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RE: [RC] Old mares and their foals - heidi

I fully concur with your comments about nutrition playing a large part in the 
in 
utero experience of the foal, with these caveats:

1) Big farms usually don't breed 25+ yr old mares.  The gestation rate is too 
low and 
abortions are much more frequent so it tends to be a waste of stallion and 
time. 
Then there's the LFG, to add a legal twist :)
2) The proper nutritional requirements for a geriatric brood mare aren't 
exactly on 
the tip of even a big farm owner's tongue, much less that of the guy down the 
street. 
  Witness your personal experience, as a vet, with your two foals.


Do realize, though, that the majority of good endurance horses don't
come from the big "assembly-line" farms but rather from small to
midsize breeders who are very serious about what they do.  As a vet,
I've been far more impressed with the knowledge and effort on the
smaller farms vs. many of the big farms, where oh, well, that one
doesn't matter.


3) The above lead to the conclusion that the majority of foals from *old* 
mares did 
not benefit from the modalities that might have greatly improved their time 
in utero 
since they were probably from someone's backyard, as my filly was.  This in 
turn 
suggests that such horses should not to be preferred over the get of younger 
mares, 
regardless of conformation.  Now if all you want are the chromosomes for 
breeding, 
well, that's another story.


Here's where we differ.  I don't find that the "majority" of the foals
from old mares have issues--just enough of them to tip the odds. 
Since, as a buyer, you are not looking at statistical averages, but
rather at individual horses, the only thing one can really say is that
it pays to do one's homework and find out the history if the foal is
out of an older mare.  Most of them will be just fine--a few of them
will not.

Heidi


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