Anyone else noticed the high incidence of BOGOF mares and foals lately?

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Delicious_D

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Note: this is aboslutely no dig at any person.

With the Tessybear thread reaching epic proportions, and now news of another BOGOF mare and foal package, is anyone else alarmed? Although i am sure for a lot of people its an added bonus, the real crux of the issue if that these horse have been sold on pregnant, whether knowingly or not, to homes that might not have the necessary knowledge or funds to deal with the foaling down of a mare, or to deal with that happens if it goes wrong?

In theory, a novice could have bought themselves a sweet little mare from a dealer, a few months down the line they find out shes in foal. Its all very exciting but there are risks to both mare and foal with foaling, its incredibly intensive in the first few weeks, and it really isnt cheap? Another matter aside, what about the insurance aspect? If the insurers were not made aware the mare is pregnant, they probaby wont pay out in the event of an injury or death as a result :(

I am sure everyone would love to watch a cute foal and their beloved mare cantering in the field, but the reality of the situation is that most livery yards are not suitable for mares and foals, if the foal is sick i.e. a dummy foal, they require round the clock care, or if they need a plasma infution...you cannot get insurance for a foal until 30 days so it all has to come out of your own pocket.

It makes me very angry when people are dubbed into buying mares that turn out to be pregnant and the previous owners have no knowleged.

It annoys me, that good people always do everything right. I've spent a small fortune on dee getting in foal, i would never sell her on, and yet, it seems to be a common thing nowadays.
 
This isn't a new thing, it's always happened. I'd always presume a mare with a dubious background is in foal until proved otherwise.
 
I don't know - I think maybe its a more acute (financial for a start) problem for those that find themselves landed so that more cases are heard about, but my experience is that mares that have produced BOGOF's aren't new or particularly more numerous.

We have a cracking 9yo unregistered Connie mare (undoubtedly pure-bred from the look of her and the history of her dam) who was a surprise "look over the stable door and there's two" job one October (the dam having been bought in the Summer). She was given to me as a 2yo by the owners who had one child who was well suited by the one pony (the dam - who wasn't that much older than her daughter :rolleyes: ) and a livery bill for two. They were worried even then about what would happen to an unregistered youngster and I undertook to at least keep her until she was going well under saddle with a job to do. She's still here, naturally!
 
I think it's always happened, just the wonderful internet means you hear about them a lot more.
I think if I bought a mare I would wait a day or two to get a blood pregnancy test done before committing, only a few £'s more in a vetting and hopefully a seller wouldn't be too bothered about a few days (they'd wait that anyway while transport was sorted)
 
As others say, this is not new but it was generally the Irish imports that had this problem especially if bought from dealers but it was relatively rare for private owners/breeders to pass on a BOGOF knowingly, it was usually a genuine mistake such as mare scanned not in foal so sold on.

Nowadays with so many backyard breeders especially of coloured cobs who don't actually know or care if mares are in foal are not and novice buyers, it's not surprising we're hearing of more of it. I'm not totally sure it's just because of the internet that we're hearing about it more rather that the wrong type of people are now selling/buying without checking first.
TBH, if I was buying a coloured cob type from a dealer/BYB or an import, I would assume in foal until proved otherwise.
 
Daydream dolly, im not referring to just two...that tbh woud be stupid. But they highlight a bigger issue.

The internet has definitely spread the word faster but i do think the recession or lack of knowledge about whats actually required in terms of money and appropriate housing is leading to these mares being sold on.
 
I agree with a lot of what has been said here. My friend and her daughter are first time owners like us, and we keep our ponies at the RS/livery yard largely because of the experienced help on hand from the YO, YM and other owners. It was a surprise to hear that when the mare was bought (for RS) she had been in a field with a stallion, but my friend would not have been aware of this when she bought the mare from the RS last August. I guess mares have always been good at concealing pregnancy, and at least they now know they have to prepare for a foal, and it will be looked after and loved.
 
Its not just teh lookign after and love that worries me, its what in the event of a dystocia birth, i.e. a red bag delivery or a dummy foal that required immediate attention. :(
 
I know with us we bought from a woman who told us had her for 2 years seemed genuine and we believed her ... looking back was that naive and stupid ? Yes lesson has been learnt all to well. In regards to issues with birth chance is if something does go wrong we have the back up of the stud but for someone who didn't have a clue at all then yes it's a scary thought.

Now days i have learnt not to trust a thing a person says until they can prove it :o I guess in this instance with us we are lucky to have the studs support.
 
My aunt bought a Welsh C way back in the 70's, as her first and only horse, from a stud, guaranteed not in foal. She was and had a lovely filly. There were no problems luckily and the foal was sold on.
I was told it is fairly common for mares from dealers to be in foal as they throw all their stock in together, and while an obviously mature stallion might not be in the mix an ungelded yearling might be who could easily do the deed.
 
I bought my mare 10 years ago and at end of 5 stage vetting, they discovered she was in foal and had 6 weeks to go! The dealer had no clue and kept my mare until foal was weaned:) Haha - I would always get vet to check any mare that I bought to see if in foal!
 
There are also the 'stupid' (IMHO) people who 'rescue' and don't have a clue. I know of one kindly lady who 'rescued' a colt and put it in with her 3 mares and then was totally gobsmacked when 2 had foals!!

This was a middle aged lady with children of her own !
 
Unfortunately I bet a large percentage of planned pregnancies don't have well informed owners. People seem to trust that things will be ok

It's a shame more people don't do the research
 
Daydream Dolly said:
Oh fab ! What stud do you work at ?

How exciting !
Click to expand...

No need for it - really!

I think its great that DD is immersing herself in knowledge about breeding so that she is well informed about the process of breeding her own. Plus, she's learning based on information from watertight sources and very current research, so its valuable stuff that she's sharing.

Better too much knowledge than not enough - wouldn't you agree?
 
It's was a dressage yard with small scale breeding. Nothing huge but with uni etc allowed me a basi knowledge. I would say no way experienced but enough to know the theory and ask or help :)
 
My first mare 12 years ago was the result of bogoff, friend bought from dealer, she was a nice quiet ride - until she'd had the foal! When she came back into work it became apparent she'd probably been deliberately covered to make her quieter. Lucky me got a free mare, whilst friend kept foal!
 
I moved my first pony to a field to share with a friend who had just bought her first pony - a 13hh dun mare - I would say Welsh x probably. We did comment on how large her stomach was and sure enough 6 weeks later along came a rather nice bay colt. The father was apparently a TB. They were very novice owners (as was I being only about 12 at the time) and the field was not suitable. He ended up getting injured on the fence and once recovered and weaned they gave him away. I often wonder what happened to him. This was 30+ years ago so not a new phenomenon!
 
I think it is something that has always gone on. I stick to geldings when I'm looking as I find them easier to get on with, but when mum bought mares she always used to get them examined before purchase, I don't understand why more people don't do this?
 
This has always happened, many many years ago (33 to be exact) my best friend at schools parents took her on holiday to wales....long and short of it was they saw a horse for sale, fell in love, and it was duly delivered back home to Birmingham.
About 8 months later, they arrived at the farm (weren't any diy yards in days ) to discover a foal in the stable!
They were so inexperienced they hadn't a clue....saw she was.getting fat, but thought she was being overfed!
Scarily, this poor mare had been jumping in the paddock the day before!!!!

They were both fine luckily, and my friend kept both of them till the end of their days, HOWEVER, things could have been very different.....
 
I know someone that got a surprise mule!
Another person I know put her hunter out on grass livery for the summer, and guess what the next year after a hard season hunting twice a week had a beautiful filly. The YO forgot to mention the yearling colt had jumped into the field. The said filly grew up to be a very good jumper!
 
There is alot of it about this year, we are 99% certain our little coloured mare is in foal, which is not good, shes a nice little thing but certainly not breeding material & God only knows what she is in foal to...i need this like i need a hole in the head at the moment. Im already stressing over a planned foaling without adding an unplanned one to the mix.
I also know of 3 other mares that were bought as riding horses & all are about to drop foals in the next few days/weeks.
 
Do people think that the current economic climate is resulting in more uncut colts being around generally as people don't have the cash/ the horse isn't worth the £s for a castration?
 
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