How late in the season is too late to breed?

[magienoire]

My mare foaled out a great colt on June 1. Everybody is healthy, thank goodness. I’m considering breeding her again, but the foaling out facility is not going to be open for June 2017. This last pregnancy (older maiden, also had placentitis) went 330 days, so to be on the safe side they advise me not to breed before Aug 3.

I’m starting to feel like this is just pushing things too late (if she is keeping to schedule, she should be in heat about Aug 11). Most of the stallions I have under consideration for her pretty much stop shipping fresh chilled semen at the end of July. Even if I can make arrangements to have someone ship for that Aug 11-ish date, I would really need everything to go perfectly or else we are looking at the very end of Aug to try again.

It’s also hot as all get out here in July (will be 104F this week, for example) and that seems tough for a new goal to deal with.

Obviously I can skip this year and just start with an earlier date next year. I am just wondering how breeders that have had mares kind of slip into late summer breeding dates handle it?

Thanks

[Laurierace]

It depends upon what you are breeding for. Most breeds have a January 1 birth date for competitions so it a huge disadvantage to be born late in the year. I personally would not want a newborn or even a month old foal in that type of heat. They just can’t regulate their body temps that young and a heat spell can kill them.

[Kyzteke]

If you aren’t breeding for racing or futurities, it really doesn’t matter. It IS tough to manage breeding/foaling related to the weather in your area, but fans & misters & such can help.

I tend to start very late for the opposite reasons: I’m up North & it stays cold for a long time up here.

But to answer your question: my best broodie was born August 11th, so that means she was conceived (via frozen) in mid-Sept.

I have a foal due this year that was conceived in early Sept. The mare is due August 7th. It was a LC breeding; one cover/one cycle.

[clint]

It really depends on you. There are stallion owners who ship later in the year, so you should be able to work around that if you want to. However, if you keep getting later and later in the year, you will probably need to wait a season to breed her anyway at some point. Personally I don’t breed after June because I really, really don’t want a foal born during the high heat of summer.

[magienoire]

Thanks everyone. I decided to wait until next year. It took a lot of patience to get last year’s breeding accomplished, and it would seem silly to take away the option to be patient! So we will wait. It doesn’t seem that far away, really!

[TrueColours]

The latest I ever sent semen for my stallion was mid October. The latest foal I ever had was an August 4th foal and it was tough to make sure he was kept cool enough and in some cases that meant bringing them in and out several times a day so they were under fans inside during the hottest part of the day.

The worst problem(s) I found with breeding this late was that you were asking the mares to carry when they were their heaviest in the hottest months - July and August - and weaning in January / February was an absolute bitch to put it mildly … freezing cold, slippery conditions, limited turnout some days due to weather. Just not something I’d want to go through again … BUT … as they say, the most expensive horse on the property is an open broodmare so you always continue to weigh the pros and cons of this decision versus that one …

[Foxtrot_s]

I’ve had two foals born towards the middle of august - but the climate here smiled on the west coast. They were both a bit behind for things like breed shows, but who cares, the shows were more for experience than anything else.

[Rooty]

I had one August baby, no problems and here we are often through the worst of the heat by then. I think I would take an August baby over a July one, lol!
But I have heard it can be tougher to get them in foal later in the year.

[Fourbeats]

I’ve had both a late July baby and an October 3rd baby.

[Corky]

I’m on the fence about covering my maiden mare LC on her next heat - which will be any day now. Our May here this year was cold and wet. I think June and a bit warmer would be safer and less risk then a cold, wet May.

[chalice18]

Depends where you live to some degree. Living in New England, I shoot for May babies, but have had as late as end of July foals. I think it may be worth trying to breed her and get a July baby, but it’s really personal preference. Best of luck!

[crosscreeksh]

We always have our own stallion so breeding off season is not an issue, but my vet advised against having a mare…heavy in foal/nursing in Oklahoma’s hot summer with the thought of founder and heat stroke!! Stalls and fans can help the foal get through, but not so much the mare. We lost one of our best black, ISH mares in July with a 3 month old foal at her side to heat stroke a few years ago. It was ugly and took 4 days before we euthanized her!! And she had fans, shade and daily showers!!

[Corky]

How hot was it when this happened? Sounds aweful, I’m sorry for your loss

[crosscreeksh]

[QUOTE=Corky;8788346]
How hot was it when this happened? Sounds aweful, I’m sorry for your loss :([/QUOTE]

Thanks…Probably in the high 90’s, low 100’s…but the nights stay in the high 80’s+ and the humidity is high!! It was one of the worse/dragged out losses we’ve ever had!! LOTS if help and effort…first night we, the vet and about 8 men worked through the night. Raised the mare MANY times with a sling, but she just couldn’t stay on her feet!! Ate, drank, nursed her foal and was very alert…just lost her hind end!! I have never bred late since. This mare foaled in March, but was a massive, thick bodied, black, Irish Sport Horse mare by “The Irish Rover”.

[krfarms]

I had a mare that foaled the 4th of July. Never again. Poor baby would lie in the sun and get eaten by flys every day. We live in Colorado but it can be in the high 90’s and yes we do not have humidity but we are closer to the sun, so burning and dehydration are a big problem. Also if it gets too late we are weaning in the snow in November and December. I like to have the foals here in May, does not always work out, but that is my goal.

[crosscreeksh]

We breed for end of April thru May foals!!

[Wordplay1832]

I bred my mare in Aug 2014 as it took me that long to decide to pull the trigger on breeding her, but that was about the latest my vet recommended, we would have waited until the next year had she not taken first try. She ended up barely making it to full term and foaling out at the end of June 2015. I would say in the hot days we would bring them in to hang out in their stall with fans (my mare doesn’t love the bugs and would prefer to be in a stall in front of a fan most of the summer so that worked out), and turned them out at night in the hottest part of the summer. So that worked fine for us, but going forward I’d probably shoot for a May foal. We can sometimes have snow still in April so I would prefer for spring to be pretty well established by the time a foal is born since we prefer them to live out as much as possible.

[gumtree]

A bit of a dated thread but thought I would point out that there are a number of TB stallions standing in KY that also bred on Southern hemisphere time, Late July, through December.

Some of the mare are shipped south to their owners. But plenty have been kept in KY and foaled in mid to late summer and or fall. I have never heard any horror stories from friends who foal out and raise Southern Hemisphere bred foals. There are plenty of summer days in KY with temp in the high 90s to over 100. Plenty of VERY cold days in the winter.

There are always exceptions and those are the ones we are most likely to read/hear about.

[OBdB]

Fortunately, here in Normandy the climate is not really worth consideration … evidently there are exceptions (this year) …
My 2016 foal was born april 29th which is early for me. Generally I try to time the birth for May 'till beginning of June.
Here the best months (grass wise) are april (the start of the season) 'till June.

BTW, most stallion holders do not extend breeding services beyond mid-august … officially, the season ends July 15th (heritage from the former National Studs and a century old tradition). This way the mare or the mare and the foal (depending on foaling date) could profite of the new grass growth.