Youngest reasonable age to breed from a mare?

PapaFrita

PapaFrita

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I read somewhere that in days gone by (pre-cars), it was quite common to breed from mares/fillies before they were backed. This made sense from an economical standpoint as horses had a living to earn.
What is the youngest reasonable age a mare should have before she is bred from?
Just curious
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Because they are still growing inside & out, I would not put a mare in-foal before the age of 3yrs to foal at 4yrs. The other reason that some people put their mares in-foal at 2yrs is to slow their growth down. This is completely unfair on the mare & the strain it can put on her body. In the wild if she cant sustain herself & the foal then she will reasorb the foal. Just be cause they can have a foal at 3yrs does not make it right.
 
Mares (fillies) may be sexually mature as young as 9 months of age, so technically you could breed then - in fact AI'ing yearlings and flushing the embryos for ET is a practice used for advancing a breeding program that works well. Although this mostly occurs in the rest of Europe and the USA.

You need to look at each mare as an individual. There is no one answer that you can apply across the board! The mare needs to be both physically AND mentally mature, as well as sexually mature. For some mares one could breed as young as two, for others even four may be early. Look at the mares frame - does
she look and behave like a mature animal? If so, she is more likely to be able to be successful as a brood mare.
 
Hear Hear Andy Pandy, I hate it when people say you shouldn't breed until a certain age because it is down the individual, some are ready at 2y.o and some aren't ready until 4 years+.
 
2 of my mares before I bought them had foals at 3years old - both coped as well as an older mare and are still successfull broodmares today.

Having said that I have some 2 year olds here which are blatantly not ready for pregnancy - they look extremely immature, and are physically nowhere near ready to carry a foal. Others though look physically finished, are strong, well grown girls who would cope fine I'm sure. They don't foal til they're 3 after all. However I do think that putting a filly in foal as a yearling is bordering on cruelty!

As AP says - it is very much dependant on the individual mare with regards to whether they're ready to be covered at 2,3 or even some 4 year olds I've seen that I wouldn't put in foal!
 
When we got Sarancha from Germany she had already foaled to Sandro Hit and she was a 3 yr old when we purchased her! dont think it did her any harm and now at 9 she is in foal again to her 2nd.
 
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I read somewhere that in days gone by (pre-cars), it was quite common to breed from mares/fillies before they were backed. This made sense from an economical standpoint as horses had a living to earn.


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I think that practise has not entirely died out, and know of several young mares that have not been trained and sold from studs until they have produced the next generation.
 
Mary King bred from her mares at 2yo and they have all gone on to be pretty good comp mares eventing.
 
Gosh - I learn such a lot on here! I had never heard anyone (whose judgement I trusted) say that it was OK to breed some mares at 2 before! And yet now it seems some respected, responsible people do this, not just 'cowboy' breeders as I had previously thought. Hmmmmm.
 
Nice to know that people don't push mares that aren't ready. One of my bitches is at stud at the moment, another is in season and old enough to breed from but I won't cover her as she is in my mind far too immature, mentally not physically.

It is down to the individual.
 
I'd heard that, in foal at 2y.o's, backed end of third year when foal has been weaned and then into sport and sold, if it turns out to be any good they have a son or daughter...
 
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