It's breeding season! Most of the foals are on the ground and it is time to breed the mares for next year. I usually breed my mares around 30 days after they foal. I like to give them a little time to recover, but I don't want next year's foals coming too late. If everything goes well and the mare gets pregnant on the first breeding we will have a foal around the same time next year. I actually have three of Patrick's offspring that were born on April 27.
This year I have one mare that didn't take the first time and so it was July 4 when we bred her successfully last year so she is having a June foal. That is a little late, so I will have to breed her back on her foal heat (around 5-7 days after she delivers) to get her back on schedule. I don't like doing this, but she is a healthy broodmare that has easy pregnancies and deliveries. She is 15, so she is not too old. If she has any difficulties with this delivery, I can always wait, but May is the month I like to have the foals coming. The snow has usually melted by then and the daytime temps are mild.
I purchased a breeding phantom this year so that I can collect Patrick at the farm and breed my mares here and won't have to ship them to the vet clinic. On one hand it is nice not to have to do all that trailering back and forth, especially the mares with foals at their sides. On the other hand, there is a lot of scheduling and planning for collecting the stallion. Which mare can be used for teasing? How many mares will we be able to breed with one collection? How are we going to work around his show schedule? Will the collecting effect his performance? Will the outside breeders give me enough notice to plan the collection? In the past I used mainly frozen semen that was collected over a three week period during the winter when there were no shows. There is still some of that left if we are in a pinch, but not enough for all the mares. This fall after all the shows I will have him collected again for the frozen, but we will continue to do the fresh cooled also as many breeders do not have ready access to a vet clinic that can do breeding with frozen semen.
One of my mares, Porsche, that is an offspring of Patrick's, will be bred for the first time this year. She will be bred with frozen semen at the vet clinic from Festrausch, a stallion at Hilltop Farm in Maryland. It will be exciting to see what one of Patrick's mares produces and maybe get a foal that won't be grey. She, of course, is grey, but as her dam is chestnut, I know that if she passes that gene to the foal we will not get a grey. Don't get me wrong, I love my grey horses, but a horse of another color would be nice!We are breeding a total of 10 mares so far this year, so we will be very busy for the next few weeks, then it will hopefully be quiet for the next 11 months - at least with the mares.
2 comments:
Very interesting post, for those of us who don't breed.Sounds as if you have a busy time ahead of you, hope all goes well and everyone takes the first time. Other colors are nice too, but the greys are the best.
I like May foals too because the weather is usually milder but that's not going to be the case this year. I have a mare due soon and the weather is cold. YUCK!
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