Live cover

[Marigold4]

I have found a very nice stallion for my brood mare, but he is only available for live cover and I was looking for chilled AI. Mare would likely be stressy away from home. How long on average would a mare be away for? I expect the answer is how long is a piece of string, but what would be likely average no. of days please?

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

I think it can be up to a few weeks sometimes

 

[Horses_Rule]

It depends if you are wanting to send her until she’s scanned in foal or if your wanting to send just for the covering , which I assume you’ll want to if you’re worried about her being stressy? You can try to help things along by the vet PGing so you can try and ‘ plan’ when she’ll be in season although the there is no guarantee as PG does need to be done at the right time! My mare was PGed once and she was done on the Friday and then went to stud on the Monday and was happy to stand for the stallion. As my mare shows in season easily I managed to track her seasons to I knew when she’d be about right , she was only PGd the once after she was scanned not in foal at 14 days and the vet suggested I pged to speed things up as we were running out of time for that breeding season. If that’s the route you choose then it’ll probably be until she’s not receptive to the stallion anymore which really depends on your mare I suppose? The good thing about live cover is when she’s teased you’ll know when she’s over it as she’ll tell him to bugger off! My mare was covered every other day 2/3 times before she went off if I remember rightly. Sorry for the ramble, hopefully some of it helps ?

 

[Errin Paddywack]

With one of my mares I knew her seasons so well I could gauge which was the best day to cover her, you rarely got more than one chance with her. I wanted to use a friend's stallion some way off but didn't want to leave her there. Took her on the day I thought she was ready, got her covered and brought her home. I was very lucky, she held to that service. Did it again successfully a couple of years later. Not something I would normally do but it worked. I did also have a friend bring her mare to my stallion to be covered and that was just once too. I would usually have mares to my stallion stay for about 3 weeks to see if they came back in.

 

[AdorableAlice]

Bit of string really and expect the unexpected. My friend (who is a vastly experienced equine and repro vet) and I bred two foals from the same, proven brood mare.

First one was AI, mare took first try with semen from a well known RID, I had fetched in a cool box the same day. Husband never did get told what had been in his sandwich box. Pleased with the foal we decided to go again, after all, the first go was so easy, different stallion (TB) this time, AI with posted semen. Not in foal and stayed that way after 4 goes with AI. Costly to say the least and that was with a vet who was breeding for herself. We were in so deep financially that we gave up for the summer and tried again the following year. Failed again AI, so the mare set off on a road trip to Truro, which is a very long way from our base. Ran with the TB stallion all summer, incurring livery charges and vet bills, oh the irony ! finally scanned in foal but we decided to leave the mare a little longer as the trip was so lengthy and the mare didn't travel well.

Got her home and I cared for her through winter and into early spring, due to foal in early June. I then got diagnosed with BC and the mare ended up going on foaling livery and stayed there for the rest of the year until I was well enough to have them back. Did I mention irony ? The resultant foal was named (Prefix) Broke The Bank. He is very well named because he owes us a small fortune and cemented the fact that fools breed horses for rich men to buy.

 

[tristar]

if all goes to plan 6 weeks at the stud, for natural cover, i would go for natural when possible, if you know your mares cycle you could take her a couple of days before the season and have managed livery then bring her back after if its not too far.

i have found natural service the best when using our own horse, one covering and bingo.

i make sure the mare is in prime condition for breeding, some mares love to go to the stud with the alluring pong of stallion and other horses, but stress would not be good, a mare needs to be relaxed ideally

 

[milliepops]

Mine didn't take first time, she had been PGd but it just didn't come together. Second time we scanned to get the date right as she doesn't show very well, and then she went to the stud for about a week. she settled into their little herd of mares very well which helped

 

[Marigold4]

Thanks for all the replies. That's very useful to know. I'm going to go with AI and chilled semen. Mare would not be happy elsewhere and I would not want to put her through that stress.

I'm going to set a limit of two goes at AI, then stop. She's had two foals before with frozen (previous owner) and no problems getting her in foal.

Not sure why but I didn't get an alert for these replies, so only just seen the. Thanks for sharing your experiences. Much appreciated.

 

[milliepops]

Mine didn't exactly enjoy live cover tbf stallion was very gentle but she wasn't really feeling it
i will AI her next time!

 

[Marigold4]

I used to work on a stud farm and hold the poor mares. Some were petrified! But that was a long time ago and AI wasn't a thing back then.

 

[Abi90]

Mine took 3 attempts. There was no obvious reason why she didn’t take on the first two and she’s a young mare and breeding sound.

Last attempt we threw everything at her. Oxytocin, antibiotics and used straight semen and hey presto.

I was lucky that the AI package included 2 goes, I think even the second time success rate isn’t that high, obviously it depends on your budget but I wouldn’t be disheartened after 2 attempts

 

[sallyf]

There is live cover and random covering which some people would pass as live cover.
we have 2 TB stallions that cover TB mares as well as sport horse mares and have very very few issues with mares being covered but they are prepped , scanned and teased and then just covered once at the correct time in there cycle. Even the most nervous mare generally stands very receptively if teased and covered at the correct time.
my own TB stallion loves to stand and chat the mares up for 10 mins before he hops on.
big difference between a professional stud who covers and handles stallions/mares correctly and a stud that just randomly covers.
btw we do both as run a big AI centre and I’m happy to do either but as with AI preparation is key.