Broodmares

[SampleMM]

I am curious to know at what age do you think a broodmare should be retired? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

 

[Reble]

We always believed with the big horses around 18 -20 years.

I am thinking for us with minis, as long as healthy I am thinking the same

I did find this information on breeding broodmares.

Mares should be bred after the age of 3, and can be bred well into their 20s. A mare’s reproductive efficiency decreases significantly after age 12, especially mares that have never been bred.

Because it takes them longer to recover, older mares often have a harder time breeding back after foaling.

A mare’s body condition directly affects her breeding ability. Broodmares need a body condition score of 5 (on a scale of 1 to 9, 1 being extremely thin, 9 being extremely fat). You should be able to feel her ribs, but not see them.

Hope this is what you where looking for. Interesting in seeing what others think?

 

[MyBarakah]

I have a mare here that's due to foal around the end of June that is 22 yrs.old. And she is in GOOD condition for her age and hope to get a couple more foals out of her. I bought another broodmare last year that is 21 yrs.old. Shes' open but hope to get at least one or two more foals out of her before they retire....

I would say it all depends on the condition of the mare and her reproductive system. Both these mares are in GOOD condition.

 

[Riverdance]

I bought a Mickey Mouse daughter(producer of multiple AMHA World Grand Champions) when she was 18 and in foal. She foaled when she was 19 but foaled later in the season then I was told. So too late to breed her back. I then bred her at the age of 20 and she is due to foal next month.

I have her on regumate and just put her on SMZ's all as a precaution. She looks and acts better than some of my younger mares.

I gambled when I bought her, hoping to get at least one or two foals out of her and my stallion. Hopefully she will be ready to breed later on this year so that I can get a foal out of her for next year.

As long as she is healthy and not having problems foaling, I will try again. But I know I will be retiring her once she shows signs that this is a strain on her.

 

[Magic]

I agree that it depends on each individual mare, her health and soundness and how she handles pregnancy and nursing a foal. We have a 25 year old mare here that had her last foal at 22. With that last foal, she was bred just once, and had a completely straightforward pregnancy and delivery, and a gorgeous filly was the result. Still, I felt that she had had enough, and she was retired. She actually seemed quite relieved, lol! That mare goes out with the mares with new foals to pasture all summer, and then she's the babysitter when the foals are weaned. She gets plenty of "baby time" but doesn't have to deal with the physical stresses of carrying her own anymore.

I have a couple of 13 year old mares that I am already thinking about their future retirement. One has had ten foals already in her short life, she's a super-producer, but I'm not going to ask her to keep doing that into her 20's. Another has shown extensively and had 7 foals. I've kept daughters from both of these mares and will watch the mares carefully to see when they look and act ready to retire. They each had a foal this year and they will both now be taking a year off. They've both more than earned their retirements already.

 

[HGFarm]

Your vet can check them out too, and see what condition their uterus is in, etc..... and how they are doing. If their uterus is wearing out, or the mare is in poor condition, or becoming a hard keeper, or has other problems, it's time to retire them.

I have known mares that had foals into their 20's with no problems, but knew some that at 18 or 20 were retired. Some just quit cycling. Some just have too much 'wear and tear' in there, some can develope fibrosis that is just due to age, some mare start becoming prone to infections - they are called 'dirty mares' and that can include several reasons why and where they have infections. This can include, but is not limited to, poor vulval conformation, degenerative changes inside, etc...

It really just depends on the individual and what condition they are in... when it doubt, we have the vet out to check them over inside.

We had an old full sized mare that was 25 that we had checked out for breeding. She had never had a foal, and checked out in A one shape- excellent uterus, was still producing eggs.... but we decided not to just because of her age- her teeth were starting to go, and we didnt want to stress her system any more than old age does anyhow. It would have been too hard on her whole being we felt, so we didnt, though her reproductive system was still a go.

I did have a Mini mare that foaled at 25, but had been a broodmare her whole life and had had many.

 

[JWC sr.]

According to an area Vet that we use that specializes in reproductive issues in all size horses. The broodmare that is kept in reproductive condition ie weight, cultures, flushing etc. can produce up untill the day they actually quit cycling themselves.

He says that mares that are left open, allowed to get out of condition and have hormonal problems are the ones that usually are the problems looking for a place to happen. As versus the broodmare with good weight, a healthy reproductive system, but is up in years.

 

[Keri]

I retired my mare when she was 20. I was actually going to breed her one more time, but when she foaled, she had a hard time with the recovery. She was colicky for quite a while afterwards and carried the baby for 372 days.

And the year before she missed getting pregnant. So I just decided time to retire. She'd been a broodmare all her life (although I've only had her a couple years).