Saw this on Facebook
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The Queen probably has a huge herd up there with her. Both horses and dogs.
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I’m going to carefully address this as this line of thinking has also been picked up by mainstream media.
In my opinion, no, 9 foals in 11 years is not too much. In fact, it shows the stellar care she received in order to get pregnant and carry a foal to term 9 times. Broodmares are pretty infertile. Add in the live cover requirement of Thoroughbreds and you make it tougher.
A pretty common saying for vets is that the healthiest uterus is a pregnant uterus. Skipping years in pregnancy for mares can make it more difficult for them to get pregnant again, as well as make them susceptible to infections in the uterus. My vet strongly discourages skipping years if you plan to breed the mare again, baring a health issue or something similar.
A mare is pregnant for 11 months and the foal is fairly small for a majority of the pregnancy. Honestly, most broodmares live a pretty optimal horse life, being allowed to live outside with their friends and allowed to practice natural horse behavior, I.e., having babies.
Let me know if you have any further questions. RIP Black Caviar
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Peter Moody, Black Caviar’s trainer, recalls how worried he was that the mare was going to fall over on the Queen.
She was utterly spent after her win at Royal Ascot and when Queen Elizabeth came up to pet her, Black Caviar took a shaky step and for a hot second looked like she might collapse on top of the regent. Fortunately for all that did not transpire.
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The mare had too much class to do such a thing. 
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Well written Arzny! I was going to respond, but glad I didn’t since you addressed this perfectly! I could not have said it so well.
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It’s a tough topic. People like to humanize horses, be it correct or incorrect.
Though I do think it’s interesting that no one asks my neighbor with 14 children if she feels abused or that it’s too much. She has a pretty similar career to Black Caviar too.
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This is a tough topic. Not sure how we know what the right answer is. With horses, baby gone from them in 6-ish months +/-. With people, way longer. I do think people who owned her loved her, but who really knows- was the first issue a fluke, age related, IDK but I am sad for all involved.
