Mares Heat cycle
- Thread starter My girls
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I have a mare that had a foal june 2010, the colt has been with her since birth. Let me start by saying when I bought the mare her name should have been cracker jack because she came with a surprise inside. I never planned on breeding so, I don't really have the space to separate them. The colt was with his mother and an older mare, since the age of 2 months old I kept checking so I could get him gelded as soon as possible. Well, 15 months old he has only dropped 1. A little slow at the thinking I started to get concerned about the colt and his mother. I would see him try to mount my older mare. Never seen him try to mount his mother, so the first of August I started checking his mother to see if I could see any indication of her going into heat and I have checked her everyday no signs of heat. My vet doesn't want to do a pregnancy test until we are sure 80 days have past, don't want to do it to soon and have to repeat it later. And since the colt was with his mother he would nurse every now and then and she would let him, I'm worried about inbreeding and is it possible his nursing is way she didn't go into heat.
lucky lodge
Well-Known Member
I left my mare with her last colt for 2 years..she didnt wean fully him until he was around 14 months and he still tried to suckle for a good few months after that..shes didnt come into season the whole time she was nursing or if she did she showed no signs whatsoever..shes in a paddock right next to my stallion and he would have let me know she was for sure
..with her last foal she had her foal heat around 10 days after foaling and hasnt had another season as yet but its early days her foal is 6 weeks this weekend..I will be watching her closely as i also wondered if they cycle as normal while nursing..in my passed experiance id say they dont but of course theyr all very different and I only have 1 mare to go by
As Bill says, the norm is for a mare to come into season 7 to 12 days after foaling and from then on every 21 days.
A lot of mares will season 'silently' and you would need an experienced stallion to tell you when they were on heat. Other mares foaling in late June or July might only have a foaling heat and maybe one more before 'closing down' in preparation for the winter months. Others will show in season all the way through the year. They are all different, bless them!
There is no way I would take the chance of leaving a colt with any age female after the colt is 8 months old - MyGirls do you have a barn or something/somewhere that you can use to divide the time outside between males and females to keep them apart? As you dont want to breed (and a Mother to Son is not a good idea) then you need to get them apart asap.
A lot of mares will season 'silently' and you would need an experienced stallion to tell you when they were on heat. Other mares foaling in late June or July might only have a foaling heat and maybe one more before 'closing down' in preparation for the winter months. Others will show in season all the way through the year. They are all different, bless them!
There is no way I would take the chance of leaving a colt with any age female after the colt is 8 months old - MyGirls do you have a barn or something/somewhere that you can use to divide the time outside between males and females to keep them apart? As you dont want to breed (and a Mother to Son is not a good idea) then you need to get them apart asap.
rabbitsfizz
Well-Known Member
There is no such thing as natural weaning.
In the wild, as everyone loves to quote, sure a mare will gradually wean off her foal around two years old. What she will not do is teach it to be independent or how to correctly socialise as an adult, with other horses.
This tend s to make a clingy, unsocialised animal that takes it's dams social status in the herd and screams the place down when separated form her!
Occasionally a colt will be higher sexed than usual and this colt can and will breed his own dam form 10 months on.
So, although it is unlikely, your mare could well be pregnant by her own foal, so you could get another surprise!
The other down side is that since he is naturally subservient to her his sexuality could be suppressed which will not help hie other testicle to descend.
Short of it is, wean him now!
In the wild, as everyone loves to quote, sure a mare will gradually wean off her foal around two years old. What she will not do is teach it to be independent or how to correctly socialise as an adult, with other horses.
This tend s to make a clingy, unsocialised animal that takes it's dams social status in the herd and screams the place down when separated form her!
Occasionally a colt will be higher sexed than usual and this colt can and will breed his own dam form 10 months on.
So, although it is unlikely, your mare could well be pregnant by her own foal, so you could get another surprise!
The other down side is that since he is naturally subservient to her his sexuality could be suppressed which will not help hie other testicle to descend.
Short of it is, wean him now!
I dont want to disagree with you and everyone has their own oppinions but she started to walk away from him trying to nurse at around 12 months and would tell him off if he tried but occasionally let him try for a few months after that..so I would call that a natural weaning just in my oppinion not saying your wrong
Just to add also that he now lives with a welsh section A filly and has proved to be a very well adjusted and sociable young man with a fabulous temperment
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Minimor
Well-Known Member
In most cases, no, nursing a foal will not prevent a mare from coming into heat. It has sure never stopped any of ours from showing in heat.
There are perhaps exceptions, and there are also those mares that are hard to breed back when they have a foal at side. Often it isn't that the mares aren't cycling while they have a nursing foal on them, it's that the mare won't let the stallion breed while her foal is there--and take the foal away and the mare fusses so much that she still won't let the stallion breed her. Perhaps in some cases the mare isn't ovulating when she's nursing....whatever the case there are definitely those mares that foal only every 2 years & simply don't get bred while they have a foal at side. I would say they are the minority though--and I wouldn't count on this to prevent any mae from getting bred.
Chances are that your mare didn't get bred back to her son; many colts are not fertile at 15 months--certainly some are, but many are not. But for sure the possibility is there, and she could be pregnant. Not seeing them breed is no guarantee either. I've had a stallion get into the pen with a mare--absolutely no sign that he was interested in her "that way" and no sign at all that she was in heat, yet they obviously got the deed done before I found them together--they were just pretending lack of interest when I saw them--because a foal resulted from that encounter. I also had a young stallion that would breed only in the dark; in the daylight he showed no interest at all in the mares, but after dark he would breed.
There are perhaps exceptions, and there are also those mares that are hard to breed back when they have a foal at side. Often it isn't that the mares aren't cycling while they have a nursing foal on them, it's that the mare won't let the stallion breed while her foal is there--and take the foal away and the mare fusses so much that she still won't let the stallion breed her. Perhaps in some cases the mare isn't ovulating when she's nursing....whatever the case there are definitely those mares that foal only every 2 years & simply don't get bred while they have a foal at side. I would say they are the minority though--and I wouldn't count on this to prevent any mae from getting bred.
Chances are that your mare didn't get bred back to her son; many colts are not fertile at 15 months--certainly some are, but many are not. But for sure the possibility is there, and she could be pregnant. Not seeing them breed is no guarantee either. I've had a stallion get into the pen with a mare--absolutely no sign that he was interested in her "that way" and no sign at all that she was in heat, yet they obviously got the deed done before I found them together--they were just pretending lack of interest when I saw them--because a foal resulted from that encounter. I also had a young stallion that would breed only in the dark; in the daylight he showed no interest at all in the mares, but after dark he would breed.
Since I didn't have the space or time for the second testicle to drop, I rehomed the colt so, now the vet wants to wait at least 80 days after the colt to test her.
Hey Lindi-loo the pic of your mini looks just like one of my little mares they could be twins
Hey Lindi-loo the pic of your mini looks just like one of my little mares they could be twins
Oh I would love to see a picture
tagalong
Well-Known Member
Agreed. "Natural weaning" is completely unnecessary. In the wild, the stallion would drive young males out of the herd and monitor them carefully before that - they would not have to wait for their dam to get around to it. If a mare is pregnant and nursing a yearling as well - well that is hard on her and the unborn foal.
The most neurotic horse I ever dealt with was a neighbour's 2 year old Arabian colt who bullied his dam, constantly bred her and was still nursing from her.
A colt does not need to have both testicles down to be fertile.
Some mares here do not come into heat when they have a foal at heel... some do. There is no set rule. Heck, some of them back up to the fence and show to the stallion when they are heavy in foal - their hormones are running amok!
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Ohh what a cutie..I love her smile
After my last post about my mare not coming into season while nursing her last foal..today 16th she came into season and this foal is just 6 weeks tomorrow
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