New Mini Parent

[Ricgail]

Hi,

Just wanted to let everyone know how great this site is! I would appreciate any guidance you can give me. I brought home my first mini four months ago.. Pistol is a stallion, but what a sweet guy he is. I was concerned as Pistol was pastured by himself as I was concerned my two big boys, (gelded) would hurt him. I brought home a mare last week.. This is my question... I would like to pasture both Pistol and Jasmine together... I have Pistol in one pasture, Jasmine in another. I brought Pistol over to Jasmines pasture to introduce them... Pistol was VERY interested in Jasmine to say the least... Here goes the question... If Jasmine is not in season, will Pistol try to breed with her as he is a stallion?? Sorry for my ignorance. Been an English Springer Spaniel breeder for 30 years... Just know know how equines breed. I am interested in breeding the two together down the road for myself and then cut Pistol... Well... Can anyone tell me or do you suggest a book for me to read... The Pinto is Jasmine and the Choc. is Pistol... Lord I love these little gems...

Thank you much....

G.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yes, he will try to breed her! However if she's NOT in heat, she'll quickly put him in his place. But some stallions can be very aggressive with a new mare, so stay with them for a while to be sure he's settled down. If you're not ready to have her bred, don't pasture them together! He may have her bred before you realize she's even in heat. I hope this helped answer your question. Enjoy your little cuties!

 

[countrymini]

Lord I love these little gems...

That is the only way to describe it hey.

Good luck with the breeding, i'm starting my first in a few months time.

 

[Jill]

Welcome to LB and the wonderful world of minis

 

[targetsmom]

Fist of all, welcome to minis and to the forum! I hope I don't come across as harsh, but before you embark on breeding your minis, I suggest you do a lot more research, starting with this forum, so that you know what is involved. Our own experience has been pretty terrible up until this year, but not all that out of the ordinary either. Before this year when we had 3 wonderful foals, we had bred 2-3 mares a year for 5 years, with 8 confirmed pregnancies, and only had two live foals. We have had enormous vet and hospital bills (over $3,000 for each of 2 hospitalizations) and even two of the 5 total live foals required veterinary intervention. If you factor in the cost of cameras and foaling alarms so that you are there when the mare foals - or the dead foal if you are not - it is so much easier and less heartbreaking to buy someone else's foal and get exactly what you want. So far, we have been "lucky" in that we haven't lost a mare, but that also means that we don't plan to breed our best and most well-trained mare. If you still want to breed, I suggest Blessed are the Broodmares and The Complete Book of Foaling.

BTW, we always kept our "big" horse separate from the minis and our stallion is quite content in his own area where he can see other horses through a double fence line. We hand breed so we know when our foals are due - or at least we have a slightly better chance of knowing when they might foal!

 

[Marty]

Welcome! and congrats on your miniatures.

i don't think a good way for you to get started in mini ownership is by breeding. Read very carefully what Targetsmom has just said and to add to that, consider there is no market for most miniatures anymore, and that includes some of the best show horses around.

To answer your question though, if you put the two of them together loose in a field, there is always a chance that it can turn very ugly and a fight can break out causing one or both of your horses great injury. I'd keep them separated and hand breed if you insist on breeding for safety reasons. You'll also find that your little well behaved guy may become quite a handful now because he will be interested in Jasmine all the time so you'll have to keep him in check. Also if you breed now, you will have a baby born in the dead hot heat of summer...bad heat and loads of flies and bugs. Perhaps you'd consider waiting until next spring and get to know these horses a lot better before entering them into a serious situation. You are also very wise to keep him separated from your big horses. By the way, they all look incredibly well fed and happy. Good luck and best wishes to you in your decisions.

 

[Ricgail]

Thank you everyone for your guidance and advise. However I think you are misunderstanding my question.... I am NOT interested in breeding these two mini's at this time. I was thinking I would love to share in a foaling experience, but certainly NOT at this time. Maybe two, three or four years from now. Certainly as a previous breeder of 30+ years in Spaniels, I know enough to understand I don't know anything about mini's. The reason for my question is I didn't wish to put either mini in a dangerous situation. I didn't know what to expect putting the two together, ergo my qestion. I am no where near having foals. I certainly beleive there are enough wonderful little ones out there that I don't need to add to the population at this time. I wouldn't put a mare that I love in a situation like that. I am inexperienced and wished to ask what possibly would happen..

As it turned out, I had my husband with my mare and I brought in Pistol on a lead line. After fifteen minutes we left the round pen and monitored Jasmine and Pistol. There was some chasing and a bit of rearing, but Jasmine had the last word... Jasmine chased Pistol and Pistol chased Jasmine. This went on for an hour.. No one was bit or seriously kicked... Pistol eventually rolled around for a dirt bath.. After the hour I brought them back to their pastures and all is fine... I will do the same tomorrow and see how that goes..

I thank you all for the information. I certainly love this site. I am gleaning tremendous amounts of information.... I just didn't want anyone to think I was throwing these mini's together to arbitrarily breed them...

 

[Marty]

I wish some others would jump on in here:Thank you for clarifying that you do not want to breed your horses at this time.i am wondering why you are putting the two horses together like this. I feel you may be instigating a breeding or a fight by what you have just described. By allowing the two of them to "visit" could be a recipe for disaster. In my humble opinion, you are teasing both of them....not to mention you can also tease your mare right into heat this way. This may also encourage your stallion to get loose from wherever you keep him to try and get in with your mare.Adding that even if you and your husband are both standing right there monitoring the situation, if your boy decided to jump your girl, there's going to be even more trouble if you get in there and try to break it up, very dangerous, Again, just my humble opinion that may not be worth a hill of beans but I feel you are playing with fire. There must be plenty of people who will think this is fine but I'm a dreadfully paranoid person. Maybe the others will chime in here and give a more positive response because I realize I can be the pits.

My suggestion would be if you want your horses to have companionship, I'd buy a mare for the mare and since you will not be using your stallion for years, consider gelding him and buying him a gelding friend. Boys with boys, girls with girls, and everyone's happy, especially your feed store! Best wishes to you!

 

[targetsmom]

I think perhaps the reason there aren't more responses might be that others agree with what it posted, and in a forum, you are discouraged from repeating the same thing over and over. Or maybe people are afraid of seeming too harsh on a new member that of course, we don't want to discourage or offend!

My thoughts: I would never even turn a mare and stallion out together even if I desperately wanted a foal 10-11 months later! I keep mares and stallion separate and hand breed only. If your mare is NOT in heat, she could kick the crap out of your stallion, and if she IS in heat, then she could get bred. And I have read on here of stallions that only seem to pasture breed at night when no one is looking, so I wouldn't count on seeing the action.

My suggestion would be to geld the stallion now. If you notice a number of forum members who have been breeding for years are currently doing just that (search on "gelding"). Our experience is that geldings and mares can be turned out together just fine. That is the beauty of a forum - not everyone's experiences are the same, so you will get different advice depending on those experiences. Good luck with your mini experience!

 

[Ricgail]

Thank you all for your information. I didn't realize I could be teasing them.. I will keep them separated as I do wish to breed them in a few years God willing...

 

[MBennettp]

I will comment on this one.

I would NEVER put a stallion and a mare together even for a few minutes. They can breed faster than you can get through the gate to get one of them out. Also, that is asking for one of them to get seriously hurt.

I have 2 stallions and both are in their own pen. They can "visit" with the other horses through the double fence but they are not together.

I will be gelding at least one of these stallions this fall after the heat is gone. I am a big fan of geldings. Geldings can be pastured with mares a couple of months after gelding.I have 2 geldings running with my mares now, both were older stallions when gelded and neither has ever tried to breed a mare. If one of them did try to breed a mare, they would be separated. My geldings are happier in the herd situation than they were in a pen by themselves but I am not a breeder and didn't want any accidents. There are a lot of nice stallions out there and even more mediocre ones. If I decide to breed any of my mares, I can always find a decent stallion.

One of my stallions is a producer of champions but I am not using him and am considering gelding him so he can be in the herd. The other stallion is only a yearling and I want to see how he matures. In all likelyhood, he will be gelded too. A good stallion makes a great gelding.

The horses don't need the experience of having a foal to be happy, I have had many mares that were never bred and they were happy. They got to go places and do things that wouldn't have been possible if they were pregnant or if they had a foal. My geldings love to be out and about too. They visit with the neighborhood kids and anyone else that gets near. They couldn't have done that as stallions.

I bred two mares year before last and had two very nice foals. One of the foals got overheated and was in the hospital for several days and I guarantee I could have bought some very nice horses with the money that vet bill cost me. The other one has had just routine vet care.

There are so many mini foals on the market now that I have seen them selling for way less than it cost to get them registered. A lot of these foals end up in a rescue situation because they were cheap and someone thought they were cute. When they grew and weren't so cute, they people just quit taking care of them. Anybody who breeds a lot of mares should work for a month or so with a rescue group and they would soon know that papers don't protect them. The foals that we have will be here for life.

Please think carefully before breeding.