Consumption and Real Estate
How old is “too old” to breed a horse?
Question : How old is “too old” to breed a horse?
I have a 19 year old granddaughter of Peppy San. She was my 4-H project for several years and is now living the life of luxury in retirement. She’s sound and sane, but has never foaled before. She hasn’t had a heat cycle in a few years now, and that in itself worries me. But she is only in with another mare and has never been teased by a stallion. Before she becomes too old to ride, I’d really like to have a foal out of her to preserve her legacy. She’s been wonderful and I’m sure her babies would be wonderful as well. What, if any, steps should I take?
luxury retirement living
Best answer:
Answer by txharleygirl1
Have your vet examine her. It may be that she is too old to breed. When I was growing up, we had a lot of horses.
My grandad bred and trained them as a hobby. He was a vet, too. I don’t remember any of the mares being older than 10 or 12 when they had foals.
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#2 written by joannaduplessis@sbcglobal.net 1 year ago
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#3 written by Paint Pony 1 year ago
19 is not to old to breed a mare if she is in good health. BUT since your mare has never foaled before and has not been cycling regularly, that is cause for concern. I would take her to a vet and get her a clean bill of health, and find out why she is not coming into season. You may have to put her on something to bring her into heat. But please consider the risks you are taking by breeding her at this age for the first time. It is like a 40+ plus year old woman having a child for the first time. The risks of complications and birth defects go way up if you can get her in foal at all. Please weigh all the pros and cons of this before you breed her. I know that you would like to preserve her legacy, but you also need to consider the risk of possibly losing her and not having a foal either. Good Luck!
Update to this answer: Last night our 19 year old mare foaled us a beautiful stud colt. He nearly did not make it here as he was upside down. If the vet had not been there, we would have lost both of them. This is the last time we are going to breed her, since she has had problems delivering the last three foals and each time it has been a larger, more life threatening problem. This is a mare who has not been bred to death, but has been left open every other year. She is being retired to the pasture and a life of leisure when the baby is weaned.
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#4 written by Katie 1 year ago
Wenchgirl, she said that the mare has never even been teased before- implying that she hasn’t been covered either, therefore, no foal.
My friend has a 17 year old arab x mare, she was told by the vet that she was too old to breed. Also, if your mare hasn’t had a heat cycle in a few years, doesn’t that also mean she is too old too physically be able to breed? xx -
#5 written by wenchgirl04 1 year ago
it depends on whether she has had foals before. If she is a maiden mare then yes I would say she is too old. But if she has had foals in the past with no trouble you probably would be fine to breed her. Normally I think people stop breeding their mares at 15 or 16, but people will breed their mares way past that depending on how many foals the mare has had in the past, how many complications she had, and how many complications the foals have had. If she has had a few foals already with no problems to either the mare or the foal, I’d say she’s fine to breed.
Just because she has not been teased does not mean a damn thing whether she’s been bred or not. People do use AI and embryo transfer as breeding techiques. No stud necessary and no teasing either.
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I bred my mare at about 15 years old, she had regular heat cycles and it took but she lost the foal between 2 months and 8 months, I had the vet recheck her because she looked like she was going to go back into heat again. Vet said you can breed until they die but some horses just can not take it. As far as I know she has never produced a foal and lost 2.