Horse Problem - Breeding mares - What age to breed a filly/mare?
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QUESTION: Hi Sylvia, I was wondering at what age I can breed my filly? She isn't old enough yet, but I would just like to know. Thank you.
REPLY: Hi. Thanks for writing. I'm going to run your questions here by a natural horsemanship trainer colleague, who is also a breeding/foal expert, and who is featured in our Whispering Way™ Foundation Training Series: Complete Guide to Horse Breeding, Foaling and Foal Training, Featuring Bob Claymier (more on that video is below).
Bob Claymier's response: Hi – You pose an interesting question. Like many things in the horse world, man has intervened and often not on the side of what is good for the animal – such as racing Thoroughbreds at two years of age. In this case, however, we can prolong the breeding time until the female is more mature, whereas in the wild she might be bred at a much younger age and perhaps when she is 2-3 years old. There is a good reason that we define a filly as a female horse up to the age of 5 and a mare after that because she is still maturing during that time. All other things being equal, I would probably suggest waiting until the horse is at least 5 before breeding which would make her a minimum of 6 when she first foals.
In all honesty, however, I have often bred at 4 years of age and I suspect others have done so at an earlier age. In the cattle business (which I used to dabble in) - the goal would be to produce an offspring as soon as possible and not really worry about the long term negative consequences on the mother.
You must determine what your goals are (especially related to the respective mare) in breeding and let that be part of your decision making process when determining when to breed. If you don’t really care about the impact on the mother (which I hope is not the case) then you could breed as soon as she is sexually mature, which means you could start much as is done in the wild. If you want your horse to fully develop before breeding and not be terribly impacted by the event, then I would wait until she is 5 or older. There is an upper limit because the mare’s eggs are produced at her birth (unlike the stallion’s sperm which is produced near real time) so the longer you wait, the more reproduction problems you can expect and mares usually begin to develop breeding problems in their early teens especially if they have not been continually bred from an earlier age.
I hope this answers your questions and I would be available for further discussion should you wish to pursue this issue. Cheers, Bob Claymier
I agree with Bob there! I also want to direct you to a particular link on my web site to help you ongoingly assess the growth of your filly, and this page discusses the general ages that crucial "growth plates" close up in horses, and is something we need to take into account when starting a horse in saddle as well as when we decide to breed -- bred too young and you are potentially putting too much dangerous pressure on still-closing growth plates in the female horse, so...is something to indeed think about!: Age to Start Horses in Saddle? - Information About Growth Plates
Complete Guide To Horse Breeding, Foaling and Foal Training
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