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  Discussion on How often do most stallions cover?
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Posted on Thursday, May 24, 2001 - 8:53 am:

Just interested... I went to pick up my mare from the stud yesterday (Wednesday). She had been covered on the Monday and the stud-owner wanted to cover her again before I took her away.

It was a very informal affair and I can only presume that this stallion is incredibly quiet (which is good...) The stud-owner would be I think in his mid-sixties, and a small, wiry man. He led my mare out to the pen where the stallion was with her on a long (say 12 foot) halter lead.

He picked up a two foot bit of wavin (flexible) piping often used by the hunting fraternity instead of riding crops here, left the gate open, the mare stood, the stallion hopped up and all he did was pull the tail out of the way - the stallion was completely unrestrained and the mare was just on the end of a loose piece of rope.

Anyway, it was all very calm, the piece of wavin pipe was not required, no-one seemed to be upset and although the mare seemed a little stiff behind when I let her into her own pasture when we got home, she seems OK.

He told me that the stallion had already covered one mare that day which was why he'd left doing her until after 2 pm. Is that normal and does it affect their fertility much covering twice in a day? I noticed when selecting a sire that a common boast by stallion owners was that their beast "covered a 100 mares last year" which presumably means they must do more than one a day sometimes?

All the best

Posted on Friday, May 25, 2001 - 2:13 am:

We breed on the 3rd day of the mares heat cycle and then every other day until the mare goes out. Most of the time it is only once more, the 5th day. I think the sperm only is good for about 48 hours... We have been pretty lucky with this method and patient teasing. We are a small place so we only do two mares a day, no collection, just hand breeding. Good luck with your mare....

Posted on Friday, May 25, 2001 - 3:42 pm:

A stallions ability to "recover" differs from stallion to stallion. Most healthy studs can occassionally cover a second mare in a day and produce the prerequiste number of sperm. But to be sure you would have to do some testing. My concern Imogen is that you took the mare home in heat. If she does not ovulate in the next 48 to 72 hours you will have a lower chance of settling her.
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, May 30, 2001 - 2:59 pm:

Yeah, I'd have preferred to leave her another 2 days and have her covered for a third time, and so would the stud - but I had to get her back so that the owners could take a mare that was about to foal out of her field (otherwise a dippy 3 yr old would have been on its own). In the event they didn't take the in-foal mare away with the indirect result that the foal died (see agalactia thread) - let's just hope it wasn't bad news all round!

Anyway, if she hasn't caught I can take her back again - I feel happier now about leaving her at that stud than I did because although the stud owner is old-fashioned he's what I would call old-fashioned in the right way... She came back with a fair few bangs and scrapes alright but otherwise in excellent condition. I'll get her scanned on the 11th and take her straight back to the stud if she has not caught as she should be about due to come in season again then.

Thanks for the info - confirms what I suspected.

All the best

Imogen

Posted on Thursday, May 31, 2001 - 8:23 am:

Sounds like a plan to me.
DrO
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