# is 17 too old for a first foal?



## firstfoal (26 March 2012)

Hello!
Does anyone have any experience breeding from a 17yo mare in good health/fitness? I am trying to decide whether to put her in foal or not, but dont want to take the chance if the risks to my mares life would be too high. She has not bred before.
Any advice would be extremely gratefully received.
Thank you!


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## JanetGeorge (26 March 2012)

The risks to your mare are probably not as high as the risks to your wallet!!    Old maidens usually pool fluid - and can take a LOT of veterinary intervention to get in foal.  Maybe 2-3 cycles, at least - think extra keep charges, or collection/transport changes for semen, Oxytocin, wash-outs etc.  Yes, you COULD get lucky and she takes first time - but you could also get to the end of 3 cycles and have a bill exceeding £800 (WITHOUT the stud fee) and a mare still not in foal.

IF she gets in foal, old maiden mares are proably more likely to lose a pregnancy along the way, more likely to have foaling difficulties, and JUST as likely as young maidens to be not the best mothers!  Your foal will almost certainly cost you much more than buying a very nice weanling!


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## Thistle (26 March 2012)

Ditto Janet, mine took, on what was to be her third and last cycle. I now have a lovely 8.5 month colt. Worth every penny as his mum is very special to us.

I kept the costs down by keeping the mare at home and transporting her to out local vet clinic when necessary.

Chose a very fertile stallion to help. Fresh is usually recommended rather than frozen for this reason.


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## pintoarabian (26 March 2012)

As long as her uterus is in good condition, no reason why not. A simple biopsy, carried out by your vet, can ascertain that. We bred a 17 year old maiden mare and she's due to foal her third foal any day now. She's held first time, every time.


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## koeffee (26 March 2012)

I had a 17yro maiden a few years ago, she did take first time but she was scanned twice but not in foal, came to summer and i thought she looked suspect and got her checked!!! Didnt end there, she had many odemas over her tummy area which were very hard to touch, when it was time for foaling she was at a yard i rented. Had a call 8pm, your mares foaling, i lived 15mins away jumped in the car met my oh at the end of the road to offload kids, another call somethings not right?? drove quicker and called vet on the way, by the time i had got there, lady who was there was in the stable with the foal half lying on her and half in the mare?? sadly it was a red bag and she had never seen one hence didnt know to get foal out asap we lost her, one of the best foals i would have bred, but thats breeding **** happens and i take the responsibility of losing the foal for not being there on time? Even though i was in hospital all day with a broken hand! didnt stop me ripping baby out the minute i saw?!!! not all older mares will have problem,s but it does happen, my 17yr old pro was pts after getting lamintis last year.


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## Lgd (26 March 2012)

You can minimise the financial risk with the AI as a lot of vets do packages. My home vet and the Lancs vet I used both do packages which include all scanning/procedures/routine drugs for 3 cycles. Think it is around £350 this year.

Both of mine were covered as 16yo maidens to foal at 17yo.

P took first cover, straightforward pregnancy, easy delivery. She then came back into work and had numbers 2 and 3 at 21 & 22yo. Both of those took second cover. Again easy foalings, although sadly we lost her last one secondary to late complications of enterocolitis that she survived as a day old foal.

T slipped on her first cover then twinned on the second, pinched successfully and is due 18th May. feeling pretty wibbly after last years traumas but thankfully she was already in foal when we lost Grace otherwise I might have chickened out!


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## Polotash (26 March 2012)

Lgd said:



			You can minimise the financial risk with the AI as a lot of vets do packages.
		
Click to expand...

This is my advice too. I sent my 17 year old maiden to stud 4 years ago and opted for the stud's vet package which was £475 and included all vet work for 3 seasons (Catherston Stud). I think it's £350 odd for younger mares, so they know there is more work required in older ones!

Before I sent the mare and had her swabs done I had my normal vet check her who said she wasn't holding fluid so go for it... This was quick and simple and thoroughly recommended.

She went the day before she was due in season and in retrospect I wished I'd sent her a week earlier to settle. They tried natural covering but she wasn't interested, so they tried AI and she didn't take that first season - which I think was prob due to stress of moving to the stud.

Next season she took (AI) with twins so they pinched one, but the remaining one didn't look like it had developed properly on the scans, so they pinched that one too at 28 days.

Season 3, she took, and a single! Great relief all round. She then went on Regumate for 3 months, which at £120 a bottle didn't come cheap, but did keep the foal in place.

Having been a headache to get in foal she then carried like a dream, light hacking until month 8, and then foaled exactly on her due day, on a warm clear night, with zero problems. I'm just backing the foal now... 

Moral of the story, go for the vet package! Even so bear in mind the process is NOT cheap, my livery bill was over £1200 even on £5 a day grass livery because she was there so long, plus the stud fee, plus the vet work before and after the package, plus the transport, plus the Regumate, and so on! In total my baby cost me £4k to get on the ground, and like any potential breeder you need to think what you could buy for this....


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## firstfoal (5 April 2012)

Thank you all for your comments! It sounds on the whole like breeding from an older mare doesnt pose as many risks to my horse as i was concerned about! As long as she takes that is!!
I have booked a preliminary scan and check up with my vets next week, so if all goes well I see no reason not to give it a try!
Thank you for helping me make such a difficult decision! £4k for a foal out of my mare sounds like money well spent to me! (Although maybe i'll break it to the husband gently!!! Lol!!)


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## LittleGreyMare (6 April 2012)

My 17 year mare has just given birth to a healthy filly, it took 3 failed attempts the first year, but then our vet 'cleaned her out' using a method used in NZ and she took first time. So pleased its given my mare a second career!


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## Arabelle (7 April 2012)

My maiden was covered as a 16year old, first foal at 17.  My vet said with older maidens, the struggle is getting them to conceive.  After that, there are no substantially greater risks to the mare in carrying the foal and giving birth as a result of age.  He knows how precious my mare is and I trusted his advice.

My maiden did not take straight away.  I went for natural cover and in the end we let her run with the stallion, which did it.

Straightfoward pregnancy, easy foaling, had a lovely wee filly.


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## Loberia (7 June 2013)

Would it be OK for a 14yo pony to have a first pregnancy?


Thanks!


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## Goldenstar (7 June 2013)

My advanced mare was seventeen went she went to stud she had not foaled before , she was sound and very healthly she had done a competion since the late spring the year before on the vet advise she was let down very slowly hackling over the summer and not ridden from the Christmas she when to stud at the end of March and took on her first covering .
She produced the foal nearly a month late probally due to unseasonably bad weather the foal was strong straight and well grown ( a bit big in fact ) she recovered easily and was agreat mum.
Foal grew to be eight inches taller than mum ( dad was not big either) that did suprise me.
For me it worked out well vet said it was because she was a very sound tough healthly mare we were all suprised by the first  covering doing the trick.


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## AnShanDan (10 June 2013)

I'm sure every case is different, but my friend put her 17 year old mare in foal in 2010. She didn't take long to get in foal by AI at the stud and had a normal pregnancy, but she was v late in delivering (she was with me and was at least 3 weeks over). The foal, now a 2 year old, was very small and wobbly. He is fine now, but honestly, small. She was also generally not that nice to him, chased him regularly and bullied him  

She is an ISH, mostly ID, standing 15.3, stallion is 16.2 TB, he is prob. going to make 15hh. My own mare, 7/8 TB had a filly at the same time to Con. stallion (14.1) and she is already almost the same height as her mum, 16.2.

Not sure any of this proves anything! His family love him, but he isn't what they ordered.

They tried to put her back in foal last year, but she didn't take, so they gave up.


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