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Posted on Saturday, Apr 21, 2001 - 4:54 am:

I bought a 14 year old quarter horse mare from some of my friends last year, in hopes of breeding her this spring to my Paint stallion. I have read the articles on reproduction and so forth, but I still have a few questions I was wondering if you could help me with. You see this mare has never had a foal, but been bred once in the past. So when we got her we got her uterine cultured and had the vet check to make sure there was nothing out of the ordinary. There was nothing, not even an infection. This mare came into heat naturally in March. We then bred her to our stallion every other day until she would not stand for him. (She was bred 5 times.) About 14 days later she came back into heat, we have been breeding her every other day since then and she would not stand for him today. (She was bred 3 times this time.) She comes into noticable heat cycles and is an easy breeder. I know there are alot of things that can be the problem, but what I was wondering is if there is anything I can do to help boost my chances of getting the mare in foal and keeping her in foal? Should I have the vet back out to examine her again? Is 14 too old for her to have her first foal? Any imput would be very useful! Thanks so much!
~Brpaints

Posted on Saturday, Apr 21, 2001 - 4:54 pm:

No 14 is not too old for a first foal and it sounds like you are already doing 99% of what it will take to get her settled.

March is a terrible conception month anyway so... If she continues not to settle have the vet check her on the 4th or 5th day of heat to be sure the cervix is relaxing. Though I do not know if I buy into this several repro experts say older nulliparous (no foals) mares say that some of the oldre mares cervixes do not relax to allow the semen in and a manual stretching helps. I think I have seen one where this may have been the case.
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, May 22, 2001 - 11:50 am:

Hello DrO,

Thanks for your helpful advice! My mare hasn't come into heat since the last time we bred her to our stallion, so..... maybe =)

Our vet will be out in 3 days to ultrasound her.

Thanks again!

~Brpaints
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