Getting started with minis again

[NightHorse]

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!

 

[Miniv]

Haha...Welcome BACK to the fold of miniature horses! I bet you will get a lot of various answers, but here's mine.....

Fifteen years old is "middle aged" for a mini.....Not too old to breed. Once they are in their 20's a lot depends on their overall health. We have mares who are between 26 and 28 who would probably be willing, but they're obviously aging so we're just letting them retire. And I agree with you that an older mare who's never had a foal should probably not get bred. She wouldn't have the stamina or the pelvic muscles to have an easy foaling.

Eight acres can probably handle about 14 minis, but they will eat it down. The rule of thumb around here is One Acre per FULL SIZE horse. We have several large paddocks (ranging between 1 to 3 acres) with grass available and we still give them extra hay. We also have two large pastures (one is 20 acres, the other 10 acres) and they get extra hay from November through April because the nutritional value in the grass is poor part of the year or it's covered in snow...... They ALL get a mineral supplement.

As to your last question.......You don't want your Lead Mare to founder. We always try to give every horse a buddy because they are herd animals. Can you put her in a dry lot or minimal grass area with another mare that she likes? If the other mare is not "obese", pull her out for for some extra feeding and then put her back. This is where having either a barn or a shelter that you can close up is handy. Sometimes one has to get creative and think "out of the box" to handle these different little ones.

Wishing you all the best.....