# latest month to put a mare in foal?



## Hemirjtm (23 April 2008)

sorry for so many questions  
	
	
		
		
	


	





as title says really....would you be happy putting your mare in foal as late as september or later?? Or do you not like doing this? 

thanks
x


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## c7mlm (23 April 2008)

i would start before then as she might not take first time. i also liked the idea that it will be a bit older going into winter and that i can wean by the end of summer.


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## Fleur100 (23 April 2008)

Personally I don't like putting them in foal so late. July is about the lates for me (June foal).


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## Moggy in Manolos (23 April 2008)

july covering with a june foal would be the latest for me
my mare is off to stud in about 10days for an april foal 
	
	
		
		
	


	




 i think this is about the best month personally, april/may both good as its just getting milder


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## brightmount (23 April 2008)

My horse and another mare ran with a stallion last summer with the aim of a natural covering, but the dismal weather last year didn't exactly kindle romance, and it looked like neither of them were successful. At least mine was scanned following a possible covering but she wasn't in foal. The other mare wasn't scanned and it was thought she had not been covered, but she has now been confirmed by a vet as 7 months in foal, so she must have been covered just before the stallion was taken out in September.

Someone posted a picture last year to illustrate the drawback of a July/August foal and it was covered in flies 
	
	
		
		
	


	





But for horses that are foaling and being covered again in the same year you will get late foals.


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## Hemirjtm (24 April 2008)

thanks for everyone's replies
x


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## Enfys (29 April 2008)

In the UK I wouldn't have a mare covered any later than August.

Here I would plan for an April or May foal so that it came just as the weather is warming up (right........it is -2C tonight, and snow forecast this week!) and before the flies come out in full force. Late foals here are also at a disadvantage in that there could be snow on the ground from November (or before) until March, no flies though and no incessant rain, or mud.Swings and roundabouts.

Tamz, I think that perhaps the photo you were thinking of was one that Tia posted of a newborn.....high summer in Canada, the flies are dreadful in places. I am forced to bring my horses in over summer because of the mosquitos and deer fly here.


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## Tia (29 April 2008)

Please don't put your mare in foal in September.  August really is a dreadful time to have a foal enter the world.  

TAMZ and Enfys are right, I posted a photo last year on here, just to show anyone considering doing it at that time of year, that this really isn't a good time to foal down.  It was so hot then and I felt sorry for my mare who was huge by then, and she was having to carry around this great lump in her tummy.  Thankfully she went through all of the foaling stages in less than half an hour.  The foal wasn't even out of the mare before the flies started buzzing around her - it really wasn't nice at all.  Once the foal was dry, things were fine and her tender age didn't affect her coping mechanisms of winter; in fact the foal is actually bigger than the others who are almost a year old now.

A June foal is the latest I'd ever do, however I much prefer April foals.


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## Damien (29 April 2008)

no I call it a day mid June, really want to have all the foals arrive by end of May, so that babies sold can go off to their new homes for winter.

You will also find that stallions or mares are as fertile as the year passes by if you live in this part of the hemisphere that is..


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## Gingernags (30 April 2008)

Mine is later than I wanted as she wouldn't co-operate!!!  Didn't take first time round then wouldn't come back into season, pesky mare.  She was jabbed in and covered but we thought we'd missed it but she was scanned in foal August for a July foal - just as we were about to give up for the year.  I'd have much preferred an April or June foal.


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