Idly thinking of having E bred...

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suebingham

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The bad girl got out of the corral during her last heat cycle and took off to where her last fling occurred (5 years ago with my neighbor's rope horse) He's been gone for two years now and when I went to collect her, she seemed SO disappointed.
Since her last foal, she really has shown no particular interest -- but now, suddenly, out of the blue, she is 850 lbs of throbbing libido every month. I'm thinking she's got wind of a stallion somewhere in the vicinity but I'll be dipped if I can figure out where... I hope he's not running loose.
Even though the resulting filly from her first pregnancy was purely a love match, she was a pretty thing if you like the QH rump. I was able to sell her for a tidy sum and am thinking about doing it again. Since Miz Epona has no particular pedigree, I'm not constrained to stay in breed. Would you go with another big-butt QH (popular here) or I'm kinda leaning towards a Morgan? (Do you even have them over there?) I'd have to do cooled or frozen semen for the second option and my next question is: Will she even know she has had sex if all it is is me, the vet, and a turkey-baster or whatever? A good 60% of why I'd do this would be to quiet down her biological clock. (I'm not anxious to load her up on fake pregnancy hormones or anything like that.)
Any help, input, suggestions would be greatly appreciated. THNX!

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Yes we do have morgans over here experianced quite a few none of which I would take home! All I have seen have been temperamental and wilful and in the wrong hands 2 I have seen have been downright dangerous! The ones I have seen don't make top drawer western horses and here we have plenty of similar breeds for English riding.

Use AI a lot with my mares and I don't think it makes much difference in older mares especially if they have been mated naturally in the past but do believe it helps if you are breeding from relative youngsters, as if they do not show interest in a stallion, I will walk away as they are obviously not ready to breed for some reason and I wont push it, they wouldn't have that choice with AI. Mating does help put them in a breeding frame of mind, but thats personal and over here a large amount of sports horses are concieved by AI with no problems.

If you are going to breed to sell I would go with the market, your mare obviously compliments the working QH/ranch horse type so pick a local well built QH, paint or Appaloosa worker and repeat the winning formula. If you can still get to the same stallion or a son of, that might be worth a repeat mating, if not find one of a similar type.
 
Hi Pocomoto!

Thanks for the response! The info about AI was especially helpful as the girl has SERIOUSLY been in the mating frame of mind for the last two months. If a turkey baster will put her in a better frame of mind as effectively as a living breathing stallion, I'm all for it.
Now for the funny part -- Epona is a mustang from Nevada. Having said that, I know that description is really not a lot more informative than saying she's a horse. (There are some mustangs that are clearly very spanish; there are some that look like scaled down heavy horses; and there's even a band that are descended from mine ponies that are totally adorable mini-wild horses! And of course, there are plenty of combinations and permutations of all things equine in between.) She's from an area where the army remount program was very active in the 19th and the early 20th century -- and as a result, she's really just a smallish historic type grade Morgan horse. (LOL!)
I am pretty sure I know the type of Morgan you are talking about -- to me, they really don't look all that different from a Saddlebred (from me -- not a complement) and I bet they've got the neurotic "horsonalities" to match. I would NEVER breed to one of those! It's so unfortunate what has happened to the breed in the last 100 years -- there has been a move away from the thrifty, even-tempered, honest all-round family horses of the past to what you describe. There are several studs back east in Vermont, that do have the kind of foundation breeding that I'm looking for (If I were to go that route, of course).
In the long run, it'll probably be easier and tons cheaper just to haul her over to one of the local QH studs. I'm just not a huge fan of the breed standard of big honkin' horse perched on tiny lil feet. You're right -- her first filly was very easy to sell around here and probably any additional foals with the same kind of outcross would be too. In my idle musings, I was just thinking that that I wouldn't mind trying to replicate what I have in E -- only on a slightly larger scale for my own family's use as a pleasure horse in the years to come.
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Thank you!
 
Ah was thinking that's what she was, big clue the jumping out to find her own!!! Didn't like to say in case I offended, but I like Mustangs!

Yes if you can get hold of a decent morgan to breed for yourself that would be a nice cross with a bit more height, personally i like em close to the ground, less to fall!!! You couldn't tell the morgans over here from a Standard B some even look like welsh cobs, not true to type at all I know what you mean re the real big QH I hate it when they look like a bull, that was never what they were intended to be. But the true workers tend to be less heavy. Saw a nice one up in Canada, King Ranch back Ped and not heavy at all.

You could let her loose on the range for a while and get another Mustang!!
 
Are you planning to keep the foal or are you planning to sell it? Makes a big difference. If you are planning to keep the foal then to cross Epona to an elegant Morgan, although they will rarely give you much more height as they do tend to be small these days. There are a number of Morgan studs up my way and they do all appear to be the old-fashioned, well mannered and upstanding horses.

If you are expecting to sell the foal then personally I'd say go for either a homozygous Paint or a nicely marked Appaloosa (depending on the marketplace in your part of the world). You will always be able to draw attention to your sale because the foal will be half Mustang and people do tend to flock to them....however they tend to only want the flashy coloured ones around here.

What about doing something totally wacky like crossing her to a Missouri Fox Trotter or a Paso Fino?? I think I'd be tempted to do something completely different if I owned her.
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