Recipient Mare Candidate?

[EverElite]

I’m looking for some knowledgeable guidance on whether a mare I have in my barn would be eligible for a recip role.

This mare is quirky, and clearly has not been treated nicely in her lifetime. When she came to me, she was clearly afraid and difficult to handle. R+ training has rewired her brain, but she can still be defensive and grumpy when asked to go over threshold. Her confidence has improved, but it is largely tied to her companionship with my other mare, to whom she has become overly dependent on. That relationship is not healthy for anyone. It is clear that my situation is not working for her. She needs to be on full turnout, surrounded by friends at all times. I am an adult amateur with a herd of 3, including this mare. This project is no longer fun, and I am concerned about this mare’s limited options.

The mare is a lovely mover, has nice conformation, is very sociable, and is well-bred. I have not had a breeding soundness exam on her, but I wonder if a recip role would work for her. She cycles like clockwork and I believe the experience (in conjunction with living out 24/7 in a herd of other broodies/recips) is the ideal situation for her, assuming I can find someone who can handle the quirks. I am not willing to offer her as a broodmare, as I personally would not want a carbon copy of this mare (although, I do believe her quirks stem from mistreatment, and likely are not inherent to her).

Am I grasping at straws with the idea of marketing this mare as a recip? Is it advisable?

[Scribbler]

Honestly nothing about her movement or conformation is relevant to being a surrogate mom. But her personality is important because a quality brood gets handled a lot. Vet exams repro tech working with foal. And also what she teaches the foal.

One repro vet service I saw had a herd of fugly OTSB mares as surrogates. Decent size for WB foals, very chill relaxed mares. Dont know how much they got used.

[Montanas_Girl]

Her temperament would not make her a good recip prospect, in my opinion, but there are certainly some difficult ones out there.

More important would be her age and reproductive history. Recips are generally young-ish mares who have successfully carried/raised one foal already. It doesn’t sound like she fits that description.

[TheHunterKid90]

Short answer is no.
Structural conformation and movement mean nothing in a recip mare.
Most important for me is, good breeding conformation (so mare isn’t pooling urine or sucking air), repro exam with no cysts and uterus that doesn’t get fluid buildup.
Good size for potential donor mares….example: draft recips don’t work well with stock horse
And must have an excellent temperament. Because I have to handle them, give them shots, ultrasound and breed on my own and most important, they’re carrying and raising my valuable babies.

And, finally, recip candidates (in my area) are a dime a dozen. I picked up 4 TB’s with oldest being 5 with good repro conformation, super kind and quiet for $1000/each plus $125 finders fee/horse to a friend that found them.

[NancyM]

The mare raises the foal, and imparts a lot of opinions and character to the foal, even though not genetically sourced. The best recip mares are NOT maiden mares, they are best to have already proven that they can foal out successfully, have lots of milk, and have good mothering skills. First foals from maiden mares are always a “crap shoot” about whether mothering skills will be adequate, and any guarantees of this are only there “after the fact”. Someone must take the chance, often it is not someone who has invested thousands of dollars on producing an embryo. Besides the requirement for handling before and during pregnancy, the mare would likely be separated from her herd in order to foal out, which may not work well for this mare if she isn’t on board with this. If a mare does not “want” to be a broodmare, and shows you this in advance, it is often best to not pursue it with her.

A mare I knew was like this, not nice, not kind, not pleasant, and not looking like a good broodmare prospect to me, I refused the option to breed her with my stallion (my friends owned her). They passed her on to someone else, who did breed her (I don’t know how the stallion survived it). On production of the foal, she was not happy about it, and the attendant/groom held the foal in the corner of the stall to allow her to settle down (hopefully). The mare double barreled the two of them, the foal killed instantly, and the fact that the foal took the brunt of the blows resulted in the attendant only getting some broken ribs and pelvis. He survived. And there was little monetary investment into the operation, so not a big monetary loss on the loss of the foal, not like an embryo transfer situation.

[EverElite]

Thanks, all. It sounds like I am trying to fit a round peg in a square hole. I appreciate the insight.

[tempichange]

Your general criteria for a recip mare is ages 4-8, with no reproductive/birth issues or flaws. You will want to evaluate cytology and culture with a therio that is used to making the evaluation.

As someone who has handled a lot of recip mares in the past, many are alright to handle after they’ve been pushed into a program, however, the ones that come from the larger clinics are basically short feral. If you can handle that one and it’s worth while, you’ll save yourself having to deal with skitzoid.