At what age do you let you stallion have his first mare

[LC Farm]

I was wondering at what age you let your stallion breed his first mares? My little guy will be three next year and probably won't breed any as he will be showing. I can't wait to see what he will throw with my mares. Do you usually see what they throw or do you sent them out showing first to see how they do in the ring? I hope I'm not making a mistake but I want to see how he does in the ring first. He showed as a yearling and did good but had to come home as hubby's dad was really sick and we had to help out on the help coming in to take care of him. Thank you for your replys

 

[Riverdance]

3 years old at the earliest. Before that they are just not mentaly able to deal with it properly and many 2 year old stallions can not perform well. Even at 3 there will be some hormonal problems.

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

No earlier than 36 months... they aren't mature enough to handle it safely much younger, even though they CAN do the job. My preferance is to bred a small number at 3 and then expand slowly until age 5 when they can do a full book. They will sexually mature between 4.5 to 5.5 years. I will not breed a horse younger than three unless order to do so by a client, and then only after explaining the danger and risk.

 

[Leeana]

I put Narko on 2 mares this past spring, i was planning to wait until he was three but he was plenty physically and mentally there and quite mature, maybe more so then a few of my sr geldings. Both mares turned out in foal, although one did abort ...the other is due in May. I did have two people inquire about breeding to him, i had to turn them down as i just dont feel right standing a two year old unproven stallion out.

 

[maestoso]

Every horse is an individual case and no generalizations can be made. There are many stallions that ARE mature enough mentally and physically at 2 yrs old. There are also some that aren't ready for it until much later.

You have to make a judgement of each individual horse, and beyond that, it's personal preference.

 

[Reble]

Well, I sold my senior stallion who got me into breeding miniatures, its been 5 years now.

So my little 27.75 Rowdy will be turning 3 years old in March 2009, sure hope he is ready to take over.

He will have 2 or 3 mares to breed next year.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

I have always started my colts, big and small, at two.

I do not even really go by physical development, Carlos looked like a scrawny foal when he started breeding, and stood 27" high, but you would be amazed at the change in that little horse once he had had a few mares, he matured up, he grew and put on weight. It was amazing.

One thing though I shall say...I always breed them in hand, Carlos was four this year and he bred loose for the first time, although I had got him out with mares and foals the year before.

He was calm and well behaved and he loves his foals!!

From the start he has been out with other colts for the winter.

He set both the mares he bred as a two year old, as a three he had five and again, he set them , and this year I think he had six, I'm not sure, but we shall have to wait til the year has turned to see if they are all set or not.

 

[Sandee]

We started breeding at 2 with our stallion (in hand only) and he has never "gotten" crazy. We were also showing him at the time and still do. He will totally ignore the mares in an arena (driving) and only this past spring (age 5) felt it was necessary to "announce" his entrance into the arena when showing with the stallions at halter.

Each horse is an individual and should be treated and evaluated that way.

 

[Jill]

Two years old

 

[FoRebel]

We wait till 3 for both mares and stallions.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Mares, of course, are completely different.

If there is a reason to I will wait now til a mare is three before breeding her.

If there is not a reason to wait I still will breed a two year old mare.

I do not wait until they are four and their bones have set!!

I always bred my Arab mares at two, they were going on to be riding horses and having a foal before they did so just set them up for whatever life threw at them.

They were also backed at this age.

They were not put back in foal, and they did not come into riding until they were four, so they were on track with everything, basically.

I have always shown my stallions and they are expected to behave, there is nothing quite like a badly behaved colt shouting and screaming to upset a ring!!

Funnily enough, though, it is usually the colts that have not bred that act this way.

I always say to my "boys" ..."The day you are asked to breed a mare in the middle of a show ring is the day you are entitled to start misbehaving!"

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

I make my 36 month rule a hard and fast rule. I feel its incredibly important. Everyone always brags about how mature and great their horses are... if they all were, why would the specialists recommend older? Give them a chance to mature physically and mentally. Coming from someone who has seen many hundreds of stallions, it really should be a firm rule, only broken in rare, rare cases.

 

[RedWagonMan]

We are going to let our one 2 year old have 1 mare next year. But this will be hand breeding and he is definately ready. He has been telling me he is ready for over a year now. LOL

 

[rabbitsfizz]

I think if you are only giving him one mare you would be better off waiting til he is three....to my way of thinking it has nothing to do with the physical maturity of the animal as a lot of colts prepared for the show ring are physically ready at one year old, let alone two.

I have always been happy to use a colt at two (and I have owned a lot and I have also dealt with hundreds, BTW) and none have ever come to any harm.

I would not just turn a colt out with mares at this age, but basically, if they are not mature they will not set the mares, if they are, they will.

Everything we do with our horses is "unnatural", so there is no point talking about what they do naturally.

Naturally, were a two year old colt to happen upon a herd of mares without a stallion he would breed as many as he possibly could before a mature stallion turned up and drove him off!!!

So long as you know what you are doing, and you take care he has no adverse experiences, it can be a good learning curve.

I have a coming two year old this year who I bred and who I shall be using this spring...he will breed at least three mares, of very differing types.

The point of this exercise is to remove the guesswork from "is he good enough to be kept entire" as to my way of thinking, winning everything in the ring means absolutely nothing if his foals are not up to scratch.

This way I can have foals on the ground that I can evaluate while he is still young enough to geld without it affecting him too badly, I find four year olds geld out badly, I would rather geld before two, but, in this case that is not possible.

 

[LC Farm]

Thank you all for your replys. I will see what the trainer thinks about letting me bring two of my mares for him to breed to her house. He leaves in march so I would like to have it all hashed out before then. I don't want to spend the money on showing him as a stallion if he doesn't throw what I like but also want his head in the game as it cost me big bucks to send him out as you all know. His sire is Scott Creek Tattoo who is out of Little Kings Napolian and dam is all appy bred back to Yellow Diamond Little Feather. He wasn't for sale when I went to the appy farm looking and it took me three months to talk her into selling him to me. I have a contract a mile long on him as she is a lawyer but it was love at first sight for both of us. When I visit a farm I like to look at the horses in their pasture and watch them move naturally and see how they get along with their herd. Then I have them bring in the ones I would like a closer look at. Call me a crazy old lady but it works for me. Thanks again I have a lot of thinking to do.

 

[Margaret]

I have learned that although a stallion will breed at the age of 2,- you dont allways settle the mare.

Many of them dont really have the level of maturity required for a sucessful breeding, that a mature stallion has developed and learned.

I would much prefer to use a 3-5 year old stallion, if you really want to increase your odds of settling those mares.

 

[weerunner]

I'm new to mini horses, I got my stallion in 2004 when my Quarter Horse had to be put down. I bought him a mare a few months later and they bred the following spring. He was only 2 at the time. Well, that mare did not settle for 3 years. The year my stallion turned four he successfully bred his first mare and produced a lovely little filly for me. This year he has two more on the way, including that first mare I bought. So I guess in my stallions case, I would have been better off waiting until he was 4 or 5. Actually looking at him now, there is a huge difference in body and frame of mind.

 

[Margaret]

I agree Weerunner, the closer they are to 5, the better they do at getting the job done.

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

Yes, while a yearling colt will have fertile sperm (assuming he's normal and dropped), his quality will be very poor. This will increase very quickly and significantly until he's in his prime, from age 5 to 15. Then it will start to degrade once again. His best numbers, quality and quantity, will be in that prime range, where he obtains sexual maturity. He is fertile at age 1, but he is by no means mature, and people need to distingush those two terms

They are not mature at age 2, or even three or four.

 

[Doobie]

We give our two year old two older mares.

I always found that the 'old girls' teach him respect,

I was never worried if they settled or not but so far each one has every time.

Debbie