Breeding in late summer?

[OneBellBoot]

Hi all,

I wanted to gather some thoughts about breeding a mare in the late summer. Is this ever done? Would stallion owners be willing to ship semen this late in the season?

My AO jumper mare recently injured herself and will be off for the next six months or so, so I thought maybe this could be a good time to breed her. I’ve wanted a foal from her for a while, but hadn’t wanted to take time out of her career when she was doing so well. If breeding this late in the year is inadvisable, then I will wait until the new year and see where she is in recovery and go from there, but I wanted to gather some information.

I’d also welcome stallion suggestions if anyone is interested in talking more about her breeding and who would match well with her!

[erinmeri]

No advice, but interesting question! Jingles for your mare and her recovery.

[4horses]

What about breeding this fall? Put her under lights as soon as the days get shorter and try to breed in October or November? As the only concern with summer breeding is the heat and foals don’t thermoregulate well.

[Bonnie2]

It is done. One of my horses is a mid July baby. Generally for a commercial outfit they will wait and get an early start next year rather than have a late baby that will be months behind others in his age class. And then the mare will probably have to be left open next year. Is your mare cycling? Is the stallion still being bred? Some go back to full time riding work. You would need to be a bit lucky and have her catch right away. No time to breed over 3 or 4 cycles. Mares are quite uncomfortable in late pregnancy and hot summer weather will make that worse. Heat and bugs will be an issue for the foal. I would recommend getting all your ducks in a row and breeding next season. And if she makes a great recovery, embryo transfer is an excellent option. Hope you end up with a beautiful foal and a sound mare!

[cripplecreekfrm]

I have a mare that was born on August 12th. I do not recommend it. about 10 years ago I acquired a very nice local WB stallion as his owner could not care for him anymore. I bred my mare to him for a May foal. She was confirmed in foal with an approximate due date of May 15th. She was turned back out with the stallion to be his pasture buddy as that was what he was used to at his old owner’s place. Apparently she must of slipped sometime after her 30 day check and he rebred her.

The resulting foal was miserable the first few weeks and it was very hard work keeping her cool and the bugs off of her. She made it through but I would never plan for a foal after May because of the issues we had with her when she was little.

[Xanthoria]

I’m not a breeder but my mare is from Argentina and so born late October. She isn’t in any age related classes but if I’d done FEH or YEH classes she’d have been competing against horses a good 6 months older than her which does make a difference. Still, it irks me that show announcers early in the year say I’m on a 7 yr old when she’s only turned 6 a couple months before!

[JB]

Where are you? I wouldn’t want an August foal in OK or TX or LA or AZ or any of those places that absolutely swelter that time of year.

Maine is a different story. Many parts of CN are a different story.

If she’s going to be out of commission for 6 months, then I’m assuming it’s a serious enough injury that bringing her back will take a while. Given that, consider an early start next year. Culture/cytology her 30 days before you’d even think of breeding her, based on the very earliest you’d want a foal born for your late Winter/early Spring nasties, and then hope she catches the first try lol

6 months puts you at the end of Jan. Slow start back, I wouldn’t think you’d be back to competing her next year, but maybe it’s not that kind of injury. Once she’s 60 days in foal you can start working her again.

So foal born, say, April of '25, wean October, if you go that route, or foal born July-August of '24, weaned Jan-Feb of '25 (or later if that’s just a harsh location at that point)

Not a lot of SOs are collecting any more, and I wouldn’t do frozen on a maiden.

Stallion suggestions are too difficult without knowing anything about your mare or what you’d want from the foal

[OneBellBoot]

Thank you for the feedback to everyone who took the time to respond! This has given me a lot to think about and speak about with my vet.

I’m in the upper Midwest, so wasn’t even thinking about inclement summer weather, I’m usually more preoccupied with planning around bad winter weather for the horses, hahah.

I am expecting a longer rehab for my mare (it’s a tendon injury) so I’m not expecting to rush back to the show ring, which will at least give me time to make a sensible plan for my girl.

[RedOakAcres]

I don’t recommend it. I bred my mare in October after a failed ET attempt in the spring. The foal was born in early September during a heatwave. It was really hard keeping the foal cool for the first couple of weeks.

[candyappy]

My mare is a late Sept foal so while not common for most folks it does happen.

[skydy]

There are too many downsides for late summer breeding. There are reasons that it is not purposefully done by most breeders.

Breeding carries enough risk, there’s no need to have the weather being another factor counting against your mare and foal, as well.

[goodhors]

Based on your mention of tendon injury, I would wait and do her in spring. Let the leg heal, get MUCH stronger, before adding foal weight. Our mares are usually pretty athletic looking, but they put on incredible size carrying foals! We quit driving them at about 4 months, they were rubbing the pole all the time! Husband swore they both were carrying foals sideways!! They were on pasture with minimal grain once a day. Big mares, big foals, though not actually fat. It was a lot of load on hooves too, they plattered way out.

So I would not want to load that bad tendon until it is healed WELL, with extra weight of foaling she will put on.

Michigan here. Late summer foals will probably need more attention in getting them outside early in the day. Then bringing them inside with fans thru the mid-day heat, with a second turnout as the day cools, then with night time stalling. Worked well for us, foal showed the extra handling time with good leading skills, very friendly to halter, lead and handle. We have no pasture shade or sheds, so we could not leave them out all day. We are firm believers that babies need sunshine and running room to play, so this twice a day turnout for outside hours worked quite well on the long summer days. They did very well with this schedule, being July and August foals.

Mares did NOT WANT to be in foal earlier! Cycles did not produce useful follicles earlier in the season. Drugs had previously wreacked havoc with their cycles before, not going that way again! Stallion owner was VERY cooperative shipping when called, even late in the year… One mare caught on the first shipment, 2nd mare caught on second shipment, when THEY deemed it the right time for getting bred. Showed us!! Ha ha Both had wonderful foals who were terrific horses for us.