Catherine
9th Jan 2000, 02:57 PM
Horselover 2 asked me about this, but I can't for the life of me find his/her original message, so hence the new topic.
I am a great believer in keeping older horses active. Here in the UK, veterans are classified as anything 15 or more, but this is changing now, and the age limit at which a horse is retired is going up and up. You only have to look at the likes of some of the top showjumpers here who are 18 years old and still winning big classes at Olympia! If anyone was to tell my old mare that she was a veteran, she'd show you how high she can get her heels and kick dirt in your face it a snort.
Having led a very active and interesting life, my mare went to the stallion when she was 24. She had pulled a tendon the year before, and was getting a tiny bit creaky, so we decided to give a nice long break for competitions and let her have a baby. She has always been the foster-type, looking after other mares' babies and youngsters, often to the point of making milk in the summer months, just in case anyone's baby needed a snack.
Anyway, the last tim she had a foal was when she was 7, so we had to have a lot of checks done by my vet, who was fantastic. he did some scans of her uterus to see if it was in good condition - they can suffer from fluid pockets or their ovaries go past their sell-by date quite often. Anyway, he said she had the insides of a 12 year old and encouraged us to go ahead. We were well aware from having read anything with the word 'mare' in it that she would probably have a lower chance of conceiving, but we felt it was worth having a go. And we knew she'd thoroughly enjoy having a go too, as she is a bit of a flirt!
Anyway, we found a great young stallion who thought she was just fantastic (older woman/toyboy sort of thing), and she got in foal almost immediately. It could have been straight away of course, and she was just conning us so she could keep meeting the stallion!
Anyway, she came home, and I rode her very gently for about four months, all the while making sure she was on the best quality feed espceially for in-foal mares and that she got really good grazing. Her pregnancy went very well, and she revelled in all the attention. She was 21 days late though, which had me a bit worried, and her foal was huge - 10hh when he was born. Goodness knows how he fitted inside her. She recovered very quickly and was a brilliant mum.
Read all about it in as many books as you can, and go for it - but it's not cheap, so start saving now!
I am a great believer in keeping older horses active. Here in the UK, veterans are classified as anything 15 or more, but this is changing now, and the age limit at which a horse is retired is going up and up. You only have to look at the likes of some of the top showjumpers here who are 18 years old and still winning big classes at Olympia! If anyone was to tell my old mare that she was a veteran, she'd show you how high she can get her heels and kick dirt in your face it a snort.
Having led a very active and interesting life, my mare went to the stallion when she was 24. She had pulled a tendon the year before, and was getting a tiny bit creaky, so we decided to give a nice long break for competitions and let her have a baby. She has always been the foster-type, looking after other mares' babies and youngsters, often to the point of making milk in the summer months, just in case anyone's baby needed a snack.
Anyway, the last tim she had a foal was when she was 7, so we had to have a lot of checks done by my vet, who was fantastic. he did some scans of her uterus to see if it was in good condition - they can suffer from fluid pockets or their ovaries go past their sell-by date quite often. Anyway, he said she had the insides of a 12 year old and encouraged us to go ahead. We were well aware from having read anything with the word 'mare' in it that she would probably have a lower chance of conceiving, but we felt it was worth having a go. And we knew she'd thoroughly enjoy having a go too, as she is a bit of a flirt!
Anyway, we found a great young stallion who thought she was just fantastic (older woman/toyboy sort of thing), and she got in foal almost immediately. It could have been straight away of course, and she was just conning us so she could keep meeting the stallion!
Anyway, she came home, and I rode her very gently for about four months, all the while making sure she was on the best quality feed espceially for in-foal mares and that she got really good grazing. Her pregnancy went very well, and she revelled in all the attention. She was 21 days late though, which had me a bit worried, and her foal was huge - 10hh when he was born. Goodness knows how he fitted inside her. She recovered very quickly and was a brilliant mum.
Read all about it in as many books as you can, and go for it - but it's not cheap, so start saving now!