Aging Broodmares

[LisaB Ozark]

We are in the postition of having several older broodmares (18-20 years old). These are nice mares but getting a little old for me to like to breed. I have fillies out of them that I want to keep to replace them but obviously you can keep only so many. How do you find good homes that you can trust to take care of them. Some of our mares would be perfectly happy staying in the field for the rest of their life and others need and love the attention of people and babies. I would like to find homes for the ones that want loving - how do you give away a horse and guarantee that those people will not turn around and sell it.

How long do you breed your mares and how often?

Thanks, Lisa

 

[CKC]

We have a 22 year old ex broodmare that will never be bred again. She will live out her life with us.

I don't guess you can ever guarantee anything, but there are really great homes out there with people looking for horses to love on. I was one of them.

But maybe writing a contract that stated you got first right of refusal should they decide that they can no longer keep a horse. I wish I had done that with my first horse who happened to be an older mare. I was young and had to sell and did not have a written contract only a verbal one. She was sold by the new owners without being told. Once I found out I looked for her for many years and never found her. I just don't want that to happen again.

Kim

 

[Miniv]

We only have a couple of older mares, and our intention is to let them live their lives here..........allowing them to be grandmas and nannies........... That's it in a nutshell.

We have some "middle-aged" girls that I love, but to be fair to them, we have been gradually finding them new homes. But they are homes where I hope they will eventually "retire" with as well.......

 

[mizbeth]

I have one older mare, she is 30 this year. She will stay with me as long as she can. She lost her last foal in 2002 and has never settled again. She was terribly heart broken over it too. She is on the bottom of the pecking order now so I take special care of her. We "talk" sometimes. She is very alert and smart, but a bit crippled in the back now. Occassionally I give her some bute and put her up when the weather is wet and windy (cold). She likes being spoiled, but deserves at her age. She was never a "pet type" either as she has always been a part of a large herd until I got her. She was 19 when I got her, so has settled into people life quite well.

I will miss her, but am prepared to let her go when the time comes.

 

[Kim~Crayonboxminiatures]

I had a blind pony mare that I wasn't able to keep, but wasn't willing to sell, so I did a lifetime lease, they can keep her until they are no longer able to, etc, basically it's a free lease, I just retained papers and ownership. I get updates with photos at least once a year as written up in the contract. She lives in a heated/AC barn in MD living the life of luxury.

A stallion I recently gelded but again wasn't willing to fully give up I leased for 6 months, and now we co-own him.

There are ways to find them homes without totally giving up ownership and their are good folks who are willing to do this too.

 

[wildoak]

Good question, especially for the older mares who aren't really pets. The sweet mares can often find a home where they are loved on and get lots of attention. I've had several mares who came from big farms and were not handled much, and will never make really good pets. They will live out their lives here. I currently have a 30 year old QH mare who is here for life, and a 20 year old mini mare, plus several well into their teens. They are past being "useful" as far as breeding or performance but I can't bring myself to just let them go. I sold a little mare about a year and a half ago to a family new to horses. She was a little older mare, had a history of founder which I explained. They jumped into "country life" and bought 2 or 3 big horses, the mini and a herd of goats. Guess what. A year later everything was for sale....

Jan

 

[Sue S]

My horses will live out their life here as long as I'm still here.. the oldest is 14 years old and going to have baby in March. She is a palomino pinto.

 

[jacks'thunder]

We'll I'm one of the people who took on an aging broadmare. She's 24 this year and has been with us for 2 years. She has a forever home here and is the light of the barn. The nice lady we got her from had her for years and said it was hard to watch her get old. So it worked out perfect for us. She will never be bred, live a lazy life, and will be pampered untill the day passes.

I would take 10 of these old girls if asked! We all just adore her! I do have 3 other young minis, between the ages of 2 and 8 and she can still hang with the best of them and show them who's boss. In an ideal stuation, I'd love to get one more older girl for her to hang out with. Some times the young ones run circles around her and you can see on her face that she is annoyed!

If it's what you need to do then keep looking for the right home. You'll find it!

Good luck!

Leya

I just wanted to ad that she did come to with some health issues, founder, bad teeth, and a couple others but the wonderful lady told us all about these. Be honest with your prospective buyers!! Thats worth a million bucks to me!! LOL!!

 

[Riverdance]

I have one mare that is 20 this year. I bought her a year ago and hope to get a couple of foals by her, she had one last year, but late in the season, so too late to get her pregnant for this year.

She will live out her days here and be a foal sitter in the future. She was wonderful with her foal last year and I had a hard time taking him away. She coliced pretty bad and was at the vets for a couple of days, so I just brought the foal home and weaned him while mom was away.

 

[Magic]

I think that the idea of a lease is best-- then they can't re-sell.

My 24 year old mare had her last foal at 22, then she seemed glad to be retired. In the summer she is out on pasture with the mares and foals, and in the winter she is the babysitter to the weanlings. The mature horses push her around but she gets plenty to eat with the babies and they know better than to rough-house with her (though she is gentle as can be, she gets her feelings across!) She seems happy.

My next-oldest mares are only 12, as I've sold other mature mares and kept my "youngsters", but my plans for those two are to keep them until the end of their days. They've more than deserved a comfortable retirement already.

My younger mares, I haven't thought about what to do with them; I may end up as a "retirement home" in a couple of decades!

 

[MountainMeadows]

Anyone who breeds will end up in this position sooner or later - it is not just our treasured broodmares, but the stallions also - and not everyone can keep several stallions - even the older boys can still cause a lot of trouble. FInding homes for them is much harder and alot of vets are reluctant to geld an older stud - again, something to think about with those stallions over 15 - are you going to keep them as a stallion and ensure their quality of life, or geld while you can and make placement or keeping them far easier.

For me, the answer is easy -- they will stay with me forever. Yes, every once in awhile a RARE opportunity comes along where I can place a mare in another loving FOREVER home - always with the stipulation that I get first opportunity to take her back. I far prefer to have my horses with others of their own herd, so the few times I have placed an older horse it was either with a buddy or I knew she was going to have safe companionship.

Something to thing about as a breeder isn't it? I feel that the miniature horse community in general is very good about accomodating our senior citizens, but I do worry about the overpopulation of poor quality minis who are getting kicked from home, to home, to home - I can hardly imagine what desolation they must feel

Kudos to all out there who have promised to ensure FOREVER, loving homes to their elderly horses (MizBeth - ((( )))) - I wonder if you are talking about Lady?)

Stacy

 

[bevann]

I am one of those who keeps my old girls.I have 1 now who is 21 and came from a big farm with not much people contact.I have had her almost 18 years and she trusts me but not too many others.I also have several others who are 17-19 years old.They will die here. I am in the process of reducing my numbers due to a serious back problem which will not be getting any better in time.I am selling off the broodmares that I have bought, but it is sometimes difficult finding the right person for each horse depending on personality traits.I have 1 very dominant mare who will need to be pastured alone or with a buddy she can't bully.My older stallions have been gelded and are here forever.I think I am done with breeding, but will have a bad case of foal withdraw come spring. I just love Mini foals.

 

[horsefeather]

We quit breeding several years ago. It was too hard for me to let the babies go. We have a couple older mares and an older blind mare. They have a home here as long as I do! They cannot help getting old and the blind mare certainly didn't plan on being blind. I also have a gelding that will be here forever, sold him once, got him back and promised him he wouldn't go anyplace else again. It bothers me a LOT to see older mares sold when they are no longer 'usefull.' They have given there best years and now some people want to just get rid of them. I guess maybe I feel this way because I am older and have a little insight into the aging process. I applaud those who are very careful who they either sell or give away their oldies, but I have seen too much in the horse world to trust very many people. Lives change and the first thing that goes are the critters. Sorry, sore spot with me.

Pam

 

[Sue_C.]

This is one of the reasons that I harness train all my mares. I figure that if they are still here when the day comes I no longer want them bred...I will either keep them, and allow them to ber used as 4-H horses, or lease them out to someone who just wants a nice driving horse. Heck, I figure that even in their teens and twentys they will have lots of steam left in them for several years of driving enjoyment. From what all I've been told, minis live upwards of 30-40 years, so I do not consider them old in their teens, to be sure.

 

[Minimor]

What irks me is how many Mini people don't want to be bothered with "old" mares...and they refer to 10-11 year olds as "old" and the 13 year olds are "geriatric". Those mares produce foals every year of their lives starting at age 3 and continuing until they're 10 or 13 or even 15-16, then after all those foals the owner isn't willing to give those faithful old mares a forever home. Some of them don't even especially care where the mare ends up.

I had one pawned off on me in a rather sneaky fashion; a retirement home for a 10 year old mare. Who knew?? I won't say more because it's kind of a long story to explain what I find so objectionable about the whole thing. I feel sad for the horse too. She can have a forever home here, I might even train her to drive this year--along with another older (10) mare we've got here, if I can find the time with all the youngsters I have to work.

Both mares will make awesome driving horses, even if one is "old" and the other apparently "geriatric"

 

[RockRiverTiff]

From what all I've been told, minis live upwards of 30-40 years, so I do not consider them old in their teens, to be sure.

I hear this age estimate a lot, but have not honestly heard of a single registered Miniature living to 40. I know there are a couple forum celebrities like Gramma Pony in their 30's, but they do seem to be the exception. I would like to see some real research put behind this, as I feel a life expectancy of 30-40 is misleading.

We have retired many of our stallions and mares here, and old age is the most common cause of death, usually in their early to mid-twenties. Most of them were so healthy that their death surprised me despite their age, and it never gets easier. We just lost a 24 year old mare last fall--another one, thank God, that went in her sleep. Right now we have several middle-aged horses, two retired girls in their late teens (but not retired due to age), and our oldest is a 20 year old stallion. He is as healthy as he was at 10, and I am hoping to see him past the 30-year mark.

We have always done limited breeding, and of course that extra time and space makes it much easier to accomodate the seniors, but I can see how profit-based operations would have difficulty finding a place for their older horses. I have bought mares in their late teens before, and would again, as one nice foal is all it takes to replace them, and then they can go out with my other special ladies.

That said, some of the retired mares are not happy retired. The oldest mini mare that ever foaled here was 24. There was a stallion adjacent to one of the pasture fences, and she must've backed up to it. We had no idea she was bred--one of our farm hands thought she had a stomach tumor. Surprise.

Needless to say, we moved the stallion.

 

[bevann]

Many years ago in CA I visted a lady who had a very old Mini mare.She wasn't sure of her age, but she had owned her for 30 years and she was an aged mare when she got her.She believed her to be close to 50, but she wasn't sure.She didn't look too great, but she was happy and not in pain. I often wonder when I go to some farms who have been breeding Minis for a long time and they have no older horses.Wonder what they do with them, but I'm not one who considers my Minis like cattle or other livestock.They are very special and even the older ones deserve the best of care.I have 1 older mare who is on a special diet and my older stallion (now a gelding)has a melanoma on his rectum which we are treating. Kudos to people who look after the old ones. I am getting up in age also and it makes me very akin to the older horses.

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

I have some pretty stong opinions about how "old" horses should be dealt with so I'll try to keep my yap shut and just limit to the facts. I keep all my old horses. They stay here until their time on earth is up.

My oldest mini is a mare that is 26 this year. She foaled a pretty perlino filly in 2007, is open for 2008 and is planned for breeding for a 2009 foal. I know many don't breed mares that age, but I'm just fine with this particular mare being bred assuming the vet gives her the OK again this year. She is very healthy, pain-free and you would NEVER know her age by looking at her! She was running, kicking, bucking as soon as I let her out this morning. She'd been up for 2 days since the weather has been yucky here.

Then I have a 17 and a 19 year old mare also. Both are still breeding, but even when they're finished, they are still staying here forever!

And we recently adopted a gelding that is estimated to be about 20 years old. He was just gelded in December and we'd planned on training him to drive and then finding a forever home for him, but as it turns out he won't be doing any driving so he appears to be here forever also!

Oh well!

Sometimes a great home can be found for older horses, but I really worry about the emotional toll on them to be uprooted at an older age and moved somewhere new.

 

[chandab]

From what all I've been told, minis live upwards of 30-40 years, so I do not consider them old in their teens, to be sure.

I hear this age estimate a lot, but have not honestly heard of a single registered Miniature living to 40. I know there are a couple forum celebrities like Gramma Pony in their 30's, but they do seem to be the exception. I would like to see some real research put behind this, as I feel a life expectancy of 30-40 is misleading.

There is a mare mentioned and pictured in Barbara Naviaux's book, that is reported to have had her last foal at 36 and pictured at 40.

 

[gatorbait4sure]

I know she wan't a mini but we put our Shetland ( actually she was Molly's ), Susie to sleep at an actual 37. She wasn't much bigger than an "A" mini. We got her when she was 30 and my girlfriend got her as a weanling for a TB mare she bought, so we knew her age. She taught tons of small children to ride and drive and Molly still rode her once at 35.....Molly got too big for her!

Susie was one in a million! I gave Molly the option to be there or not, when we put her to sleep, and she decided she wanted to be there.......Well after one injection, then two, we sent Molly to the barn for "something", and Susie slowly, quietly went to sleep.......

Molly came back and put a blue ribbon on her and read her a poem, which to this day, I cannot read without crying....."Because, Susie, you were always a blue ribbon pony".......

Both the vet and I were blubbering.....

What a good pony!