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Discussion on Rescue Mare Is Pregnant...
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Member:
lvmyhors
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Posted on Wednesday, Jun 3, 2009 - 9:29 pm:
I have a 10 yr. old mare that came from an equine rescue. Before she came to them she was on a feed lot for a very long time, (3-5 months) She is very obviously pregnant and I'm concerned that she may have been bred to a Draft type stud. My concern lies in the fact that she is a rather petite mare and I'm worried about the foal being too large for her to deliver safely. I am estimating that she should foal in about 6-8 wks. Should I have an ultrasound done to determine the size of the foal?
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Member:
akila
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Posted on Thursday, Jun 4, 2009 - 2:41 am:
I am open to correction here but it is highly unusual for a mare to breed a foal that is too large for delivery. It is a rule of thumb that the size of the mare (and the size of her uterus) determines the size of the foal at birth (there are times when the bone could cause complications but these are exceptions) A small mare can be give birth to a small foal that will grow into a seventeen hander. Here is a useful reference:
From, "The Horse" Magazine,
January 1999
Fetal Development and Foal Growth
By Les Sellnow
<<...Back to fetal development. The size of the fetus at birth is often determined more by the mare's uterine capacity than by genetics, although genetics do kick in once the foal has been born.
In one bit of research at Colorado State University, a Shetland pony mare was inseminated with semen from a draft horse stallion. The pony mare delivered a small foal during a normal birth, but the foal soon outgrew it's mother once it was on the ground and nursing.
Two papers presented at the International Symposium on Equine
Reproduction held in South Africa in July also indicated that the mare exerts considerable influence on the size of the growing fetus. ...
...The second study was carried out by researchers in England who studied the influence of maternal size on fetal and post-natal
development in the horse. They reported that, "Maternal size
significantly affects fetal growth, presumably by means of limiting the area of uterine endometrium available for attachment of the diffuse epitheliochorial placenta."
Once the foal is born, genetics and nourishment are highly influential in growth and development. A foal which has the genetics for large size can do considerable catching up in the first few months of life, particularly if it receives proper nourishment and has been properly nourished while in the uterus.
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Member:
ajudson1
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Posted on Thursday, Jun 4, 2009 - 6:55 am:
Teri,
The first horse I ever owned, was a colt out of a small Shetland looking mare, who spent her life with a HUGE Palamino stallion. I don't recall what breed he was, but he had to be 16+ hands. Her colts ended up being around 14.2, stocky built, and all were very healthy for the years I knew of them.
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Thursday, Jun 4, 2009 - 7:52 am:
Akila is correct, foaling size is determined by the mare and with the notable exception of minature horses, dystocia is not thought to be a problem when small mares are bred to large stallions.
DrO
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Member:
lvmyhors
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Posted on Thursday, Jun 4, 2009 - 10:01 am:
Thankyou all so much! I knew that with our cattle we always bred our first calf heifers to a small bull so the calf wouldn't be too large, so I just assumed that a horse would work the same way So if she was bred to a Draft then we could possibly end up with a beautiful dressage/event prospect seeing as the mare is a gorgeous, fine boned black QH and most likely the stud was a reg. Shire! I'm really excited to see what we get!
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