Is Breeding Your Mare the Right Decision?

Babies are soooooo cute! Don’t you just want one? Everybody does.

You really love your mare, and she would make you such a cute baby.

She’s your most favorite horse, you’ve had her since you were both young and she’s not getting any younger. They don’t make them like her any more.

They are all valid points of consideration, but are they enough in this world of unwanted horses. Everyday you hear about neglected and abused horses. See horrific pictures of horses in starved and awful conditions. Sometimes even from so called rescues. Does your mare have the right stuff to make a baby that will have a future?

To consider taking on the responsibility of a foal should require careful thought that includes the future of the horse beyond being that cute fuzzy little foal into a rambunctious yearling and two year old and on into a productive adult. What will this foal’s job be as it ages? What is the market for this foal if you don’t keep it? Can you afford to care for, train, and develop the horse for the market?

All things to think about, but seeing those cute fuzzy little things playing in the new spring grass can cloud person’s judgment.

Some breed associations have gone so far as to structure the selection of the mares and stallions for breeding, such as the Hanoverians. Their selection criteria can be found at http://en.hannoveraner.com/home/breeding/breeding-program/breeding-programme-for-show-jumpers/selection-criterias/

Selection Criteria for mares

1. Mares with a breeding value evaluated from the data of the mare performance test of at least 125 points and with a score of at least 8.0 for free jumping or

2. Mares, whose dams and sires take part in the program for breeding Hanoverian show-jumpers and who received a score of at least 8.0 for free jumping in the mare performance test or

3. Dams and full sisters of horses which are internationally successful and are ranked by the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH) or

4. Mares with own show records and/or with show records of their offspring.

The Friesian horse registry is even more selective and the rules can be found at http://www.fhana.com/regulations/details.php?unid=72, and are very detailed about the levels of registry for both the mares and stallions including show record and pedigree considerations as well as designations of registry in the Foal Book and the Stud Book, Star Mare and Model Mare, all in the efforts of improving the breed.

The 6666 Ranch of Texas, known for it’s production of cow horses for the working ranch, race track and the show pen has gone so far as to publish a list of criteria on their website that includes:

The decision to retain a broodmare is based on the following:

1.Conformation

2.Pedigree

3.How well (gelding) siblings perform, usually on the ranch

4.Her show or race record, if shown or raced

5.Siblings' show or race records

6.Quality and performance of offspring (retention over time)

Further information about their breeding program can be found at 6666ranch.com/quarter-horses/quarter-horse-mares.html

In an effort to bring this subject to a more personal and local level I asked to a few of my friends, that have experience with breeding, raising and showing horses, for their opinions.

The first breeder I spoke to is Elizabeth O’Briant, owner and operator of “In Time Arabians” of Mingo, NC.  She named her farm this back in the 70’s with the hopes that “In Time” she would breed, raise, show and sell national quality Arabian and half Arabian horses. In pursuit of knowing a quality horse she is also an open show judge and is certified to judge in hunt seat, saddleseat, western and non trotting horses. Most recently she has also started her raising own racing quarter horses.

She started breeding Arabians back in the 1980’s, at a time when the market was flourishing and Arabians were selling for large sums of money.  Many people were in the breeding business, but In Time Farm is not a big farm, and had to be quite selective in the 2 to 3 mares that she bred every year.  Through trial and error she learned much about the breeding game. Most importantly, just because you have a beautiful mare and you breed her to a beautiful stallion it does not mean that you will get a beautiful baby.

“I think the mare contributes more to the baby than the stallion, so therefore I spend more time finding the best mares. Although no horse is perfect I try to find mares with very few faults.  I study the pedigrees first.  The most important lineage in a pedigree is the “female tail line” or the mares dam line.  I want to see what these mares have produced.  If they have produced champions then I’m off to the next step.  What kind of faults does my mare have?  Does she have crooked legs or club feet?  If so I don’t breed her because they will pop up sooner or later.  I consider these major faults.  If I am breeding for a saddleseat horse then the mare I am breeding had better have a nice high set on neck with plenty of leg action.  If not, then I will not get a saddleseat prospect.  What about a western pleasure prospect?  I want a horse that is extremely quiet and built to do the job.  I would never cross a high headed horse hoping that her baby would have a western pleasure frame or I would never take one of my race horses and breed it hoping for a western pleasure horse.  Disposition and trainability are as important to me as conformation.”

In Time Farm has bred horses that have won over 10 national titles with over 20 top ten awards.  These awards were in halter, western, hunter and saddleseat.  The competition and the quality in the show pen gets tougher every year.  The first thing she breeds for is quality and conformation.  It takes a very pretty horse to win unless it is a timed or scored event. She has crossed American Saddlebred mares on Arabian stallions, liking what each breed has to offer. With this cross she hopes for a halter horse that will go on to make a performance horse.  Saddlebreds tend to be a little long backed so therefore she is going to cross on a shorter backed Arabian stallion.  She also hopes that the stallion will pretty the head up. Saddlebreds usually have great length of necks and although an Arabian does not have the length that the Saddlebred does, the Arab has a nice shape to its neck so the foal will hopefully get a long neck with a nice shape to it.  The American saddlebred has beautiful movement so by breeding the mare to a very big moving “English type” Arabian stallion she hopes to get the movement too. No one stallion or mare will give you everything.

Further she explained “If I’m crossing for a Half Arabian western pleasure horse then I’m going to cross the Arabian on a quarter horse because the quarter horse is a more stock type breed. If I am breeding one of my quarter horse race horses then I am going to breed a mare that has a great speed index to a proven race horse stallion. I’m not breeding because the stallion is sweet or because I like his color. I’m breeding for the racing discipline. When it comes to selecting the right stallion you need to research his pedigree as well. How well has he produced and what has he produced.  Have his babies been marketable?”

The second breeder I spoke to is Amanda Benton of Rowan Creek Farm, Ivanhoe, NC. Amanda began showing in 1987 in the stock breeds in the varied classes of all-around, western pleasure, hunter under saddle and driving, as well as some hunters, dressage. She then moved on to breeding and showing her own quarter horse foals. She recently moved into the miniature arena with great success, showing to 4 American Miniature Horse Association World Championships, 3 reserves and multiple regional championships.

Amanda explained, “When looking at broodmares a good mind is first and foremost. A bad minded mare will typically result in a bad minded, difficult to train foal. I believe it's not all genetics as much as it's what the mare teaches her foal from birth to weaning. Conformation is second. Some flaws I can overlook but a good mind I cannot. A mare needs to be suited to purpose. I am especially picky when it comes to feet, legs and gait. A crooked legged foal may get around the show pen a year or two but eventually limb deformations, even minor flaws, can and will cause soundness issues and eventual retirement from the show pen. Beyond mind and conformation I prefer mares that are pleasing to the eye overall, balanced and correct. A kind, soft eye to me is very telling of a mare's personality as well.”

When asked how a mare’s pedigree figured into her choices she said, “Pedigree is often a deciding factor for a lot of breeders and while a strong pedigree can be a plus when selling a prospect it's not a deciding factor for me when choosing a mare. Many world champions have been bred to a world champion only to produce a mediocre performer. And the other side of that coin are the stellar performers who came from no-name parentage. I don't put a large amount of emphasis on pedigree.”

Over and over again you can see that there are several factors in common when people and organizations consider breeding and the selection of the mare. When you’re thinking about breeding your own mare, other considerations can be the cost of maintaining your mare and then the foal, loss of productive time while your mare is carrying and caring for the foal, and then the training and continuing care of the foal until it is of an age that it can be usable, and the possible loss of that mare. What is the cost of all that compared to shopping for a foal that is what you want already delivered and ready to go at weaning? As a yearling? Two year old? Finished adult horse that is ready to go down the trail or into the show pen?

Babies can be a fun and exciting experience that I know personally, but I also know that it is an expensive hobby and if you don’t have a market for your animals you shouldn’t be breeding. Some people can actually make money in the industry, but usually it’s the law of averages has finally worked in their favor. Think long term for your horse. Where do you want it to be in 5, 10, 15, 20 years? With good care horses can live a long and fruitful life being enjoyed at all stages of their life if they are a horse people want. Think carefully when you consider breeding, are you creating a horse that people will want, visit some online rescue sights to look at the pictures, and make sure you want to make the commitment of bringing another horse into this world. 

Written by Anne Wicke, Sampson County Extension REINS Volunteer

 

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Fecal Egg Counts

Fecal egg counts can be performed on any species, but they are especially important for horses.  Parasite resistance to dewormers is starting to be a problem in horses.  You can learn how to do the process yourself at most Extension Offices. 

Most people use fecal egg counts to figure out if their dewormer is still working on their farm.  They will perform a count, deworm the animals that need it, and then two weeks later, do another count.  If the worm egg load has not decreased by 90%, then the dewormer you are using is starting to lose its effectiveness.  You have severe resistance issues when your egg counts show less than a 60% reduction.  There are three classes of dewormers and in this case, you would have to switch.  You cannot just switch to another brand name of dewormer because it could be in the same class, you must look at the active ingredient when switching dewomer classes.

When counting, you are checking for strongyles in horses, because they are the parasite that causes most of the problems.  However, there have been a few cases when other parasites are the real culprit such as liver flukes or coccidia.  They require different treatments, so it’s important to first figure out what you are dealing with.  You may have some animals on your farm that have problems, but when you check the fecal eggs in the microscope, they may not have a heavy worm load.  This is important to find out as you are trouble shooting, because you can eliminate parasite pressure as being a possibility.  The animals may have a disease that you will need to treat.

When checking fecal egg counts, you may discover a few animals in your herd that always have high worm loads.  This is why keeping good records is really important.  At that point, you may decide to cull those high worm load animals off your farm.  Parasite resistance is moderately heritable, so it’s a good idea to sell those animals instead of breeding them since they can pass on the problem to their foals.

Several farmers have gotten serious about fecal egg counting after getting trained and have bought their own microscope and supplies to do their own counts on the farm.  If an animal is doing poorly, that is often the first step they take towards troubleshooting the problem.  Some farmers chose to only run samples every once in awhile and in that case will bring their samples to the Extension office to run them.  Some farmers will bring their samples to a local Veterinarian to analyze.  Which ever way you decide to go, fecal egg counts can be very beneficial to your farming management plan.

You can work with your Veterinarian on threshold limits, so that you know when deworming is needed.  Just a few worm eggs in every sample is normal.  Parasites like warm, wet weather, so you may need to do fecal egg counts more frequently during this time, but you can check them all year.  Some supplies that you will need are a microscope that is able to magnetize 100 times, a measuring vial or scale, a McMaster slide (preferably with green lines for more visibility, cups, fecasol, a strainer, popsicle sticks, a timer, gloves, and an eye dropper.

If you need help with deworming information or would like to learn how to do your own fecal egg counts, please call your local Extension Office. 

Preparing for Winter Feeding

Fall is in full swing and winter temperatures are right around the corner.  As temperatures dip low during the winter, a horse's nutritional requirements change along with the seasons.  The ideal situation is to have a horse entering the winter acclimated to the cold with a thick hair coat and fat cover.  The lower critical temperature (LCT) for a horse is the temperature below which the horse will start to use more energy for maintaining body warmth than their normal expenditure.  This will vary from horse to horse and by location depending upon what the horse is accustomed to and if shelter is provided or not.  For example, a lean horse stabled in a heated barn in NC with a clipped hair coat may be have a LCT of 50F, where a shaggy, heavily conditioned horse accustomed to living outdoors in Minnesota my have a LCT of 30F or lower.

Some horses will need extra energy supplement in addition to their forage intake to help them maintain their body temperature without losing body condition or undergoing cold stress.  For each degree Fahrenheit below the horse's lower critical temperature, the caloric needs will generally increase by about 1%.  Some signs to look for to tell if the horse has reached it's LCT:

• If the horse is shivering
• If the hair coat is standing on end instead of lying flat
• Seeking shelter from wind or precipitation

If you see these signs, there's a good chance that your horse's energy needs are not being met and they need some energy supplement to offset that deficiency. 

In winter months, horses should have access to at least 1.5-3% of their body weight in some form of quality forage (long stem hay, chopped hay, cubes, or a combination).  They should also have access to salt at all times and unlimited ice-free water.  To avoid impaction colic, a horse will require a lot more water when consuming dried hay instead of grazing lush pasture.  If cold stress is an issue, the situation may warrant supplementation with grain to maintain weight through the cold months, however, grain shouldn't constitute a majority of the horse's diet.  Many people believe that feeding more concentrates will help keep the horse warmer, however, there isn't as much heat produced as a byproduct of digestion, absorption, and utilization of grains as there is from the microbial fermentation of forages. 

The take home message should be to evaluate the status of your horses (body condition, hair coat, environment, etc), evaluate your pasture for forage availability, figure out how much hay/grain supplementation will be needed, and prepare for the upcoming change in weather.  Making these preparations will hopefully prevent you and your horse from having any problems through the winter!  

For more information on Winter Feeding, see these two articles used as references:

   Rutgers Extension: Winter Feeding for Horses

   University of Minnesota Extension: Feeding Your Horse in Winter

Are You Prepared?: Putting Together a Basic First-Aid Kit

Horses are accident prone. It seems no matter how hard you try they always manage to injure themselves, whether it be a swollen knee from a well placed kick or a cut from that nail that wasn’t there yesterday. Having a well stocked first-aid kit will take some of the stress out of caring for your horse’s minor injury or health problem. Remember, you should not expect to fix any major medical crises with your kit. If you cannot easily and confidently treat your horse’s injury, consult your veterinarian right away.

Here are the “essentials” when creating your kit:

• Choose an airtight, waterproof container to keep supplies and equipment sterile and dry, like a fishing tackle box with lots of little compartments or a clear kitchen container. The more organized your kit is the easier it is to find things when you need them!
• Label the container and put it in an easy to find place so no matter who is in your barn will know what it is.
• Make sure you have a list of emergency phone numbers, i.e. your veterinarian, your farrier, the closest veterinary and human hospital, a horse rescue or ambulance service (if there is one in your area), the fire department, and the police.
• Taping a list to the lid of what’s inside the kit will help keep you organized and you’ll be able to look quick to see if the kit has what you need. When an item is used, cross it off the list and be sure to replace it!  
• A rectal thermometer - a digital plastic one is safer than glass and will give you a quicker reading.
• Petroleum jelly for the rectal thermometer. It can also be used to help heal chapped skin.
• A stethoscope. Use this to listen for gut sounds and monitor heart rate.
• Safety scissors with blunt ends to ensure you do not cut yourself or your horse when snipping bandages.
• Small, sharp scissors - can be used for suture removal among other things.
• Latex gloves.
• Self-sticking bandage, like Vetwrap.
• Gauze squares at least 3 inches by 3 inches. It’s helpful to have a variety of sizes.
• Gauze bandage roll, like Kling, is also handy to have. It can help cushion an area.
• A roll of sterile cotton. This can also help cushion a wound and can be used to apply direct pressure to a bleeding wound.
• Thick sanitary napkins or disposable diapers are also useful when applying direct pressure to a bleeding wound.
• Paper towels. The blue shop towels are strong and very absorbent.
• Medical adhesive tape like the type people use.
• A cold pack for when cold hosing is not an option. A chemical cold pack is good because you don’t have to worry about keeping it cold.
• Standing wraps/stable wraps - make sure you always have an even number. You NEVER want to wrap only one leg.
• Antiseptic wound cream, like furacin (yellow).
• Spray-on wound treatment, like Wound-Kote or Scarlex.
• Hydrogen peroxide for cleaning fresh wounds. It can also help when treating thrush (a fungal infection in the hooves). Don’t apply to healing wounds because it will inhibit the healing process.
• Antiseptic scrub, like Betadine or Nolvasan.
• A flashlight.
• Saline solution for cleaning wounds around the eyes. A bottle of contact solution with a squirt nozzle works great.
• Pre-moistened alcohol swabs for cleaning small cuts and preparing a clean injection site. Rubbing alcohol and cotton balls also work for this situation.
• Rubbing alcohol for sterilizing equipment.
• Epsom salt, which can be found at the pharmacy. Mix with  warm water to soak an abscessed foot.
• Forceps or tweezers for removing splinters, ticks, and other hard to grab things.
• Iodine shampoo can help treat various skin conditions. Use as directed by your veterinarian.
• Poultice that can be used hot or cold. This is good for taking heat out of a swollen leg or bee sting.
• Clear plastic wrap. It can be used as a barrier between poultice and standing wraps as well as an ice pack.
• A hoof pick.
• Farrier’s tools, like a rasp, nippers, and hoof knife. These are good to have if you ever need to pull a shoe. Ask your farrier if they have any old ones they'd be willing to part with.
• Duct tape because duct tape can fix anything! It’s very useful as a hoof wrap because it’s water resistant, moldable, and pretty durable.

When putting together your horse first-aid kit, don't forget about the humans. It’s always good to keep some things handy, like antibiotic cream, band-aids, sunblock, aspirin, and any allergy medications your barn people may need. They say two are better than one, right? That goes for first-aid kits as well. Make one for home and one for the road! You never know when you'll need something.

By: Liz Joseph