When we choose to breed horses responsibly, there are many traditional practices that can be questioned.
Keeping a stallion segregated from all horses can lead to major problems, especially when it comes to serving mares.
Gelding a colt is often done between 1 and 2 years of age, but is this the best time?
Handling stallions, serving mares, weaning and gelding can all be done with a more natural approach. Find out how below.
Raising an orphan or rejected foal? Get some help and tips here.
Follow the progress of a foal from birth to yearling here.
Breeding Articles
A Reader’s Experience with her mare’s rejection of her foal - by Lindi My mare Zena rejected her foal, Jazira, two years ago and was extremely violent towards her. She was a maiden mare and foaled very quickly and wandered off before the foal could get up. Needless to say, she had foaled unexpectedly in the middle of the day whilst I made a quick visit …
A Reader’s Experience with her mare’s rejection of her foal Read More »
Orphan Foals - By Cynthia Cooper The dream of breeding and raising your own foal can very quickly become shattered when you are faced with an orphan foal. Whether the foal is orphaned through the mare’s death or rejection by the mare, the focus must be on keeping that foal alive for the first week or so, and …
A Natural Breeding Experience - MY COLT’S FIRST MARE by Cynthia Cooper Although I’ve been breeding horses for over 33 years, witnessing my arab colt’s first sexual encounter with a mare was a very special time for me. It was an enthralling study in horse behaviour and really showed me how a stallion courts a mare….naturally. Finn is almost two …
Stallions need clear boundaries - by Cynthia Cooper © Stallions need clear boundaries A highlight of my time in South Africa was being asked to play with a 5 year old Friesian stallion called Zander who had only recently been purchased by Carl Bronner. Zander was quite a cruisy character but like most young horses in a new environment, he …
Welcome to the World - A Non-Invasive and Loving Approach to Imprinting a foal by Liz Mitten Ryan De-sensitization and imprinting are found in every trainer’s tool box. Their importance to our efficient handling of horses is invaluable. From a human perspective our interaction with horses from handling to riding is safer and less stressful. Its value to a trusting …
New Ways for Weaning Foals - The time for weaning foals is approaching and thus begins what can be a very stressful event for both the mare her foal. But it needn’t be if we consider how horses naturally wean their foals. Family structure is an incredibly important part of a horse’s life – young horses need role models and teachers …
what is the ideal mating ratio or stallion to mare ratio under natural breeding method? Thanks.
I always look to nature for answers to ideals like this, and from what I see, stallions usually have from 1 to 6 mares and their offspring in their harem.
So I’d use this as a good guide – however, a stallion without competition from other stallions could probably cope with more mares in a domestic situation because he’s not expending energy protecting them.
I hope that helps. Cheers, Cynthia.
Hello, what books do you recommend for preparing for my mares birth? Thank you!
Hi Destenee,
I’ve found the Foaling Primer by Cynthia McFarland to be a good guide. https://g.co/kgs/7Pe4Md
This one also looks to be excellent and has good reviews:https://g.co/kgs/dekzbJ – The Complete Foaling Manual.
I hope that helps. Cheers, Cynthia.