How soon do Mares
- Thread starter clpclop
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Equuisize
Well-Known Member
This is our 3rd year to have a baby at this time of the year.
I find that after weaning, which turns out to be in the fall for us,
when I cut food back on the mare, she will begin to regain her more
normal shape.
She'll look pretty trim thru the winter and rebred she will begin to look
seriously pregnant at about 8 to 8 1/2 months along.
So I guess the poor darling doesn't get to keep that shapely look to long.
I find that after weaning, which turns out to be in the fall for us,
when I cut food back on the mare, she will begin to regain her more
normal shape.
She'll look pretty trim thru the winter and rebred she will begin to look
seriously pregnant at about 8 to 8 1/2 months along.
So I guess the poor darling doesn't get to keep that shapely look to long.
disneyhorse
Well-Known Member
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Wow... I was thinking my mare is usually back in shape three days after foaling when all the cramping and fluid retention has stopped. She is worked year round though, right up to foaling. She is actually TOO thin right now (foaled a month ago) and it's tough to put weight ON, especially with a nursing foal.
Andrea
Andrea
rabbitsfizz
Well-Known Member
Depends on the mare- just like humans.
I have one mare who NEVER gets her shape back- she looks pregnant all year round.
I have mares who are just FAT!! :lol:
It completely depends on what you want to do with them.
If they are going back in foal I would leave them alone.
Whilst they are nursing a foal I would leave them alone.
If they are being fed to nurse a foal i cannot see any way they would get back in shape- it is not very high on Natures "to do" list, after all.
Milk is far more important.
My broodmares are on ad lib, knee deep grass 24/7 so I am afraid they are left to look like exactly what they are- broodmares.
:
Why would I diet them??
As I keep saying, IF a horse is healthy it does not matter if it is fat.
With mares with foals you just have to put all your requirements on a back burner.
And, PLEASE- before you even think of dieting a horse have a good hard, critical look at yourself in the mirror- if you are going to impose loss of food on an animal you need to be in the kind of shape to be able to look it in the eye at feed time, OR you need to go on that diet with it!!!!
:
I have one mare who NEVER gets her shape back- she looks pregnant all year round.
I have mares who are just FAT!! :lol:
It completely depends on what you want to do with them.
If they are going back in foal I would leave them alone.
Whilst they are nursing a foal I would leave them alone.
If they are being fed to nurse a foal i cannot see any way they would get back in shape- it is not very high on Natures "to do" list, after all.
Milk is far more important.
My broodmares are on ad lib, knee deep grass 24/7 so I am afraid they are left to look like exactly what they are- broodmares.
Why would I diet them??
As I keep saying, IF a horse is healthy it does not matter if it is fat.
With mares with foals you just have to put all your requirements on a back burner.
And, PLEASE- before you even think of dieting a horse have a good hard, critical look at yourself in the mirror- if you are going to impose loss of food on an animal you need to be in the kind of shape to be able to look it in the eye at feed time, OR you need to go on that diet with it!!!!
Gosh...I feel like those celebrity-watching journalists who complain when a "star" hasn't lost her baby weight 6 weeks after birth!! Geez... Now I feel bad!
:
This is my first time foaling and my question was just out of curiosity. Both my mares are just pets and I have no intention of dieting them and I'm not going to breed them again. I'm sure once we start going for walks again after weaning, they will slim down a bit.
This is my first time foaling and my question was just out of curiosity. Both my mares are just pets and I have no intention of dieting them and I'm not going to breed them again. I'm sure once we start going for walks again after weaning, they will slim down a bit.
