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TIMELINE TO SUCCESS
Embarking on the breeding journey or raising a young horse for the first time can be overwhelming. We work with our buyers to put a plan in place that ensures the best chance at success for them and their new partner.
Custom Foal Timeline
Selecting a mare and stallion
Breeding the mare
Mare care
The first step is selecting a mare and stallion best suited to your end goals. We believe the mare is the most important part of the equation as she will be raising your future mount for the first part of its life. We know our mares very well and know what they produce. Let us know what you are looking for and we will suggest a pairing we think will produce what you are looking for.
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Fresh or Frozen? While fresh is the most economical way to go (reduced vet fees due to less ultrasounding) using frozen will open your options for stallions. We use fresh and frozen in our program with great success and all breeding work is done in house.
You have picked your mare and stallion, now what? We will bring in the frozen semen if that is the route you have chosen to go, or will arrange with the stallion manager to have fresh shipped in when needed. We begin ultrasounding the mare to track her cycle and handle all inseminations, semen evaluation and any lavages as needed. We do our first pregnancy scan at 12-14 days and if there is a positive check, we scan again at 30 days for a heartbeat. If the mare does not check in foal at 14 days, we will scan again at 17 days with a plan to re-breed.
Our mares receive Purina Maternity grain and Purina Optimal ration balancer in addition to second cut free choice hay. They have Vitamin E with Selenium added to their grain daily as well.
Foal Watch
Udder development
Labor & delivery
Wellness exam
We monitor the mares udder development very closely as we approach their due date which is roughly 340 days after ovulation. As their udder grows and we are able to express milk, we will begin to test their ph levels. Once their milk ph drops below 7, we will start testing calcium as well. Once the ph is below 6.5 and calcium is over 300, we know that the mare is very close and we will keep her under cameras. We will begin foal watch 24 hours a day once the mare exhibits other physical signs of pending labor.
Once we believe labor is imminent, the tail is braided and wrapped and we will check her via camera every 15 minutes. We attend all births and document each milestone. Mares are dewormed at the time of delivery with ivermectin and given banamine and oxytocin. Foals will have their navels dipped and be toweled off as well as bottle fed at least 300ml of colostrum within the first half an hour of life. We take lots of photos and videos and keep our buyers informed along the way.
Between 24 and 48 hours old, the vet will perform a wellness check on the foal and complete the insurance exam form for the buyer.
30 Days to 3 Years
30 Days - 1 Year
Yearling Year
2 Year old year
3 Year old year
All foals are dewormed on a monthly basis with Safe Guard starting at 30 days old until they turn 1 year old OR until the ground freezes for the winter. At 1 year old we deworm them once with ivermectin and then put them on the deworming schedule with the rest of the barn from that point forward. We monitor grain intake very closely from weaning until their 1st birthday and keep a close eye on their joints for physitis.
In the summer of their yearling year we recommend doing baseline x-rays of the fetlocks, hocks and stifles. This will put you on the correct path to having a sound horse for many years to come. We start to pony them with another horse at this point to expose them to being riding horses, without having to sit on them.
In the fall of their two year old year we will introduce them to wearing tack and working lightly on the lunge line. Depending on their maturity we may sit on them a few times going into the winter. We start all of our horses in western tack.
All 3 year olds have dental work done prior to being backed, usually early spring of their 3 year old year. We teach them to long long and ground drive prior to getting on them. We tailor our program to fit the horse as all horses thrive in different circumstances. We let the horse dictate how much work they can do and develop them slowly.