The experience

It is believed that most horses should have there first foul at least by the time they are 12. Jazzy had never been bread so breeding her at 15 brought about some concerns. The vet came and checked her out many times and said that she can probably get pregnant. Trying to breed her would do no harm to her so we went ahead a tried. She went to stay at Cornel Bradley’s and was around stallions to stimulate her go into heat faster. A horse can not breed unless she is in heat. A teaser pony is typical used for this. In the wiled it was very dangerous for a stallion to try and mate before a mare was in heat. The mares were also always the leader of the heard calling all of the shots.
We got a call from the breeders at Cornel Bradley’s telling us she was in foul. We were so excited the first stage was complete. It was really nice to bring her home as well. A horse is pregnant for eleven months. She started showing about five months into her pregnancy. I continued to ride her like normal until this point. When she started showing I started riding her with out a saddle. A lot of people believe that when a horse is pregnant they should not continue being in work, but this is not true. It is pretty much the same way with humans. Exercise is needed to keep the mom and the baby healthy. The type of exercise however is what has to change as the pregnant comes along. The feed that a horse has also has to change. The grain intake is not raised a lot, but a little. We also changed the type of feed to a feed that was specifically formulated for pregnant horses. The amount of hay that a horse gets goes up quite a bit. It is also important that a pregnant horse has plenty of clean water. Horses just like humans can get picky when they are pregnant. I noticed a big attitude change in Jazzy when she was about four months away from having her baby. She was grouchy and preferred to be left alone, but hey who can blame her. I can not imagine being pregnant for eleven months. It was funny to observe how the other horses reacted to her being with foul. I know a lot of people separate the mares that are in foal so that there is no chance of them getting kicked and causing damage to the foul. We kept Jazzy out with the same three other mares that she has always been with. I really think that the other horses knew she was pregnant. The leader of the herd KC really watched out for her. Jazzy is the lowest horse on the totem poll and it was obvious that she was keeping a close eye on Jazzy. During Jazz’s pregnancy she never had a scratch on her.