Mare is a very young, fit 13 yo at the moment. Thinking about breeding early next season. Pros and cons? Are there any pros besides an eventual foal? Please don’t be shy with whacking me about the head with the cons. I can take it 
I’m assuming this is a super mare who has had a performance career and you now want to breed her? The cons here are it can be harder to get a 14 y.o. mare in foal. Their cervix can be tight, causing them to have fluid after breeding which they can’t expel. When I bred a 14 y.o. FEI dressage mare I used a therio and fresh cooled semen. She got in foal in one cycle. Keeping a mare at a clinic with a therio can be more expensive, a con. Another con is it isn’t recommended to use frozen semen with an older maiden, because of the fluid issue. The pro is you have a foal from a good mare with a performance career. You haven’t given a lot of information about this potential breeding, which would help with more information.
This would be a sort of a lease back to her breeder. She would be bred (fresh) to the breeder’s stallion who lives on site.
I guess my main question should really be, are the risks of complications greater for an older mare than for a younger one? I mean I understand that in any case things can go horribly wrong, but are the chances of things going horribly wrong greater for an older maiden? Ideally, I’d like to get a sound mare back and carry on our partnership after conception (for a few months) and then again after weaning (permanently).
As to quality - the mare is very nice, not a world beater, but well bred and well put together, and stands out in a crowd of also not world beaters who also aren’t dogs. High side of a little better than average if you will.
I hope that sort of fleshes things out a bit more.
Breeding is always a gamble, even when the best breeding practices are followed. Things can go wrong whether it is a maiden mare or seasoned broodmare. While most births go smoothly with no complications, when things go wrong…they can go horribly wrong. My advice to you, if this is a mare you cannot live without, don’t lease her out for breeding.
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I completely agree with that. Anything can go wrong with breeding and foaling, but in my experience, things can go more wrong the older the mare gets. In your situation, I wouldn’t lease her.
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Thanks. Not really a should I or shouldn’t I thing though. I think I’m not asking my question the right way. I’m more thinking of if X goes wrong with a 4yo carrying/delivering her first foal, X will be 100x worse for the older maiden mare because Y. Perhaps eventually I will get my phrasing right? lol
If your vet declares her “breeding sound,” shouldn’t be a problem.
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