I have a coming three year old and was thinking about breeding her this spring. She turns 3 in May '14.
I have bit done anything with her so this would delay her under saddle training. How bad is it to start them after a foal?
Depending on when you would want to foal out next year you could put her in training from Feb-Apri (to get 90 days under saddle) and then breed her in May. This way you would foal out next year April-May, which is a good time to foal out.
Alternately, You could breed her while at the same time starting her under saddle. I am sure some folks would be concerned about the “stress” of training during breeding. However, many mare used to have to do double duty and work and be moms at the same time.
This is just my personal opinion, but I want to see them undersaddle before breeding. Personality quirks can come out under saddle that you don’t see on the ground, and I want to make sure the horse has a work ethic before reproducing her. Maybe a light start, some exposure to trails or other barns to see how she handles some stress, etc.
I’ve known a mare that a breeder had that should have produced bucking horses for the circuit, but you never would have guessed that based on her or her foals’ behavior prior to riding…and they ALL had issues.
I know that is just one mare, but it shaped my opinion on this.
I bred two 3 yo’s (early summer foals, themselves) and they both foaled April’ish as 4yo’s. Easy to settle, easy to deliver, great foals, and both went on to fine sport careers (well, sport/pleasure - lower level horses) and still easily carry pregnancies at age 15 this season!
I fully wholly would plan to do this with any young horse. After, as TTP suggests, making ‘sure’ you want to breed the horse in the first place.
But mine were quality young horses out of beloved homebred lines that had already long proven themselves as the (quiet, gentle, pretty, sound, kind, easy, willing, etc) sorts I wanted, in the first place.
I agree in that it is nice to see how a horse will be under saddle before breeding them. That is why I think just even a basic 90 days under saddle is helpful…essentially getting them started enough to go to a MPT.
PS I had broken both young gals mentioned above at age 2, and carried on in the spring of their 3 yo year (they were bred in May) and thru that summer and fall, one of them maybe into January of their 4yo year.
They both TOLD me when they no longer wanted to ‘work’ as their bellies became … pendulous. 
Granted, these are personal horses, not in hard training/aiming for upper level careers, but I think that general fitness and fun/amusement is good for any/every horse, especially a pregnant, or want-to-be-pregnant mare.
I have gotten mares in foal and then broke them to saddle while they were pregnant. They’re a lot calmer when in foal, so I like to take advantage of that.
I don’t push them very hard. Just put in the basics and maybe do a little trail riding till they foal out.
[QUOTE=TrotTrotPumpkn;7350202]
This is just my personal opinion, but I want to see them undersaddle before breeding. Personality quirks can come out under saddle that you don’t see on the ground, and I want to make sure the horse has a work ethic before reproducing her. Maybe a light start, some exposure to trails or other barns to see how she handles some stress, etc.
I’ve known a mare that a breeder had that should have produced bucking horses for the circuit, but you never would have guessed that based on her or her foals’ behavior prior to riding…and they ALL had issues.
I know that is just one mare, but it shaped my opinion on this.[/QUOTE]
This is a good opinion… I had considered breeding my chaleon filly at 3, but I think this is a very good thing to consider, I usually start my kids VERY lightly at 2 1/2 just walk and turning then later in the fall winter add some trot work… so I can usually evaluate them by then, but base on my financial situation I’ll probably wait until she is four, then I can get a really good feel for how she is about shows and etc by then. As a huge part of my breeding program is breeding quality amateur friendly horses… as I feel too many breed those pro only horses, which is great to keep trainers in business… but not all of us amateurs can afford to have a horse just to watch it shown by a pro 
Twotrot … That’s definitely something to think about!
This is my Stedinger/Rubinstein filly. I was going to breed her to De Niro. Based on the success rates of others who have tried the two straw dose, it probably won’t work.
Hopefully we can get her started this year.
We’ve bred quite a few of ours as three year olds and then started them under saddle later that year. We don’t generally do much with ours as three year olds, w/t/c maybe a little hacking out, so I don’t worry about too much ‘stress’. Frankly, I want broodmares that are going to be able to maintain a pregnancy while in work. Several of our current mares are in moderate work while pregnant (all were fit and in work prior to breeding), we monitor them closely, but ultimately allow them to tell us when they’re no longer comfortable.
We did have one particular mare that was already bred prior to being started u/s. She was started later that year (as a 3 y/o) without much fuss. She was rebred at 4 and didn’t do much work u/s until age 5. It was at that point that we discovered we did not like her temperament u/s, nasty attitude and poor work ethic. Neither of her offspring turned out like her (a gelding and a mare), both have careers as mounts for children and amateurs.
I’ve always felt that breeding them young gives them more time to mature, limits the amount of work they do at that age, and if you’re planning to give the mare a serious performance career she’s already got something on the ground so you don’t have to worry about her ‘maiden’ status later in life.
[QUOTE=Blume Farm;7350342]
I agree in that it is nice to see how a horse will be under saddle before breeding them. That is why I think just even a basic 90 days under saddle is helpful…essentially getting them started enough to go to a MPT.[/QUOTE]
Not here in the USA. A 90 day under saddle horse won’t do well in a MPT. Better to wait until they are solid 1st level.
True. I do think things are different here.
[QUOTE=back in the saddle;7352001]
Not here in the USA. A 90 day under saddle horse won’t do well in a MPT. Better to wait until they are solid 1st level.[/QUOTE]
I bred my 3 year old mare this year. She was just being started under saddle when we bred her, she had maybe 5 rides at the time? We just carried on like normal after breeding and she is now going w-t-c under saddle 4-5 days a week. She was bred in July, so I will likely continue to ride her until end of March? She seems very comfortable and conceived on one insemination.
After the foaling the mare will become a full time riding horse when she is four. I think it was a good choice in her case and by the end of her four year old year I don’t think she will be behind her peers at all in her training.
The only thing I can see now as a reason to wait until they have more under saddle work before breeding is that they may show a particular aptitude under saddle. I bred mine to a jumping stallion but she seems to be showing that she might be a fancy dressage prospect… so now I’m thinking maybe I should have used a dressage stallion instead.
[QUOTE=winter;7356548]
I bred my 3 year old mare this year. She was just being started under saddle when we bred her, she had maybe 5 rides at the time? We just carried on like normal after breeding and she is now going w-t-c under saddle 4-5 days a week. She was bred in July, so I will likely continue to ride her until end of March? She seems very comfortable and conceived on one insemination.
After the foaling the mare will become a full time riding horse when she is four. I think it was a good choice in her case and by the end of her four year old year I don’t think she will be behind her peers at all in her training.
The only thing I can see now as a reason to wait until they have more under saddle work before breeding is that they may show a particular aptitude under saddle. I bred mine to a jumping stallion but she seems to be showing that she might be a fancy dressage prospect… so now I’m thinking maybe I should have used a dressage stallion instead.[/QUOTE]
Funny, my (imo) very “jumper bred” mare is also showing that she might make a very nice dressage mare too. In my area there is a much better market for dressage foals as well…mmm.
I like to lightly start and breed at 3. I never actually answered the question I realized. Of course it doesn’t always work out the way we plan, does it.
Interesting. To be honest I’m not that surprised with my filly. She has quite a bit of dressage breeding with some holsteiner on top and some dual purpose blood on the bottom. She has looked very ‘dressage’ from when she was a small foal but I was still hoping she’d be a fancy hunter and kind of ignoring what I saw. ha ha
It was shocking when I watched her go around at the trainer’s and she looked like a real dressage horse, with no doubt about it. It made me concede that I have to pursue that route with her to do her justice. I now think she could make a special dressage foal if bred to a dressage stallion but I bred her to a jumper stallion since I had a paid breeding to use to him. I am thinking the resulting foal will be a hunter…
