NightHorse
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2017
- Messages
- 2
- Reaction score
- 0
Hi everyone,
I'm new here and I have...a lot of questions. Backstory: My family started breeding minis when I was 13 and stopped while I was in college. We had 18 at one point, but lost three mares over the years, and my dad lost interest and sold or gave away the rest until there were only four mares left in a 8 acre field. As you can imagine, they quickly became very fat mares.
My dad passed away unexpectedly last summer. The elderly couple we got our first horse from was at the funeral and they offered mom a foal that had resulted from an unintended night of passion after a gate was not fully secured. Better than flowers, right?? Well, when we went to meet the foal, long story short, we bought her parents and two middle-aged aunts also lol.
I was reticent at first because I remember breeding horses to be about 50/50 on happiness and heartbreak, but I have come around to the idea as long as we are managing everything properly and not making more horses than my mother's land can safely support as we have minimal interest in selling.
My first question is how old is too old to breed? With the exception of the yearling's mother, all our current mares are 15+. Two I know are too old period, two have never had foals before, and two have been casual broodmares in the past. Those are the only two I am really considering as they are in much better shape than our fat lawn ornaments anyway. But I sort of feel like that's retirement age and I should just look for some younger mares if we really want babies.
That brings me to my second question, which is how many minis does 8 acres need to keep everyone healthy not obese. It has entirely supported the 4 older mares for many years, all seasons. Much too well lol. We routinely brush hog it, but that is muh harder to get done now that my dad is gone, so an added benefit of building up an appropriately sized herd will be less times my mom has to worry about getting that done. (It is a HUGE pain the way the land is laid out.)
Also, last question for now, what do I do when my lead mare is SO OVERWEIGHT but can not be seperated from her girls without freaking out? How can I help her without endangering her because she WILL try to go through a fence to get to them.
Thank you for all your help in advance!
I'm new here and I have...a lot of questions. Backstory: My family started breeding minis when I was 13 and stopped while I was in college. We had 18 at one point, but lost three mares over the years, and my dad lost interest and sold or gave away the rest until there were only four mares left in a 8 acre field. As you can imagine, they quickly became very fat mares.
My dad passed away unexpectedly last summer. The elderly couple we got our first horse from was at the funeral and they offered mom a foal that had resulted from an unintended night of passion after a gate was not fully secured. Better than flowers, right?? Well, when we went to meet the foal, long story short, we bought her parents and two middle-aged aunts also lol.
I was reticent at first because I remember breeding horses to be about 50/50 on happiness and heartbreak, but I have come around to the idea as long as we are managing everything properly and not making more horses than my mother's land can safely support as we have minimal interest in selling.
My first question is how old is too old to breed? With the exception of the yearling's mother, all our current mares are 15+. Two I know are too old period, two have never had foals before, and two have been casual broodmares in the past. Those are the only two I am really considering as they are in much better shape than our fat lawn ornaments anyway. But I sort of feel like that's retirement age and I should just look for some younger mares if we really want babies.
That brings me to my second question, which is how many minis does 8 acres need to keep everyone healthy not obese. It has entirely supported the 4 older mares for many years, all seasons. Much too well lol. We routinely brush hog it, but that is muh harder to get done now that my dad is gone, so an added benefit of building up an appropriately sized herd will be less times my mom has to worry about getting that done. (It is a HUGE pain the way the land is laid out.)
Also, last question for now, what do I do when my lead mare is SO OVERWEIGHT but can not be seperated from her girls without freaking out? How can I help her without endangering her because she WILL try to go through a fence to get to them.
Thank you for all your help in advance!