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  Discussion on 23 yo mare - has two registered foals
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Posted on Saturday, Nov 17, 2001 - 12:57 pm:

To start off with - let me first say that I am against breeding unless it is done by professionals who know what they are doing and already have a sound - safe home for the off-spring.

Earlier this year I rescued a 23 yo TWH who was starving. There is a post concerning her under the nutrition section. This mare has oustanding bloodlines. One of the foals she produced, that we are aware of, was foaled in 95 and is apparently a very nice horse.

I have a friend who owns several studs. A cross of the bloodlines of one of the studs and Dream's produces awesome, square going, loose, natural walking fools.

On top of this, my friend just lost one of her broodmares, a 7 yo. Apparently as horses age, the liver shrinks and a band that encircles the liver doesn't, leaving a loop. Twenty feet of her intestines had gotten through that loop. It was a horrible, painful death. She died in the trailer on the way to UTenn.

I am considering allowing Dream to have a foal, which would be given to my friend. The breeding would be done by AI and we would use sexing to produce a filly.

My concern: How dangerous would it be for Dream to be bred again. She is finally filling out and growing a shiny, thick winter coat. I'm sure she has had more than the 2 foals which have been registered. She will be 24 when she is bred and would be 25 when the foal was born. We will be having blood panels done in the near future to make sure her systems are all working correctly and that she is not lacking is anything she should be getting.

The first priority is her safty. I'm fairly certain that most of her 23 years have been filled with hunger, certainly the last few have. Do the risks of pregnancy increase with age and is there anything we could do to lessen them?

Posted on Sunday, Nov 18, 2001 - 5:08 am:

Yes the risks of pregnancy to the mare do increase with age, but if this is a healthy 24 year old mare when bred, they are not great. Other than good care there is little you can do to reduce those risks.
DrO

Posted on Sunday, Nov 18, 2001 - 8:41 am:

Thanks Dr. O,

Guess that puts the clincher on it. Since I don't consider horses as tradable objects, I'm pretty much against breeding. But when there is an opportunity to contribute to the breed it SEEMS to make sense to do it.

She is be in excellent health, or it won't happen, and the foal will spend her life where she's born.
Cheryl
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