Breeding and human pregnancy

dwi

dwi

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I was chatting with with RI about the possibility of trying for a baby and she suggested putting Daisy in foal.

Is this a horrible idea? Anyone done it? Is it okay to breed from a mare who's just a nice little hack rather than a world beater?
 
Do you want to breed a world beater? If so no. However if she has no major conformation faults and a nice nature and you want to breed yourself another nice hack to keep why not.
I would rather have thought how would you cope with handling a foal and a young baby of your own.
 
I did this and wouldn't recommend it. Bearing in mind that if you are pregnant when your mare is, foal watch is nigh on impossible with a small baby (mainly cos you're knackered!) However, if you have lots of help then it might be a solution. Otherwise, put your mare out on loan / give her a long holiday whilst you're pregnant.
 
i had a mare due to foal not long after i was due my son, i made the choice to sell her and not to breed for two years, i kept some youngsters but even that was tuff in the winter. i have one mare due this year and three others to look after and its even tuffer having an 18month in tow!!!!! you have very little time, energy. enjoy being pregnant, have your baby, then get back riding.
 
I did it twice - I had my daughter in December and started foal watch in March for 4 mares - it was a long summer!! In April I got pregnant again so was doing foal watch, looking after a newborn and going through pregnancy too!

My second daughter was born in January and foal watch started in March...

Madness? Possibly But we're still doing it now - albeit with webcams and no more human pregnancies so it didn't put me off!

You need someone to be able to stay in with baby if you want to be present at the birth, I found night feeds useful for watching foal cam as I was up anyway...

Once foalie is born then much depends on your situation - we kept ours out so bar daily checking there wans't a huge amount of work involved, no mucking out or anything. If I'd had to do that it would have been a struggle...

Good luck if you decide to go for it!
 
I have a two year old filly (bought in a mad hormonal moment), and a connemara gelding, a two and half year old son and twins girls aged 15 months. I have to keep my filly in part livery and the gelding is out on full loan, there is NO other way I could cope.

Your baby will only be a baby once, enjoy your time with them - but make sure you have the opportunity to have 'you time' too. Horses can either wait or be 'toned down'.
 
I had arranged a stallion to come up to my yard to cover my mare, i was to be looking after him. The day before he arrived, i found out i was expecting myself! (July) My mum begged me to cancel the stallion arriving, but stubborn old me didnt! A few weeks later i was told i could miscarry and to rest, i was booked in for an emergency scan and found out i was having a lot of problems as i was expecting twins! (august) so what did i do - i was having problems myself and had 2 babies to grow! well the stallion stayed until the end of october! i continued to look after my neds, however i had a LOT of help from my family, i lost my mare (a year ago tomorrow!) whilst heavily pregnant - that messed me up a lot. I went into premature labour (5wks early) whilst at the yard at 9.20pm - thankfully my mum and hubby were with me. I gave birth in the Feb and nearly died as a result. I then had to rest rest rest but had a foal due. Thankfully, my mare wasnt due until the June, but she was playing games with us quite a few weeks before, and the twins didnt start sleeping through the night until nearly 6months, so i had to do foal watch wilst feeding twins every few hours, i did a lot of driving around in the night and i missed the birth by about 30 minutes! Would i do it again, well you know what, probably yes! BUT, i had always wanted to breed, i had a lot of support and my mare lived out a lot, plus, my foal was due a few months after my birth.
So, i would say - have you yourself ever really wanted to breed? or is it just because your ri suggested it? could you plan it so that the foal would be due a few months after the birth - remembering that the baby could be born early or late? if you need a c-section you are not meant to drive for 6 weeks after. Also, you say try for a baby, i would say maybe get an idea of stallions but not to make any decisions until you get that positive pregnancy test as sadly, it can take some couples a long time to concieve, and it would be annoying if in that time you were not riding her as she was expecting a foal etc.
sorry for the long reply! hope it all goes well whatever you decide
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and being a mummy - is FAB (actually, its also a FAB feeling to breed a really nice foal!)
 
Perfect time to put your mare in foal - I couldn't get comfortable to sleep anyway so foal watch really wasn't an issue and, if you work, you'll be on maternity leave and have more time on your hands to spend with new foal (and baby of course
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). OK you might be tired but babies sleep for hours and IMO you need to have something to do. Then you can both get back in to work together (unless like me your mare then becomes more or less a full time broodmare!).

This was us half way through:

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And this appalling awful awful awful pic (of me) a couple of weeks before births.........
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My son spent most of his first few months tucked away in a safe corner of the yard watching Heidi.
 
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