too late to breed??

[siennamum]

I now have to go to US for the best part of August and am wondering whether I should have a late try at getting Sienna in foal. Do many people try this late with mares or are my chances so reduced I would be throwing good money after bad?

 

[AndyPandy]

Bit late now, and if we have a hot summer next year, it will be pretty uncomfortable for the mare when she foals. Anastasia will probably agree that the time of year, combined with the drop in light, and the wintery weather will mean that your chances of even getting her in foal now are pretty small. Wait til next year, and get her in foal nice and early.

 

[Bossanova]

What a pain!!
Was this time last year that we put Lugs in foal so no too late, no.

Wanna use Millenium? I'll do you a good deal

 

[sallyf]

I wouldnt want to be starting this late in the year.
Many mares this year are not cycling at there best anyway as AndyPany says due to the lack of sunshine and winter like weather.
I doubt it is likely to get any better either.
We covered our last mare yesterday and im afraid we wont take anymore just really because i think it will be wasteing peoples money with conditions how they are.

 

[maestro]

I agree with Sally they are being so hard with their cycles anyway, you might be lucky but you could waste a lot of money. We have had some late mares and they have gone Acylic before we could even have a go!

 

[Anastasia]

Like Andypandy says..............would not even start now. We recalled mares from the insemination centre last week as its just getting too late now. If they are not in foal we are not trying again.......otherwise I will be weaning foals in December!!

Plus late foals next year mean you then have to leave them barren to bring them back to early breeding the year after.

In a few days it will be August and most studs are looking to stop sending out semen anyway...................leave it now and start early next year around mid-March.

 

[the watcher]

I hope it isn't, and that a late summer means my mare will still take. The issues of being late next year don't worry me as we are planning to run her empty over next winter anyway.

 

[Anastasia]

the_watcher............we are also still trying and in fact have a mare and foal arriving tomorrow for breeding, and we still have several of our own we are looking for. But if I had the choice then I would not want to be breeding just now.

 

[htobago]

We still have a few more mares to AI, mostly from breeders who were planning to leave the mares empty next year anyway, so it is not a problem for them to have June/July foals.

 

[MillionDollar]

The only reason my 2 are so late to foal (Rainbow was born 1st July and I'm still waiting for Bramble's) is that I had so many problems. They went to the stud in May, so hoping to have April foals, and were there for 3 months, so it wasn't my choice to have them this late.

If it was me I would wait until next year now TBH.

 

[Tia]

My palomino mare was pasture bred in September last year when she was running with my stallion - this was planned although I realised it wasn't ideal, however it was a case of having just bought her, we had to decide whether to allow her to get pregnant in September or wait until May - we chose to go for it thinking that it didn't matter having a little foal through the winter as we would just rug up or stable them. However what we somehow forgot about was the heat of the summer with a heavily pregnant mare. Golden is well and truly ready to get rid of this foal and has suffered during the hot months, thankfully the weather hasn't been anywhere near as hot as it usually is, but it's still bad enough.

If I was to do it over again? No I would definitely have waited until May to breed her - September was definitely too late and I wouldn't do it again.

 

[magic104]

I have to say I would not a foal born so late in the season regardless of whether the mare was to be bred from again. If she foals in Aug then the foal will only be 4mths old in December & wont benifit from any good weather or decent grass. I would wait until next year & hopefully she will take early on, as surley we wont have 2 miserable summers on the trot!

 

[Navalgem]

I wouldn't say too lase as far as it's not ideal, if you got her in foal asap, foalie would be born late june early july and I dont think thats too late. Wouldn't want any later though as said earlier, grass has gone n weather get colder so in earlier etc etc.

 

[MissIndependance]

I will try once more with mine that aren't pregnant this cycle (they're being scanned at the weekend) and then if that doesn't work that will be it for this year - Makes it such a rush for covering next year so it's easier just to start nice and early next year!

 

[christine48]

I would say it's too late now. If you manage to get her in foal 1st time it will be a July foal. By then a lot of goodness has gone out of the grass. Then the weather can begin to turn colder in September and the foal will still only be a few weeks old. then the ground gets wet and turn out becomes more tricky. then you have to think about a December weaning. Personally I'd go for an earlier covering next year.

 

[springfallstud]

I covered two mares last week, one i had to do again as she had reabsorbed and the stud fee is paid etc with the terms being i have to pay half the fee again next year and already spent a furtune on vet bills trying for this year, therefore i decided to recover Molly at the same time so the 2 foals would be able to play with each other. I think next year i will have to run them both round empty which is such a shame when you only have a few mares in your breeding program as you are looking at almost 2 years before the next foals arrive.