Why did you decide to have a foal?

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booandellie

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I was just wondering what reasons people had for putting their mares in foal? I have been thinking about this alot just lately as it seems to be very common for people to do this if they can't do anything else with their mares- whether it's because they aren't fit for intended purpose anymore or just because they aren't currently riding the mare in question. do you do it to make money? or to see what the offspring will look like? When there are so many unwanted and neglected horses do you not feel guilty that you can never guarantee that the foal you have bred will have a happy life? I personally would never go this route for that reason but countless do and i just wondered why...
 
Because we have the facilities to breed our own horses, we are specific in what we wanted and prefer to raise our own. At least by doing this there is only ourselves to blame if we get the rearing wrong.
 
sorry i probably should have clarified_ i don't mean the proffesional breeders but joe public that have mares but no facilties and not particularly special mares.
 
I had the place , I had done some work with mares when younger my friend was a vet at a stud so when decided to share a mare we went out bought an experianced proven brood mare with a good competitive record she had retired young after an accident that left her almost blind .
She was lovely bless her .
 
booandellie said:
I was just wondering what reasons people had for putting their mares in foal?
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Because I wanted to!!! I bought my mare as a foal for her bloodlines and had her produced by a professional eventer to novice level then bred a foal off her. I am keeping the foal and she will now go on to be produced in the future and thankfully she is a filly so she can go on to have a foal in the future. Does that make me a bad person.....no! I work hard to pay for my horses and like any body in the world no one can guarantee they can keep all their horses because nobody ever knows what is around the corner but I would always do my best to make sure I could keep them or find them the best home I possibly can :)
 
booandellie said:
did you keep the foal(s) you bred goldenstar or sell?
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I kept some ,sold two who did not suit us .
One went on to be a great sucess as a first horse
The other grew too wide and too big and too naughty when I was waiting for a hip replacement .
I lost two to injury and culled one as a three yo as its temperament was bad .
 
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Because I wanted to. I'd always had youngsters from weanlings and wanted to go one step further! The mare went to stud in her prime at 8 years. She was dropped off on return from the Blue Chip Winter finals so she was totally sound and doing well in jumping at the time. I'd been offered good money for her a number of times, but really wanted a foal for me from her.

I still own the resulting foal, he's now 11 year and the best horse I've ever had, but it has taken a lot of hard work, sweat and tears and cost a fortune!!! Do I regret it? Not for one minute! Would I do it again? No!
 
Emma h your reasons are obviously justified as your producing well bred ones. A lady i know has 2 coloureds that stand in a boggy field all day, i asked what she was going to do with them and her reply was to put the mare in foal. another lady i know had to stop riding her horse due to rearing and the first thing she did was to send it off to a stud farm. On preloved teir are loads of tbs being sold as broodmares and i can't see why these people choose to breed given that their offspring are 10 a penny
 
If i put my mare in foal it will be because i want to produce my own horse and put myself to the test with a young horse, not be tied to an already established show studs name and an already show trained horse. Most even at weaning have been handled and basic training done. It would be kept by me and used for showing, and if it was not suitable for the show ring i would have another pet horse. My mare has already successfully bred several foals with a stud and i know of at least one who was successful shown and went on to breed successful foals herself.
 
I never did put my mare in foal, but I wanted to. By the time I had the facilities and money to do it, she was 15. Then my OH lost his job and she had a massive shoulder injury in the field, so I never did it. But the reason I would have done it was because she was my horse of a lifetime, an absolute superstar, and with the most affectionate nature I had ever come across. I wanted a foal from her to keep for life. I am very sad that I lost her in November and I don't have something out of her. But by the time she recovered from her shoulder injury, I felt she was too old to risk putting in foal. It's a good job as it happens because she was plagued by laminitis for the last two years of her life and it would have been twice as hard had she have been carrying a foal.

I have now bought a two year old filly by the stallion I would have put her to. She is everything I liked in her Dad.
 
I really felt for you wagtail reading your posts about your special mare and hope your little filly comes close to giving you that special relationship you had with her. x
 
I understand where your coming from OP, the number if people I know who have mares with problems and the answer is to put into foal is scary. I live my mare to bits, she's the nicest horse I have ever met, has done everything with a smile, I'd love a foal from her, numerous people have said to go for it but the big horse has been plagued by foot problems for years - so why would I? Why put them and the foal at risk? Another mare I know has problems with her back, yet has bred 2 foals, another is an evil witch with navicular and personally I don't understand why people do it. .....if my mare was sound, I had loads if money, time and experience I would love another horse like her, but not just for the sake of it.........
 
buddy's mum and megibo i am not asking to offend you if you have quality mares and moreso planning on keeping the foals. if i was ever in the lucky position to have a real quality mare i mite consider doing the same if i i had the facilities and finances and time to rear and keep the foal myself but a lot of people don't have these but still breed
 
Buddy'sMum said:
^this^

And I had a quality mare I had always wanted to breed from. I'm not planning to sell the foal.

Why should I feel guilty? I am not responsible for any of the badly bred, unwanted or neglected horses in this country.
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Clearly you are not aware that your role is buy competition failures bred by large studs or the badly bred neglected ones bred by good knows who .
I was not aware of this till I started breeding some either .
 
I did it the other way round, I had a stallion as a riding horse and then leased a mare to breed my own riding horse. Both were Arabs and prepotent bloodlines so I had a good (and hopeful) idea of how things would turn out.

In the end I bred two foals both to keep - you must never run out of riding horses! One was 14.3 and chestnut and had the mare's mind (oh so sharp) in the sire's body, and the other 15.2 and bay had the sire's mind (oh so steady) in the mare's body.

Perfect really. Time has now passed and that last foal is now nearing retirement age. I will buy a youngster from a stud (I have my eye on one) rather than breed because I want to get out competing this summer. Plus my stallion has now sadly passed away.
 
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booandellie said:
buddy's mum and megibo i am not asking to offend you if you have quality mares and moreso planning on keeping the foals. if i was ever in the lucky position to have a real quality mare i mite consider doing the same if i i had the facilities and finances and time to rear and keep the foal myself but a lot of people don't have these but still breed
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No offence taken, its a fair question.

I think my mare is of good quality, and people experienced in her breed and even just as breeders, agree she is of breeding standard. She also has a temperament of gold and I have done everything with her, she is my mare of a lifetime. Also, the stallion is absolutely cracking! So not only is the foal likely to be excellent but I am going to keep it no matter what. :)
 
My first one I bred because I wanted a foal from my mare and I could not afford to buy what I could potentially breed.
Mare had good TB bloodlines, evented to novice level locally, placed at county level showing, then competed to Inter I dressage/worked at GP and was still sound. At the time foals from the particular stallion I used were selling for at least £4.5K at weaning. That was from nice mares but none with the competition record that my girl had.
I knew the risks involved, I had worked at the stud where P was bred and had ridden both of her parents and both of her grand-dams. I had a very clear plan of what I wanted to improve and what my criteria were for the stallion. The planning pretty much worked - I wanted a filly, more suspension in the paces, more uphill naturally and better ability to sit. All with the right temperament. Only 'but' I have about the mare is she has stopped growing at 15.2hh. My first attempt at breeding was reserve champion at her KWPN keuring so I guess I got something right :D
I ended up repeating the cross twice, lost one to colitis complications as a foal. Still have the other one who is about to be backed - he is so nice he is still entire and I have a queue of people who would buy him if I said he was for sale (he is not).

The last one I bred was supposed to be a small eventer for a friend who adores my eldest's little horse. Got a colt, beautiful event type although his paces are good enough for pure dressage. Only problem - he is going to be too tall as he was 15hh at 18 months and looks to be heading fro 15.2hh by the time he is 2yo in May, so is clearly going to exceed the 15.3hh max height (friend is only 5'1" with VERY short legs). As it happens his Mum has melanoma which has spread in the last year or so, with that in mind for now I am running him on to keep as a potential dressage horse for me. his dam is PSG level and he is better than her.
 
I'll turn that around and tell you why I decided not to have a foal (quite apart from the fact that I am not a horse and therefore cannot have a foal :-).

I used to breed Trakehner dressage horses on a commercial scale (15 - 20 foals a year), so I have quite a broad view of the whole breeding/foaling/raising/producing/selling experience. After 15 years in the business it became apparent that it was cheaper to buy in other people's young horses, and have the pick of the size/sex/conformation/movement/bloodlines/temperament/soundness/colour that was available. This was so much easier than breeding that I gave up the stud farm and made quite a good living; I bred my last foal in 1990, despite having very good broodmares and stallions I sold them all and concentrated on producing young horses bred by other people.

I have a wonderful riding mare and a couple of stallions that I think the world of now, but I will never breed them: it is not worth the time, expense and uncertainty and so when I require another horse in a few years time I will go and look for a nice 4-5 year old that fits the bill. It'll be cheaper and less hassle.
 
Cortez said:
I'll turn that around and tell you why I decided not to have a foal (quite apart from the fact that I am not a horse and therefore cannot have a foal :-).

I used to breed Trakehner dressage horses on a commercial scale (15 - 20 foals a year), so I have quite a broad view of the whole breeding/foaling/raising/producing/selling experience. After 15 years in the business it became apparent that it was cheaper to buy in other people's young horses, and have the pick of the size/sex/conformation/movement/bloodlines/temperament/soundness/colour that was available. This was so much easier than breeding that I gave up the stud farm and made quite a good living; I bred my last foal in 1990, despite having very good broodmares and stallions I sold them all and concentrated on producing young horses bred by other people.

I have a wonderful riding mare and a couple of stallions that I think the world of now, but I will never breed them: it is not worth the time, expense and uncertainty and so when I require another horse in a few years time I will go and look for a nice 4-5 year old that fits the bill. It'll be cheaper and less hassle.
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Well the saying is as old as the hills!

"Fools breed horses for wise men to buy'' :)
 
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