To Breed or Not to Breed
December 18, 2009
Is it a good idea to breed your mare?
By Tena Bastian in “The Foal is the Goal”
You have made the decision to breed your mare, and the search is on for the perfect stallion. “WHOA!” Back up a couple of steps and ask yourself a few important questions before you go “stallion shopping.” First and foremost, why do you want to breed your mare?
Is it because you think a “baby” is so incredibly cute and would be fun to have around? Well, he is cute and certainly can be fun, but there is also a lot of work involved. For example, is there sufficient space in your barn to accommodate a birthing mare? Do you have properly fenced pasture and secure areas for schooling?
If you do decide to breed you mare, you may need to register that foal one day. To learn more about how to register your foal, download our FREE Guide to Registering a Quarter Horse report.
Once you breed your mare, you will have approximately 11 months to see that she and her baby have a large, dry, well-lit stall and ample turnout space with strong, safe fencing available to them.
When Breeding Your Mare Is a Bad Idea
Are you breeding your mare because she is absolutely uncontrollable, and you have been told that it will settle her down? I remember one woman, in particular, who had booked her mare to our stallion.
One day, she called, saying that she and her sister couldn’t tell whether or not the mare was ready to be bred. (In cases like this, we often ask the owner to bring the mare to use so we can “tease” her with our stallion. A “silent” mare – one who does not show visible signs of being in heat – is more likely to show signs of being ready if she is nearer a stallion.)
The day they were due to bring the mare to our barn, the woman and her sister arrived early and, since I wasn’t there, turned the mare out in one of our small paddocks. She was obviously upset, sweating all over her body and pacing the fenceline so intensely she had made a small trench along it.
As I filled her water trough, I asked the owner to remove the horse’s halter. The owner looked at her sister and asked her to do it. Her sister responded with, “I am not going in there with that crazy mare!”
The owner then asked me to remove it, so I entered the paddock while they watched. The mare immediately pinned her ears and came at me with bared teeth. I stood there quietly while the two women cringed.
The mare threatened me until she saw that I was not intimidated by her actions. Her aggression turned into curiosity, and she calmed down enough to allow me to approach her. I got a lead rope with a chain and calmly put the chain over her nose – just in case I needed it for control.
Wanting to learn more about her and why she was so upset, I walked her around the paddock for a while; eventually she settled down but obviously did not have good manners at all.
I asked the women about the mare because they had originally told me she was an “easy keeper.” They admitted they were frightened of her, and they had decided to breed her for the sole purpose of calming her down.
At this point, I was wondering how we would ever get her in the barn, never mind breed her. So, I presented the owner with this scenario: what would happen if the mare got into trouble when foaling and the veterinarian could not safely go into the stall and assist?
Once you breed your mare, you need think about naming and registering your foal. Let AQHA help with our FREE Guide to Registering a Quarter Horse report.
After some discussion, the owner and her sister sensibly decided to work on the mare’s manners for a while and consider breeding her in the future.
Breeding may indeed settle a mare down for a while, but in 11 months, you will not only be faced with dealing with her – and in very close quarters – you will also have another horse in the barn that is just like her.
It has been our experience that a great deal of your mare’s disposition is passed on to her foal. Of course, the disposition inherited from the stallion also plays its part, but the foal learns quite a bit by example, and for the first few months, he will be spending his time with his mother.
If your mare’s manners are suspect, see if her personality is something that can be remedied with time and attention, or whether it is a trait that you would be best not to reproduce.
When Breeding Your Mare Is a Good Idea
There are also excellent reasons why people decide to breed their mares. Some do it for sentimental reasons: for example, they may have a mare that is getting on in years and she has proven to be exactly what they have always considered the perfect horse.
Others breed their mare for profit. If you have a mare that possesses a trait or traits that are in great demand, whether it is her beautiful conformation, excellent disposition, flawless bloodlines, or something otherwise desirable and marketable, you really should consider reproducing those characteristics with the intention of selling the foal for a profit.
Correcting a flaw in your favorite mare by breeding to a particular stallion with traits that counteract the flawed area is another sensible way to complement your breeding program.
Whatever your reasons may be, I suggest you give careful thought to what will become of the foal once he is born. Whether you keep and raise him for your own recreational use, use him to improve the overall quality of your herd, or find a niche in the market and sell him, I urge you to have a plan ahead of time.
Comments
10 Comments on “To Breed or Not to Breed”
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December 29th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
I truly appreciate you putting the thought of a mare’s temperment having a bearing on the foals personality out there. How true! I have a mare I bred twice and I have a pair just like her. Easy to handle and ride but total idiots in their pens. My other horses are Foundation Quarters – mares 99% and I have a stallion of like breeding. They will all be 7 years old next week and I have one foal from a pair of them. Now I’m faced with the fact that I have excellent bloodlines that would have no prospect of sale in the current economy. To breed or not to breed – great mix no market.
January 5th, 2010 at 6:50 pm
I also like this article. Mainly because I have a Morgan mare, good confirmation, beautiful coloring, excellent temperament, good size, great bloodlines, but I will not breed. Mostly because I’m not ready for a foal. I would love to but logic tells me that I’m not prepared for it. Maybe someday when (and before she gets too far in years) I’ll breed her. But not now, I do keep my eye open for a stallion though, so I know what and where when the time comes.
January 5th, 2010 at 8:15 pm
I also appreciated your piece. If I could tell every single person to make sure that they want a duplicate of the personality of the mare they breed – then by all means do so. A client came to me asking who I thought she should breed her mare too. First I went over all the difficulties she had with the mare which were she was very disrespecful and at times dangerous, was real tough mare to start because of being real opinonated and would she want another one like her. She said although she loved her mare and thought she was “the most beautiful in all the world” she was not capable to raise a baby that would be just like her.
Additionally those of us who have been breeding our own mares for several years can go out into the yearling field/paddock and usually say to each one after a few moments “I know who were mamma is!”
January 5th, 2010 at 8:17 pm
“I know who YOUR mamma is!”
January 5th, 2010 at 8:17 pm
I also appreciated your piece. If I could tell every single person to make sure that they want a duplicate of the personality of the mare they breed – then by all means do so. A client came to me asking who I thought she should breed her mare too. First I went over all the difficulties she had with the mare which were she was very disrespecful and at times dangerous, was real tough mare to start because of being real opinonated and would she want another one like her. She said although she loved her mare and thought she was “the most beautiful in all the world” she was not capable to raise a baby that would be just like her.
Additionally those of us who have been breeding our own mares for several years can go out into the yearling field/paddock and usually say to each one after a few moments “I know who YOUR mamma is!”
January 24th, 2010 at 6:56 pm
Very good point Tammy D.
Does any one think of these animals? I feel no one in the USA should breed anything for 1 year. There are so many unwanted horses out there and we the horse people of the USA ARE MAKING IT WORSE! People have this lame attitude that any one can breed and make money. MY horse has great blood lines, what ever. Let me ask you this question, does great blood lines mean they will win in the show pen? NO. Come on people, we need to seriously think about this, just because you get a great colt out of your oh so special mare is no reason to keep him a stud and try to breed him to any one who will give you $200.I think we need some, “note how I said some” regulation on this from the breed associations. The market would pobably come back up a little if every body and there brother couldn’t be willy nilly breeding every thing they own. Now let me explain why I feel so passionate about this. About 2 years ago a friend of mine sold the second horse she had BREED, a filly, some guy bought her and 2 months latter he was done and just gave her away, and that person gave her away, (after 4 homes) she ended up at a farm that breed and showed QH and Paints, where she was starved for about 8 months untill my friend finally begged me to help get her back. She ended up having to buy her for 200$. This gut said he wanted somthing for what he was out in feed??? are you joking! Now she is stunted, is 2 1/2 and looks like a small yearling. Granted she will be fine now. I am going to train her and my daughter is going to show her this spring and summer until she sells to a GOOD home, if there is such a thing in this horse world any more! I would eat peanut butter/jelly get a second job WHATEVER to pay for my horses care. I would never starve them. And to all those people out there who got in over your heads, Ask for help don’t just lock them up in the barn and pray it all goes away, it won’t. Cut your losses and think of the horses 1st. Stop the Maddness, BREEDING HORSES WON’T MAKE YOU RICH!!!!
March 5th, 2010 at 11:38 am
Boy is there alot of truth to all that has been said. I am a breeder, but a very careful breeder, I grew up around racetracks and I’ve seen what money can do to animals, money truly is the root of all evil. I grew up knowing that breeding horses and raising them is a hobby, It is not a money maker, you spend approximately 3800.00 per year per horse just to feed them, that doesn’t include there feet, and vets and everything else, you have to make a plan and stick with it, I told myself, get the best breeding to produce the best and limit yourself to ten mares, we live on a ranch of 360 acres and we use all of them for ranch use, including the stallions, if they aren’t broke and usable what’s the point, I live in montana and there are some here that have over 100 head of mares and up to fifteen stallions, the stallions are not broke and stand on four foot of manure locked in pens most of the year, most are starving, I asked this person one day, what are you doing? He told me I am trying to produce better than the stallion and used doc bar as a reference, I about fell over with disgust, I then realized he had kept every stud colt out of every stallion he owns and it is truly a nightmare, not everyone is that way here but this individual could surely open anyones ideas on breeding anything, he was reported numerous times because of the horses starving and suffering but no one will do anything about it, I rescued many from him, one is a five year old otoe bred geilding which I had geilded the day I bought him, he is the size of a shetland pony but he was so sad I could not resist, then I rescued several more, but I could only take on so many, this man breeds horses like flies, and should not even own one, he has over sixty foals coming this year and there future is extremely bleak, to say the least, I then realized looking around he has over thirty stud horses standing around starving to death in horrible condition, So believe me I can truly appreciate all that is said in this site, if you could see what I run into you would not even let fleas breed. another buried 25 plus horses on his place last year from starving, he has over sixty foals coming this year also, I did some research on these so called stud horses these people are breeding and wow, they all should have been geilded, they have nothing worth while in them until you hit the seventh generation of there pedigree, and none of the stallions are broke so they have no idea what they are breeding, it is getting pretty sad out there and I truly wish people would have a conscience, there are so many well bred horses out there and these people I’ve discussed are just breeding meat, I hate to be so discriptive but honestly when someone takes a trailer load of weanlings to a sale and they all go for slaughter this should turn the light bulb on, but it doesn’t seem to bother them, Just way tooo sad.
March 5th, 2010 at 11:51 am
Also, this person that has been turned in was investigated and he had about five square bales of the worst rotten hay on the place and most horses suffering were locked inside a huge arena, the investigators stated, he has hay on the place and we aren’t allowed to enter his arena without permission, now isn’t that interesting, so these horses continue to suffer and people drive by and have to see it on a daily basis knowing there is nothing they can do, just boggles my mind completely, you would think the poor economy and horse market would put these people out of business but it is not, most of these so called breeders that don’t even know what they are breeding, are expecting the slaughter houses to open back up so they can run thousands through and make ten dollars per horse, now isn’t that something, sorry to be so blunt but the horrific things I’ve seen and what some of them say just floors me, If you are thinking about breeding, go to allbreedpedigree or qhd.com and look up the pedigree on both the stallion and the mare, then make sure they are both broke and doing something besides standing around, then look at temperments, all of these things are so important, Or just go to a reputable sale and buy a good horse with a good pedigree that is broke, there are enough of them out there, It makes no sense at all for someone to breed horses without realizing you have to feed it and care for it until it is two to three years old when the knees are closed to ride it, then you have to break it or pay someone to break it, and it may turn out to be more than you can handle when you are done, by then you have thousands into a horse you could have just went and bought for less. lets give that some thought shall we.
March 5th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Here is another for instance, I break and train horses, usually our own but I do occasionally have someone bring me a horse, this man goes to a horse sale one day, he wants to be somebody in front of his friends, so he buys a cheap geilding that isn’t even rode through the ring, the only story on it is it bucked someone off in a parade, he goes directly from the sale and shows up at my place and says will you ride him first and tell me if he is any good or if there is something wrong with him, me thinking ok, this man is trying to save this horse and wants a good rope horse, by all accounts he was a big stout quarter horse, legs were good, kind eye etc.., so I put the saddle on him, worked him in the round pen for a bit and he was fine,the man then said can you keep him for a bit and put some training into him so I can use him, I agreed, with the understanding that it would cost him, he said ok, I put some time on the horse, then realized the person who previously owned him used a pitchfork on him to catch him because he was afraid of him, so I worked on trust and rebuilt it through time and patience, he turned out to be one heck of a horse, this man showed up one day and stated he wanted to take the horse to a roping, I said he should be great, I didn’t hear from this man for a bit, then was notified by a friend that he took him to another sale without even riding him and sent him in for slaughter, he made fifty dollars above the price he originally paid for him and I never saw a dime for all the work I did, I was just sick, so I let everyone know immediately, do not bring horses to me, I do not want the responsibility in helping people make a dollar this way, there was absolutely nothing wrong with that horse, he just bought it at the sale because his friends were there buying animals, now how ridiculous is that, we keep most of our horses and use them for cutting cows, and rounding up cows and such, the only ones that leave us are the ones that are tired of ranch work and are great kids horses, and we are very careful who we sell them to, this world is getting crazy, and the only ones suffering are the animals, that is for sure.
June 18th, 2010 at 6:03 am
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