What gestation length due you all use to calculate your due dates for your mares?

[Lucky-C-Acres-Minis]

I was going to use 330 days, but I've seen on SEVERAL sites that they use 290-300 to estimate the due date for their foals... Just curious as to what you all use and what length you have found typical for most of your mares

 

[Becky]

I don't think there is any typical!

:

I give my mares an 11 month due date. IE, if I last bred a mare on May 29, I give her a due date of April 29. Most of them will foal within 2 weeks either side of that. However, just this year, I had one mare carry 349 and another only 297. So here, there is no normal! I start watching them closely when they start bagging up.

Due dates are kind of arbitrary. The most important numbers are how many days they carry!

 

[sedeh]

I use the Lil Beginnings Foaling calculator to get an idea of when they should go. It's based on 342 days but you can adjust it. I like to mark on my calender when the mare hits 300 days so I know to be extra vigilant. My mares have gone as early as 317 days, most hit right around the 342 mark. Knowing the mare's history is the best indicator you'll have.

Equine Foaling Estimate

 

[Bess Kelly]

My small mares (28" & under) typically foal around 300 days.........I've had foals at 290-312 from them. The taller gals (32-34") will typically carry very close to 330. While it can vary, this does give me a general ideal of when to breed for a foaling date that I want and it gives me an idea of when to start watching closely for that foal :lol:

 

[Minimor]

I generally use 320 or 325 days as my average, then for certain mares I adjust that. One mare foaled at 297 days last time; one mare typically goes at 300 days, another around 305, while yet another is more like 330. 320-325 tends to be our most common though.

 

[Songcatcher]

MOST of mine that I have had breeding dates on foaled between 332-338 days. However, I had one who went 360 days.

I agree with Becky, there is no typical.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

a)Sit down and carefully work out EXACTLY when your mare is due by calculating 335 days from her last date of breeding.

b) This is the ONE day in the year when you can be well assured she will NOT have her foal :lol:

I have a calculator in my head- five days on and one month back from the last breeding date.

Worked for the Arabs and gives a rough idea of when the mare is due.

And once we can get the mares to read a calendar.....

Basically you take the rough date of her being due and you watch her like a HAWK from one month before the date right up until she has it- which is hopefully some time before two months after she was due!!

Good Luck.

 

[Lisa-Ruff N Tuff Minis]

I start checks about 2 times a week around 290-300 days. Once I see a change at all no matter how slight I start the daily check and as they really progress they get the 2-3 time day check

Most of them are pretty good and wait in front of the stall door as they are getting put away for there "baggage check" although I do have one mare who still after many years tries to sit on me each and every time

:

I give my guestimate date at 330 but I have had mares go 310 and 364

 

[Becky]

I start checks about 2 times a week around 290-300 days. Once I see a change at all no matter how slight I start the daily check and as they really progress they get the 2-3 time day check

Agree with Lisa completely! I start checking udders around that same time frame and the slightest change, however insignificant it may seem, will have me checking that mare more often. Sometimes I wonder if I am only imagining a change, but the next check will usually prove that there is indeed a change going on and that mare bears watching!

 

[REO]

Mares ovulate the last 48-24 hours of the end of their heats, so I start counting from then (when they settle)

Our mares are mostly 32-33.5" and they foal from 292 to 320. MOST of them foal 304 to 315.

Only once in our 13 years of having foals have we ever had one go to 330.

If I waited till then to watch them, we'd miss them all! :lol:

I start checking them very early on. I don't rely on bags or sticky milk or white milk. I have been fooled in the past. While waiting for those "signs" to come, foals have been lost. And mare can foal with or without signs. I put them up before day 300 under camera with Equipage on and I'm home 24 hours a day, month after month watching them. My mares love getting room service LOL

 

[tagalong]

I don't really calculate "due dates" - but simply use 290 - 300 days as the threshold of when to get very serious about watching for changes (which may or may not happen/be obvious) and moving mares under the camera or checking them through the night.

Amy foaled at 296 days - and yes, it was a healthy, full term filly. Lady Jane foaled on her 312th day two years in a row - and then stretched it out to 334 and then only went 306 the next time. Jessie has always been in the 330s... Doll is always in the 310 - 319 range.

All that being said - the most predictable thing about a mare is her unpredictability... do not trust her to do the same thing every year...

: :lol:

For the big horses I have foaled out - I always used 340 as the guess - and two weeks either side of that as the range....

 

[Lauralee]

I do alot of what tagalong does.

I generally start checking my mares at around 290 days. I calculate my due dates using 310 days, knowing that most will generally go over that a little bit.

Mine tend to average in the range of 315-325 days for gestation.

 

[justagirl]

My 29 inch, 12 yo mare, who had 5 previous foals, and was hand bred, went 369 days. She almost suceeded in making me bonkers.

:

 

[wiccanz]

I use the "about 330 days" calendar :bgrin

This year, I had a 302 day, a 328 day, a 345 day and my mother-in-law had given up on hers when she foaled at day 369!

I usually alarm at 300 days, just to be safe, although I alarmed my 302 mare earlier - she was giving me panic attacks @ 280 days :new_shocked: :bgrin

 

[Lucky-C-Acres-Minis]

Thanks guys.. I went ahead and calculated at 300 days but I do keep a close watch on udder development and relaxing of muscles etc.. Just wanted an estimate day of length that way I could estimate when udder development etc may start occuring.. My bay toby mare usually carries 320-325, my silver bay mare carried 322, and my appy mare carried 335 days.. I have three new mares this year that I have no foaling history on.. :new_shocked:

 

[kaykay]

i use 330 to get a round about date. but i go by the udder more then anything. once they start bagging its almost always 30 days till they foal. I think charlotte also posted that shes found that to be accurate.

 

[Bluerocket]

I personally use 300 days from last cover date -- some of my mares foal normally before that and some go the 330/340 days that is considered to be average for full size mares.

JJay