Breeding

[juliehannah58]

Wow,, that's really nice of them! The livery charges varied soo much when I was looking, in the same area (about 5 miles apart actually!) one was £25 a week the other £7.50 a day, both for grass livery! So it really can mount up before you know it!

 

[amandaco2]

here are my thoughts-

'Now i know nothing about breeding so any advise would be good.'
get to know what you are getting into first-practical experience is really good

I cant afford to buy my own transport at the mo as i have just forked out for a course to become a driving instructor so have a lot going on in my life at the moment with training, working full time etc.
breeding a foal is expensive-at least 3k from conception to 1month provided nothing goes wrong.dont forget foals arent insurable until they are 30days old-so if theres anything wrong you have to head to the bank!my filly had NO health issues nor did mum and she caught first time-my total expense for the 18months was around 6k(pregnancy and cost of vaccines and registering etc)i did struggle a little even though i had allowed that much as it did come in larger chunks than i thought.



Also about the time that i am hoping to put her in foal i am planning to set up my own business so wont have a lot of time for riding anyway.
if you foal her at home its very time consuming unless you have lots of nice mates who will foal watch for you!this of course depends if she goes over but a month can be the norm in some mares.


My other reason being is that i dont think Senza will make the show jumper i want her to be but i cant bear to part with her so am hoping to breed her with soemthing with good SJing lines (she has dressage lines) so i have the best of both worlds. Also i think it may help her to grow up a bit.

if SHE isnt going to be a enough good jumper why think the foal would be?breeding from two proven parents is risky, breeding from one(esp the mare) who hasnt made the grade is even more so risky.

I do know breeding can be quite expensive but obvioulsy any advise would be good and if you all think i am mad and wasting a good competition horse then feel free to say.

breeding is expensive and risky-not only are you not assured of the outcome(two worldbeaters doesnt equal a worldbeating foal!or even any foal at all.) but you would still have the time and expense to consider.you you may end up (worst case) with a dead mare and foal huge vet bill and nothing at the end of it all.something you have to be prepared for as that is the risk.or a foal that is orphaned or a mare losing her foal or the foal not being what you wanted to breed(most likely)

What months of the year would you consider being the latest to breed in??
i prefere early breeding i would have said july would be the lastest i would want a foal being concieved(later foals get pestered by flies more and miss out on the good grass and are less mature when winter comes)

Would you consider putting a very immature 5yo in foal??
not unless shes proven/got the paces/attitude herself.i dont like breeding from anything unless shes been proven/high potential to reach a high level(if thats riding club horse or whatever, not necessarily GP) i also wouldnt breed from any mare who has anything less than good conformation and temperment.

How difficult would it be to get a mare back to fitness again after having a foal and would you have to start from scratch?
yes you would.mares can be ridden to the last trimester gently but once foal is born most are either too foal proud to leave and work properly/ working too hard feeding baby anyway.she she will have around 4 months off work minimum so you would ahve to start with the slow work and build up.i prefere to take them slowly after any significant time off and start doing 8-12 weeks walking and build up.