How late do you all breed a maiden mare in terms of age? When would you feel uncomfortable risking a pregnancy for an otherwise super healthy mare. How much has this whole process costed you to get the mare in foal and care for her during pregnancy in comparison to embryo transfer. I haven’t heard of many people doing this in my area (Ontario) but would LOVE a baby from this mare without having to give up a showing year or risk pregnancy. Anyone actually done embryo transfer successfully in this area?
I’m thinking you will get more answers (and educated feedback 😊) in the Sporthorse Breeding Forum. When I bred my 13 year old maiden mare, that forum was extremely helpful!
As to maiden mares and age, it depends; you will want to get a breeding exam first thing - they will check for infections, breeding “soundness”, etc.
Many older maiden have tight cervixes and tend to retain fluid after insemination - mine did. Also, best to go with fresh cooled rather than frozen semen with older maiden mares; less of an inflammatory response and better statistical chance of getting a pregnancy.
As for ET, if you go that route you will want to first line up an EXCELLENT Repro vet - also, it ain’t cheap! Obviously you will need to find a recip mare and “line up cycles”, so that will take time.
But I’m no expert! 😉 Post on the Breeding Forum, you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a bunch of experts…
Best of luck! Breeding is incredibly exciting, but also not for the faint of heart. Or wallet.
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Agree with Dr Doolittle. You need to find a good repro vet, one who deals with hundreds of mares not with one or two a year. Ask them to do an assessment of the mare and ask their opinion of the best method for success. It totally depends on the individual mare. Some TB mares are breeding into their early 20s - with top-notch vet support and stud expertise.
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I bred a 18 year old maiden in May, so far no problems.
Anecdotally, one of my students bred her 19! year old maiden (unraced TB) to A Fine Romance - fresh cooled - she took on the first insemination and the “foal” is now 11 
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