Backing a broodmare (also in breeding)

Asha

Asha

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Last year i bought a young mare that was in foal to her 2nd foal. She was put in foal as a 2 year old, foaled as a 3 year old, then put back in foal straight away. She was rather lean when she came to me, but all went well with the foaling.
We had to wean foal at 5 months as the mare was still lean.

I sent her to a professional yard, to get started, hoping that this would help take her mind off the foal. While at the yard she did really well, started putting weight on, and actually getting some muscle. After 6 weeks we brought her home. Kept her to a maximum of 15mins ridden work 3 times a week so not to over do it.

Recently sent her away again as her flat work was pretty good, so thought she could learn to jump, as she was now getting stronger and up to 30 mins of flatwork.

She has done really well, the yard she was sent to really pleased with her. Only problem being she's still very lean. Looking very immature. I cant feed her any hard feed as it makes her silly. She was 15.1 when she first arrived, shes now about 15.3. Shes Oldenburg and will be 5 end of this month.

Since coming home she has been obsessed with trying to get to her foal, but even more obsessed with my other mares new foal. She is getting better and starting to settle.

She has been wormed and recently had her teeth done. Have the back lady coming out, as i thought after 2 foals so young she might need her pelvis looking at.

So, do i turn her away for the summer, and try and let her gain some condition or do i keep her ticking over.
Is there anything else i can do to help her ?

thanks
 
This mare sounds very weak and unthifty - which she will be with having 2 foals this young. It will have taken minerals etc out of her skeleton and musculature [ esp calcium] and please be very careful about riding her. Afeter 2 folas her liganments down the spine might well be slack , and like overwashed elastic , does not go back into shape. Get a vet to check what her back is like. And defintetly give her the summer off , feeding supplements etc , then when you do start to work her , lead her off another horse and walk for a month , to begin the strengthening of those back muscles. I ve unfortuntatly seen some very unhappy broodmares brought back into work- some of them can never carry saddles and weight again. On the other hand we backed an 8yr old Hannovarian , after 4 foals and she was muscled up and strong as an ox[ in a good way]! Lets hope your e that lucky
 
so if i`m guessing right, your mare is about 5 yrs old. I see 5 as still very much a baby. I dont know anything about the oldenburg breed/type being a welsh cob/gpypsy cob owner so i may be wrong in assuming that at 5 your mare is/could still be very young and immature. It just feels to me that she has done an awlful lot in a very short period of time. If she were mine i`d let her have the summer off - maybe longer - to go be a baby in a field with some company. I thinks she needs time to mature and fill out a bit. I dont think i`d be wanting her learning to jump yet as that will only put more strain on her body.
 
I don't understand why hard feed would make her silly? if you are feeding her something that is non heating then it shouldn't make her silly? and if it does, I would be worried that the reason she is not silly without food is because she doesn't have the energy to be silly?

what has she been fed in the past that makes her silly?

you can get some really good advice from feed companies on what they suggest as a good non heating feed for her!

my mare is mental but she is fed during the winter and it doesnt make her any worse!
 
To be fair, a lot of feed recommended by feed companies as non heating has the opposite effect. Mines a good doer, but unless she's doing enough work to require it, even pony nuts, cool mixes & pasture mixes hype her up, let alone if I fed the quantities recommended by a feed company. Luckily, I don't need to put weight on her but I can fully understand how a lot of so called calming feeds have the opposite effect, I could feed my good doer loads without her gaining anything, she'd just burn it off being silly.
 
littlelegs said:
To be fair, a lot of feed recommended by feed companies as non heating has the opposite effect. Mines a good doer, but unless she's doing enough work to require it, even pony nuts, cool mixes & pasture mixes hype her up, let alone if I fed the quantities recommended by a feed company. Luckily, I don't need to put weight on her but I can fully understand how a lot of so called calming feeds have the opposite effect, I could feed my good doer loads without her gaining anything, she'd just burn it off being silly.
Click to expand...

I never feed as much as they recommend but anything is extra is going to be better than nothing at all! paster mix is a medium heating mix, so i found out after using it for a while! pasture cubes are the non heating type! but agree that even some non heating food can make them more fizzy but if you find the right food then its all good! I use allen and page soaked feeds and haven't had any issues. Fast fibre is good or calm and condition for a horse that needs more calories, but also their website have given me some great advice and free samples of the feed that they recommend for each horse!
 
Thanks everyone, going to turn her away for the summer, and basically leave her until she looks as grown up as the others. Then will start her again.

when i first got her, i contacted a well known feed brand, who advised me what to put her on. She fell over she became that spooky. So just left her on stud balancer. She was fine on that. After baby was weaned i got advice again, and put her on non heating conditioning cubes, and again became very spooky.

Although shes lean, you cant see her ribs, and her coat is beautifully glossy, i think she just needs time, going to take it slowly and see how we go.

Thanks again
 
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