who buys broodmares?

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betty42

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so this is the situation we were sold a horse (our 1st) and a few months down the line we discover she has osteoarthritis in her coffin joint (front) so she has been treated but obviously we cant use her for what we intended, she is a welsh sec D with excellent bloodlines beautiful looking horse. she is now back at the place where i bought her from a local lad who is gutted but cant afford to buy her back from me like he agreed to so we had thought he would put her into foal but it doesn't look like that will happen now. so now my kid doesn't have her horse and we have no money to buy another so i was thinking she would make an excellent broodmare but i know nothing about it being so novice any advice would be very welcome.

yes i know it looks like we were conned but i do genuinely believe the lad had good intentions he is known around here and he has a good rep just not a good bank balance!
 
Assuming your vet thinks that breeding from her won't be a problem, either in terms of the foal inheriting a condition or placing too much strain on the mare's bad leg. I'd try placing an advert in the usual places, I'd also google studs breeding welsh Ds and contact them to see if they are interested.
 
If the vet didn't pick up on it at vetting then its quite likely the previous owner didn't know about it. As far as breeding goes I would have assumed the extra weight in pregnancy would be detrimental to any form of arthritis. However if not and her breeding is fantastic you would be best contacting a reputable Welsh stud that produces good quality show stock & asking their advice about her suitability & if she is where to advertise. Unfortunately even registered sec ds are dirt cheap at the moment so unless she is real top quality there isn't much money in breeding them.
 
I'm going to try & say this all very gently...it might not work tho!

Please please please do NOT breed from her or sell her as a broodmare. a companion yes, but if she has osteo arthritis it will be very likely hereditary,plus will be degenerative(more often than not) Putting it in gently, you say you have had a child, so will appreciate that for humans or mares, pregnancy is not a 2minute wizz at the funfair and nor is the time from birth to weaning which takes alot out of even the healthiest mares...now imagine an elderly relative with arthritis(of any sort) and add that to the pregnancy?..you simply wouldn;t. Both can be exhausting and debilitating and i feel this would be a very selfish solution to try resolve simply having been conned or misled. Put it down as experience and cut your losses.

Out of interest, did you have the mare vetted before buying her? if not I would strongly advise this for your next purchase

Even with the best pedigree ever, health,conformation and temperament should be your top priority if you are considering breeding. There are hundreds of far more expensively bred horses, say even racehorses for arguments sake,right down to natives and the market is already flooded. You would be adding to the problem of the hundreds of horses that are bred and sooner or later queuing up to be destroyed and these don't even need the added health complication or hereditory issues looming. Some slaughter houses have a waiting list of horses that have been there waitinng to die for 6 plus weeks..do you really want to risk this or a disabled foal? Unless you are able to guarantee the foal a permanent home for the rest of its life,regardless of how healthy it is born, then in my humble opinion, there is no excuse for adding to the desperate problem. I'm not for a minute suggesting to have the mare pts, but your post seemed it was a way of getting some money back out of a bad situation. You won't do this with a section D by the time you've bred it, kept it for 4 years and backed it..it will only owe you money.

I also feel,with the greatest respect, as I don't know your experience, If this is your first horse, I would say be prepared to have her sent to a stud or fully assisted foaling livery somewhere for the length of her pregnancy and certainly for the 2months prior to the due date-budget a minimum of £15 per day and bare in mind she may be late foaling by a month..and you would be best off leaving them there for a month after at least too...so much can go wrong or be made worse by a well meaning but inexperienced owner,vital signs can be the difference between life & death of mare & foal..please think very carefully before you go down this road, it is not all as rose tinted and cute as it looks..what ever you decide, I wish you the best for the mare :-)
 
The vet has okayed for her to be bred from...infact she has offered her stud...it isnt an hereditary disease that she has...I see what you are saying about unwanted foals and I am in agreement in principal. She has Nebo bloodlines and a temperament to die for! I didn't want to breed her myself hence I wondered if I could sell her, she has had treatment that has made her sound but she can't be jumped as it could obviously make her worse. And it has left me in a pickle financially.
 
With re buying her the vet did check her over and she was fine hence I don't think I was conned, but it wasn't a 5 star. My husband refuses to ever buy a horse again after this and at present we are loaning one but my daughter is getting very tall and he is only 14 hh we are less novice now obviously but I myself would not put her into foal as I wouldn't have a clue!
 
To be fair, Nebo bloodlines, while nice, appear ten a penny. No need really.

SaharaS has put it all very nicely. Do not breed this mare, or sell her for breeding. IMO it'll end in tears.
 
betty42 said:
With re buying her the vet did check her over and she was fine hence I don't think I was conned, but it wasn't a 5 star. My husband refuses to ever buy a horse again after this and at present we are loaning one but my daughter is getting very tall and he is only 14 hh we are less novice now obviously but I myself would not put her into foal as I wouldn't have a clue!
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I would think your vets advice may be because she has an alterior motive/nice stud fee or free foal..yes she probably is fit to breed (internally speaking) but I still stand by everything I said..go onto latest news or HHO frot page & look up the breeding row on there..about 3000 fit horses estimated will be pts simply to help the issue.
Also there is no guarantee your Nebo baby will be a magnificent specimen rather than just another number. Also go on here on the search bit & type in arthritis/osteo arthritis. Much more on there to back up what i've said including another post today.Sorry!
DressageGroom said:
To be fair, Nebo bloodlines, while nice, appear ten a penny. No need really.

SaharaS has put it all very nicely. Do not breed this mare, or sell her for breeding. IMO it'll end in tears.
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Thank you. I would back this up even if it was a gold winning olympic horse/derby/national winner.Take Nijinsky for eg..he was fantastic & sired many many foals yet many of those were also rans or never rans and many were pts too.
 
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Tbf to this vet & owner, I know someone whose vet recommended that their 15 yr old arthritic mare be put in foal, 'to give her something to do'. Fortunately, imo, the mare didn't 'take', so there is no foal to add to the increasing numbers of unwanted horses.
 
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