Opinions?

[Rocklone]

Just wondering. I can breed Charm this year if i want but Meadow is 3yo and next year will be bred...so i can hold off for a year and have them both breed the same year.


My thought process being that if i breed Charm first, then Meadow a season later (not necessarily to the same stallion) Meadow will learn a lot from Charm. She may be loooooooooong time ago weaned but i have learned in her 3 years she still learns a hell of a lot from mom and tends to look to her for advise on things so in my head she has a better chance of being a good mom herself if she sees Charm doing it and experiences that? The only foal she has been around is Louie and she was so young at the time she didn't really get it...she was not that into him at all and would have chased him away/kicked at him if he was anywhere near even if he was lip smacking. I just sort of feel its a lot for a maiden mare to have a baby of her very own and be the only mare with a foal in a herd of two or more mature brood mares with no foals when shes never had to experience life as "not the baby"


So am i anthropomorphizing or being sensible? I worry about the mental health of Meadow more than i worry about having a foal lol

[Chanda]

What about just breeding Charm a cycle or two before Meadow?  Both next season, when Meadow is more ready, and she'd have some time to "learn" about it from mom before having her own, then even with the slight age difference, you'd have two foals to enjoy, play together, wean together, etc.

[Rocklone]

Thats what i was saying in OP - it may not have come out that way lol

I am very confident Meadow will be a good breeder, she is a total tart - have never had a mare so "willing" in my life. I have had to stable her to stop her getting through fences and she presents to me and to any noise at all. She will be a BREEZE to cover! If that translates into a maternal nature im not sure, as i don't have experience in that.

[Chanda]

It reads breeding them a year apart, but I guess I'm not much help since I had the same idea as you.

[dcwolcott]

What about breeding Charm this year, since you're holding out to next year for Meadow, then next year breed Charm again a month ahead of Meadow, and she can be in pasture this year with mom and her new baby, then have Charm to be with her when she has her foal a month after mom's new little one next year.  Just pasture her with mom and the first little one in the spring, and then let them stay together when they both foal the following year.