my daughter's barrel horse as it was recovering from an injury.  We were able to get her bred with the help of a good repo vet. It took a lot of work on my daughter's part to get her bred (lot's of trips to the vet and a lot of injections). Took a lot of money on mom's part. HA! (Mare has one small ovary, we discovered).  Mare was shipped to my place in the fall and last May we had a very healthy filly. Mare and foal are doing fine. For us, the pregnancy and foaling out was easy. However, getting her bred was time consuming and expensive.  

We have four mares and a stallion. We have had decent luck but they can hurt themselves or have accients. It just happens. They are like 600 pound kids. We have certainly had a number of injuries like trying to run through a fence or being cut up. Most of them have come through it fine. Percentage wise, the vast majority have made out to be nice upstanding riding horses who are starting to compete. I love breeding personally. The babies are sooo much fun. There are better ways and worse ways to do it. A healthy mare that isnt a maiden after 15 is a good place to start as is a safe pen and great repro vet. They won't guarantee or protect against all accidents but they help. Letting them kind of act as God intended has worked well for us too. I tend not to buy maiden mares or ones that are difficult to deal with or who can't pass a breeding soundness check including a culture. That has been some of our luck. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And we have beautiful babies that we usually sell as weanlings. I have become great friends with so many of our buyers.

I had never bred a mare before but had a nice mare (halter/pleasure bred) and won a breeding to a Frenchmen's Guy son in an auction for fairly cheap. There is no way I could ever afford a horse with bloodlines like that so I did it. My vet was really great about letting me know what to do and when to do it. She got my mare preggo on the first try and she was a maiden so I thought that was a good sign. The mare had no problems and foaled out by herself with no complications and was a terrific mother . I walked out to the barn to feed that morning and got the best surprise, I'll never forget the feeling. Raising her and watching her grow has been such a joy and now she's four. I'll keep her forever which is the only way I'd bring a horse into this world.

Yep, I just lost a mare.  Now I have a hysterical week old baby that is an orphan. It isn't easy and way cheaper to to just buy one. 

I had a mare lose her baby at birth this year.  She sees the other mares with their babies and it really bothers her.  It breaks my heart to see her yearning for those babies. It breaks my heart that it was everything I was hoping it would be except dead.

The best advice I ever heard was "If you can't afford to lose the mare, then don't breed her." and that goes for emotionally or financially. 

I did take a risk and breed my good mare while I was pregnant last year. Everything went picture perfect - settled on the first breeding, foaled effortlessly, have a healthy foal and momma currently. . . however with that said I won't be breeding her again. I feel like I beat the odds and I don't want to try beating the odds a second time. Won't plan to breed her again until I retire her from the arena or if I have funds to flush her. 

We've been breeding and raising foals for the last 8-9 years. Definitely have had more good stories than bad, but the bad really make you question why you do it. It is heart breaking and a dark place to be. So for me it all circles back to "dont breed the mare if you cant afford to lose her."

I just sold a couple broodmares to downsize. If I didn't have a nice set of mares left, I'd just buy 2 or 3 year olds going forward. 

On the other side of the coin.  I lost my good stud a couple years back, after a couple attemps to replace him.  I finally got a solid bay son of Judge Cash out of a good Sun Frost daughter.  He so kindly broke my leg a year ago on the first "ride".  So I turned him out with the broodmares.  This last month, I got 2 outstanding foals by him.  One out of my ASOF daughter and the other out of my Famous Bugs daughter.  Both babies are out of this world nice!  I couldn't be happier and more proud.  As for my young stud...he left on Friday to spend a couple years with JD Yates.  Fingers crossed he keeps accomplishing and learning to the best of his potential!  

So now I have a pasture with some amazing broodmares and foals.  A stud with one of the most accomplished trainers in the country.  I couldn't be more excited about my breeding program!    

This year is our 20th foal crop and yes, as others have stated, there can sure be some heartbreak. We went about 15 years and things went smooth as silk and the last five we have had some real trying times. Would I do it again---in a absolute heartbeat. There is nothing that compares to foaling season, except the birth of your own child, the anticipation and excitement. Then to see your foals go off and excell it the world, it is a VERY gratifying experience that is really hard to express till you experience it yourself.