Senior Horse Resources - Breeding the Senior Mare

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How this Section Works

Retirement Jobs: Broodmare What You Need to Learn Find a Professional

Breeding Later in Life

Time Commitment Family Facilities Financial and Emotional Considerations 

The Foal's Future Nurse Mare Foals - a by-product of the Commercial Breeding Industry Stallion Syndicates, Mare Lease Programs, Pinhooking

PMU Foals

Your Chances in the Market  Can You Make Money   Tax Deduction of Recreational Activity or Hobby

Real Retirement Other Resources

Del Camino has extensive experience caring for senior (age 15 and up) horses.  One of the rewards of operating a large riding academy was being able to offer well-trained horses the opportunity to retire from strenuous competition or other work, cease frequent travel, but continue to have plenty of appropriate exercise, social interaction, and affection.  Coupled with careful nutrition, farriery, and veterinary care, this environment enabled horses of many breeds trained in various disciplines to age gracefully and enjoy their golden years.

One of the missions of Del Camino is to help horse owners find timely information that guides them through this journey.  We want to keep our seniors as fit, as active, as contented as possible, as long as possible.  It can be done.

We dedicate our senior mare section to five special senior Del Camino mares: 

Pictured above, Indy's Summer Princess, a registered Half Arabian Appaloosa who we purchased at age 10, taught Western, Hunt, and Showmanship, and is still teaching at age 17.  Summer is a serious alpha mare, who "folds like a cheap tent" when she bonds with one of her riders.  This young man was a particular favorite of hers.   Miss Cricket, a bay Four Corners ranch bred foundation quarterhorse, complete with hip brand and ear notches, and an amazing mane and tail.  She had three foals in her youth, and taught hundreds of children to groom, ride, and give baths, despite a blind eye, until she could no longer rise after laying down at the grand old age of 38.
	Lubaria, a bay Polish Arabian who had two great fillies and a fabulous sport horse colt, won the snaffle bit futurity, evented, gave lessons, showed again on the A circuit with children, retired to hippotherapy walk/trot in her mid-twenties, and is happily retired in Elgin, AZ at the age of 27, being gentle while equine assisted mental therapy students groom her and being the boss mare of the herd.
Shifty, a grey Polish Arabian who retired from breeding to show western pleasure successfully, became swaybacked and hay bellied standing in a backyard, was revived and retired with us for walk/jog lessons and to stay with her best friend JJ. We lost Shifty suddenly to a stomach infection at age 25.
	Angel's Camp, a grey Oldenburg mare who had been in Olympic level show barns until middle age, a caretaker hunter over fences until she had to stop jumping at 18, and her owners attempted to breed her unsuccessfully for a year.  Within a few months of purchasing her at age 19 to be a walk/trot lesson horse, we discovered Angel had serious low ringbone, both intra and inter-articular, which was rapidly worsening  She enjoyed a last happy Spring and Summer just hanging out with her buddies scratching withers and being groomed.

Thank you for having graced our lives, and taught so many people the joy of horsemanship.

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Broodmare                                               (Top of Page)

If you are lucky enough to have a senior mare, you may have pondered the possibility of retiring her from saddle work to broodmare.  For many breeders, their older broodmares are their favorites, because in general they foal more quickly than the younger ladies, and seem to appreciate human help.  Mares of most breeds, if they have been pregnant successfully before, can continue to breed well into their twenties.

If your mare has:

1. performance or halter wins of her own, and

2. extremely desirable bloodlines, conformation, and temperament,

3. successfully foaled before

there may be good reason to breed her and expect to gain a very marketable foal.

However, once mares are over age 15, when they have skipped a year or two they sometimes have difficulty getting pregnant, or experience complications more than younger mares to a high degree. 

Also, the foal is only a foal temporarily.  The colt or filly should expect to live 25 years if cared for properly, and trained to be a useful companion, farm worker, or professional athlete. 

Until WWII (1940's) American women and their infants enjoyed a slightly better than European success rate with pregnancy, childbirth, and infant mortality, due primarily to slightly better nutrition and slightly better charitable assistance for medical care for lower income at risk mothers and babies.  Thereafter, beginning around the 1950's medical care improved exponentially, along with an economic boom that vastly improved nutrition, sanitation, hygiene, access to more expensive medical care and prescription drugs through health insurance and HMO's, and reduced the work stresses and burdens on the homemaker with washing machines, driers, vacuum cleaners, etc.  Consequently, the number of women dying in childbirth, or having to discontinue bearing children due to health problems, and the number of stillborns and infant mortalities plummeted.  Since the 1970's, steady progress in fertility treatments, in vitro fertilization, embryo implants in the biological or surrogate mother, prenatal care, premature baby care, etc. have made it possible for women to have healthy children decades later in life than nature dictates, and for less and less viable infants and premature babies to be saved.  Look at the mother of Sergeant York in the 1930's film about the WWI hero, starring Gary Cooper.  Her oldest of several children is barely 20, and she is not yet 40.  But she looks like today's 70 year old woman.

In nature, for humans, horses, and indeed virtually all species, reproduction is a dangerous and debilitating job for the creatures who are driven to create another generation before the environment, predators, disease or injury pick them off.  Even young healthy individuals are exposed to many life-threatening risks in order to devote all their biological systems to this complicated, powerful task of producing a new life.  After a few seasons of pups, goslings, or foals, the wolves', geese', and mares' bodies are worn out.  

Today, the interventions available to humans are available to horses.  In fact, some are starting with the animals and then when perfected, being applied to humans.  Thus, we started with Dolly the sheep, and now have cloned horses.  So if you want to spare no expense, it is now possible to breed mares at older and older ages with success, just as women past menopause can be manipulated into having a child.                           (Top of Page)

However, you should find out just what extraordinary measures must be taken, and what they cost in time and money, to trick Mother Nature and build the dikes, dams, bomb shelters and escape routes to avoid her relentless ravages through time and cells on the molecular level to achieve that victory.  Science likes to press forward with the next discovery.  Scientific progress is not always quality of life progress.  A senior mare will undergo (if she is properly cared for) more examinations or procedures to have a foal than a young mare, just to improve her poor odds and to do checkups along the way.  Every invasion is stressful, no matter how well she outwardly tolerates it and how thoughtfully it is performed.  Every invasion runs its own risk of infection or other complications.  There are pros and cons to everything.  A 17 year old mare is the equivalent of a 62 year old woman in biological age.  How many 62 year old women going onto Medicare do you know who are trying to get pregnant and rear a child?  Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it SHOULD be done.  Unfortunately, in the excitement of an opportunity to use and gain experience with all the new whiz-bang technologies, some practitioners overstate their efficacy, and understate their risks to your mare and lowball the cost estimates or beg off with "I don't know" instead of "I'll find out."

She's YOUR mare.  Do not settle for vague generalities or guesses or "my office will bill you"," I don't remember what the last one cost," or "I've never billed one so I don't know yet what it will cost".  There are lots of horses at the equine hospitals whose owners cannot afford the extraordinary measures that CAN be done, and are often judged for failing to agree to them and choosing to put the horse down instead.  The argument is that the horse is still young enough to have a good quality of life if three times her past maximum value is spent restoring her, though her post-operative value may be minimal to zero, and her ability to resume former activities with her loving owner will take over a year of careful rehabilitation, if everything goes ideally and without setbacks.  The pain for the horse along the way, the stress of the procedures, can all be "managed" with drugs. The person with the $1,000 per month horse budget and a $500 emergency fund and mortality but no surgical insurance is judged "irresponsible" by some for "not allowing the horse to live."    (We are not talking here about minor procedures with traditionally high rates of success, but major procedures with traditionally low rates of success.)

If you can have a Living Will, and a number of other decisions about whether to perform extraordinary measures on your aged body, or your child, society today accepts that there is a wide range of moral choices, allowed by new special laws.  So when you run right up against the same possible scenarios from breeding an aged equine, don't be surprised if a range of opinions surface between "just let nature take its course, I've been breeding animals on my ranch for decades and don't do any of that fancy expensive stuff" to "if you have to haul her to an out-of-state equine teaching hospital for the latest life-saving measures you are obligated to do it, so long as there is a slim chance of survival."  Some members of the horse community you call on for help will suggest that you are unreasonable or hard-hearted or downright cruel and abusive or neglectful if you don't bankrupt yourself to save your mare or the foal.  Inward directed people with their own moral compass are good at coping with this onslaught of opinions from people who have never walked this walk.  Outward directed people who need the approval of others find it a tough row to hoe.

What You Need to Learn                                         (Top of Page)

If you are not a successful professional breeder, you have much to learn to get up to speed on the entire process if you intend to manage this yourself such as: 

	honestly evaluating your mare's traits and her potential
	studying bloodlines of the breed,
	studying current show results and sales trends,
	tracking your mare's estrus cycles
	choosing a stallion,
	costs and contracts,
	getting in foal,
	pregnant mare care,
	foaling,
	lactating mare care,
	well-baby care,
	handling,
	training,
	weaning and finally,
	marketing the colt or filly.

Normal Live Cover (discrete)

Normal Live Birth http://www.horsevet.tv/foaling.htm

Find a Professional                                                      (Top of Page)

If you are not a successful professional breeder, and do not plan to become one, you still must do some research to locate a successful breeder who will take on your mare.  The advantages of moving her to a professional breeding facility are:

1. A barn manager accustomed to managing the diet and exercise of a broodmare at all stages of reproduction.

2. A veterinary lab on site specifically equipped for reproductive first aid, mare care, and foal care.

3. Relationships with equine veterinarians specializing in reproduction.

4. Experience with artificial insemination (AI), which is often necessary for older mares.

5. Equipment such as lighting to control hormones, breeding chutes, foaling watch monitoring, large foaling stalls, appropriately segregated turnout paddocks, an automatic walker for gentle timed exercise.

6. Experience with observing normal and abnormal scenarios for both mare and foal leading to early detection and intervention.  For example, senior mares and their foals sometimes need to be given oxygen.

7. Experience with and relationships for nursing or fostering a rejected or orphaned foal. For example, sources for equine colostrum to give to the foal by bottle if the mare is in trouble and cannot nurse during the first 24 hours, and foal-milk replacer for subsequent feedings.

8. Relationships or experience training the foal to be handled, halter trained, and, if you so desire, sold.

9. Farriers accustomed to trimming hooves for uncomfortable late term mares and wiggly youngsters.

Family Facilities                                                          (Top of Page)

Most regular boarding stables are not designed as breeding farms.  Be sure your mare and her foal will be able to live in an appropriate setting if you must board her.

Your mare needs a larger than standard size stall, and some peace and quiet, to foal safely and with minimal stress.   

Broodmares and their foals need to spend most of their time on grass pasture, except during foaling or in bad weather.  You need room for the mare to move around in the later months for gentle exercise, and for the foal to romp within a day or two of birth so his legs will grow true.  Your mare needs to be able to watch over him without constant worry that horses in neighboring turnouts will hurt him. A dirt turnout is not very good for him because the dust kicked up by mares and foals is hard on his respiration.  Wood fences and posts, or wooden stalls are dangerous for teething foals who want to chew on anything handy.  You can also end up reimbursing the ranch for the replacement costs of what he has destroyed. 

Either way, the foal needs plenty of room to practice all its gaits, and needs to safely socialize with playmates and elders to learn his horse manners.   A lonely, bored, recently weaned single foal in a small pen is not a happy picture.  If your mare cannot live at pasture most of the day, how can she raise a foal to weaning properly?

Good living conditions include:

	Double-size foaling stalls for small to average size mares about to foal, or at least 14 ft. x 14 ft., or a separate grass paddock from the other horses Oregon State Extension Service
	Foaling stalls bedded with straw rather than shavings when mares are close to delivering
	Foaling stalls with waterers low enough for foals, but also safe for mares.
	Controlled lighting to assist the mare's hormonal cycles.
	Quiet neighbors with whom the mare is familiar.
	A safe grass pasture with water and a run-in shed large enough for the mare and foal to gallop in without having to make sharp turns, and a fence the foal cannot slip under and become separated from the mare.  The mare can spend most of the day there in the last few weeks before foaling and for the three to six months she is raising her foal. The foal cannot damage the fencing or hurt himself if he chews on it while teething and discovering what is edible.
	Only known neighbors acceptable to the mare are turned out in adjacent pastures.
	A consistent group of other colts and fillies for the foal to play with beginning as early as the first or second week.  As much as 75% of his socialization time once he is weaned by your mare needs to be with a peer group. Moving a weanling to a different group of playmates can be as stressful as separation from its dam at this early developmental stage. (See Equine Ethology article by Dr. Deborah Goodwin.)
	Scrupulous enforcement of vaccination, deworming, and disease testing of other boarded horses by management
	Minimal numbers of horses coming and going that disrupt herd dynamics or are often in contact with other horses at shows, races, and rides (higher risk of contagious disease transmission).
	Ability to monitor mares due to foal during the night, such as a closed circuit television or webcam video-camera
	Access 24-hours to experienced help, in addition to your veterinarian.

Breeding Later in Life                                                (Top of Page)

Generally mares should begin breeding by age 10, even if they do not breed regularly.  Breeding for the first time at an older age has a lower chance of success.  The odds of a successful pregnancy decrease from 85% at age 3, to 53% at 14, and 45% by age 17.  Women can relate to this reality; a 16 year old mare is the equine equivalent of a 54 year old woman.  For first-time mothers who are 14-29, it is not impossible, but difficulties conceiving and carrying to term (which is about 330-40 days) and delivering without complications increase dramatically.  First, consult your mare's regular veterinarian who understands her specific senior issues.  If that opinion is favorable, then also consult an equine veterinarian who specializes in breeding.

	A senior mare who has not had her udder cleaned regularly, or never nursed a foal, needs to be desensitized to the sensation, so she will accept necessary examination, and readily permit suckling.  This takes repeated sessions with patience in an advance/retreat method over several days.
	A senior mare who has not had her rectal temperature taken regularly, much less received breeding examinations needs to be desensitized to this procedure.  If she cannot be easily handled by caregivers, the breeding process will involve many stressful situations, and make giving necessary assistance difficult or dangerous for handlers.
	Senior mares often have increasingly irregular estrus cycles, making the timing of conception more difficult.
	Senior mares often have arthritis, bursitis, weakened suspensories, old pelvic injuries or swaybacks or even acute laminitis, making it painful to be mounted, thus requiring artificial insemination (AI).
	Senior mares often have long term low grade bacterial or fungal infections of the reproductive tract that must be treated first.
	Senior mares often have uterine cysts that are generally benign when undisturbed, but if any are large, can interfere with a successful pregnancy.  Often today these mares conceive, then the embryo is transferred to a younger mare to carry to term.  In this way breeders are able to harvest many more foals from a champion mare than she is naturally capable of delivering.
	Senior mares need a combination senior/broodmare diet higher in fat and copper than regular broodmare rations, or regular senior rations, and are especially vulnerable to malnutrition during the last trimester and when nursing.  Often the foal must be transferred to a foster mare due to inadequate milk production of the senior mare.
	Senior mares often need pain management during the last trimester due to arthritis, swayback, and muscle soreness and inflammation.
	Senior mares often have tipped or other deformations of their reproductive tract simply due to aging and sagging that require special veterinary measures such as Caslicks.
	New mothers, young and old alike, who have not been around other mares with foals, are occasionally inept, stressed, or even frightened into aggression by suddenly being presented with a foal.  It is rare, but it does occur in all species, including humans.  Instinct is powerful, but not always enough, sometimes a little learning needs to be done. This is where moving before the third trimester to a breeding farm can help a maiden senior who has only been around geldings and barren mares her entire life.
	A senior mare who has had at least one foal or a uterine infection at some time in her life has a 96% chance of moderate to severe internal scarring that normally causes abortion in the last trimester.
	A senior mare must be closely observed during foaling with expert assistance at the ready, as she is at increased risk of exhaustion, decreased muscle strength, decreased stamina, and less efficient metabolism affecting her ability to maintain the contractions, even when the foal is perfectly positioned.  If she does maintain the contractions, she is at higher risk of hemorrhage within 24 hours of foaling.
	Senior mares are at much greater risk of infection during pregnancy due to a less effective immune system and anatomic changes.
	Senior mares are at much greater risk of abdominal hernia, or ruptured abdominal tendons during their last trimester, and at much greater risk of a torsion colic during the first three months after foaling.
	Senior mares often have no difficulty conceiving, but keep having miscarriages.  This situation can be helped by providing: a stress-free environment, including protection from harassment by herdmates, not changing her stall, pasture, neighbors, or other aspects of her environment or daily routine such as feeding times, during the last trimester, excellent feed with the right amount of fat and copper, constant access to plenty of fresh clean water, shelter in a quiet place that is clean and dry that she can claim as her foaling place as her due date approaches, a consistent safe exercise program before pregnancy to start with the best possible muscle tone, stamina, circulation, and aerobic condition, and daily grooming for health inspection, circulation, relaxation, and minimizing edema up-to-date vaccinations and deworming regular hoof trimming gentle stretching exercises done properly on a regular basis approved by her veterinarian, such as carrot stretches and passive limb stretches. In the first trimester you can usually still do back lifts/abdominal crunches to strengthen abdominal muscles.
	Foals born to senior mares are at increased risk of various problems as well.  One risk is asphyxia (breathing difficulties), where they may be stillborn, abnormal at birth, or appear normal at birth but after 6 to 24 hours show fatal functional deficiencies such as blindness, inability to suckle, jerky movements, even coma. Recent studies have found a correlation between several of the problems of the mare listed above and the respiratory problems of the foal.

Time Commitment                                          (Top of Page)

Do you have the time to devote to managing the various stages of breeding? 

If you can compress the time to

	evaluate your mare's traits and her potential
	perform a reproductive health veterinary exam,
	study breed bloodlines,
	study current show results and sales trends,
	track your mare's estrus cycles
	choose a stallion,
	understand costs,
	choose a breeding farm for the last trimester and until weaning, after which she can come home and the weanling can grow up to be a yearling and be marketed
	and sign contracts,

into a few months, by doing several of these tasks simultaneously, then

	getting in foal, may take multiple attempts.  Every 21-22 days during the season, a mare cycles, with a 4-9 day window during which she ovulates.  This is when she will be bred naturally or artificially.  If she does not become pregnant, the process is repeated during the next window.  Assume she conceives the first time she is bred
	pregnant mare care, lasts about 333 days (11 months), intensifying in the last 90 days
	foaling, monitoring closely for signs, then monitoring round-the-clock, then assisting

which takes eleven months, then

	lactating mare care, for about 5-6 months
	well-baby care, simultaneously
	registration of the foal without special nominations or incentive fund participation
	handling, simultaneously
	training, (to wear halter, to lead, to have feet picked up, to load into and out of a trailer, etc.) simultaneously
	weaning and socializing with other colts, and finally,

we're adding half a year to move from infancy to separation

while he/she is growing and learning horse manners and herd dynamics, you are marketing the colt or filly,

which depends on the location of the weanling and the marketing methods chosen, let's generously suppose from taking the photos and receiving the registration papers to receiving a cashier's check from a buyer takes three to six months, due to having to wait for a show, an auction, a publication date of a magazine ad, and the normal response progression for leads to qualified buyers to presentations to sales.

This process for the average amateur owner whether "homebred" or under contract with a famous breeding barn that sells the offspring is 2 years and 3-6 months to sell the colt or filly by the time they are a yearling. 

Most "homebreds"  are not aggressively campaigned or advertised the way the breeding barns do, since there is no full-time professional staff devoted to the process and on top of current marketing tools, techniques, and opportunities.  It is more difficult for an owner who has another job to spend time to take a single colt to an out of town sale or show, than for a professional barn to send a road crew with a trailer full of horses.  So many "homebreds" languish in their owners' paddock past this critical marketing window, and will not have another good sales window until they are old enough and their knees are closed, between ages 2 and 4 depending on the breed, to be saddle trained.

If the colt is not sold as a yearling, before he reaches sexual maturity around age 2 the owner has the additional expense of gelding him.  Some colts develop sooner, some later.  As this time approaches, owners must stay alert and not allow older yearling males access to mares if they don't want any "surprises."  Likewise, keep your 2 year old filly away from stallions if you don't want her indiscriminately bred.

There are many books on breeding horses that will give you cost estimates, but the stud fees for the stallions, the veterinary bills, the registration fees, the mare care, and marketing costs vary widely.  In a perfect world, all goes smoothly, expenses stay under $5,000.00, and the joy is tremendous.  In an imperfect world, a sick foal, senior mare complications, or poor timing with market conditions can easily double those costs.  Since senior mares and their foals are at double the risks of young broodmares and their offspring, owners of senior mares should budget for $9-10,000, and be relieved if they are lucky enough to spend less.

The authors of these books have tried to keep information up to date based on current veterinary reproductive science, stallion, mare and foal care industry best practices, and average costs.  Still, anything written more than five years ago is not current in this rapidly changing field.  We've chosen them because they are well-written, balanced, and positive, even though they are not specifically oriented to the aged mare and her special needs.

About Weaning                                                    (Top of Page)

In wild horses lactation lasts for 8-9 months or even longer. But in domestic horses lactation lasts for about 6 months and its end is controlled by man. In the artificial conditions created for horses by man, a mare normally gives birth and rears one foal per year. Pregnancy in a mare normally lasts for 333 days, or about 11 months, so to foal every year the mare must be covered in the first heat cycle after she has given birth. So we can say the broodmare is pregnant nearly all the time (except the short period from parturition to covering). If man lets her feed her foal longer than 6 months, then the mare would be overexploited. That is why it is general wisdom that lactation should last no longer than 6-7 months, just during the low pregnancy period when the fetal growth is not so intensive (compared to the last months of pregnancy).  The weanling should have been eating solid food with his baby teeth for some months by this time, and obtained the most growth and weight benefit from the milk.

The stress on the PMU mares, that are kept nearly constantly pregnant and whose foals are usually separated at 3 months is such that their average life expectancy is 9 years, about the same as a feral mustang, compared to the American recreational pleasure horse, which is now over 25 years.  This may also be true of the professional nurse mares (see below) whose life expectancy has not been studied.

Financial and Emotional Considerations                       (Top of Page)

If you have read the preceding requirements for providing adequate care to a healthy broodmare in her prime, and to her foal, and the additional care and possible and probable risks for senior broodmares and their foals, it will be no surprise that breeding a senior mare is an expensive proposition.  Even if you just casually allow a neighbor's stallion access to her in your backyard, eleven months later you could be spending thousands of dollars just to try to save her life or that of her foal.  If you don't have that kind of money to spend, think twice.

For the ordinary breeding, here is a description of the costs by an Equine Legal expert who understands both live cover stud fees and artificial insemination (AI) contracts.  Most people who enter the business of breeding in a casual manner do not expect to be "nickel and dimed" to pieces, but that is how it works:  Equine Legal Solutions - Real Cost of Breeding

Here is a link to the experience and financial cost of embryo transfer, from someone who learned by experience that it is better to leave the mare at the breeding farm, and that costs may run 25-50% higher than originally quoted:   Rare Equus - Embryo Transfer Cost

If you cannot spend the money to breed carefully, with a foal that stands a good chance of being highly marketable, think twice. Even if you plan to keep the foal and train it yourself, it should be the best quality horse possible in the event you must sell it for some unforeseen reason.  What if a family tragedy forced you to sell your horse(s)?  An untrained, unremarkable grade yearling has extremely poor odds of finding a decent home, even if you are prepared to give him away.  Until he is a proven useful, trained, adult horse with a proven adult temperament, whether he is yours or someone else's, he is strictly an expense.  At least a purebred registered colt could be shown at halter in breed shows for fun or profit, thus, some people can even make money speculating in weanlings and yearlings.  An immature untrained grade horse is just a pretty hay burner someone will have to invest the time, or the money, or both, to train before they can do anything with him.

There are always risks in life, even in the best of circumstances.  Are you emotionally prepared to risk your senior mare's life to:

	"give her something to do", remember this is a several year management job for you, from initial planning and choice of stallion until the colt or filly goes to saddle training, but only a one and a half year job for her.  It isn't a job for the rest of her life.
	or "calm her down" which is better done by improving her environment, routine, training, exercise and diet.  If she is really only "marish" in season, and no better lifestyle and handling will help, a prescription of Regumate from her veterinarian is healthier.
	or get "one last foal" which may need to be moved to another mare (embryo transfer) after conception to carry to term, or be fostered by a nurse mare until weaned.
	or "a foal to remember her by", when there are many other lasting memorials you can choose from and could quite possibly lose the foal anyway?

Everything could go smoothly, with a happy healthy mare and a robust beautiful foal.  However, even healthy young mares can have difficulties despite excellent care.  Senior mares in excellent condition are bucking the odds.  For your own mare, spend the time and money up front to obtain the expert opinion of experienced equine reproduction specialists. 

These are very personal choices, that depend on your specific mare, your own financial situation, your boarding or ranching facilities, your access to expert in-person help, and emotional attachment to your mare.  If she is just a piece of farm equipment, and you can write everything off as a business operating expense.  You will do a cost-to-benefit, return-on-investment analysis, with no emotion, and the increased risk may be worth the possible high value foal to your breeding operation. 

If, on the other hand, this mare has been one of your closest friends for 20 years, even if you can financially shrug off even the worst case scenario, your emotional cost-to-benefit analysis and return-on-investment decision will be that she will be much happier just retiring and hanging out with her pasture buddies.  You can spend money to have a beautiful hand hitched horsehair ornament and shadow box made with which to remember her, and adopt a well-bred registered PMU colt or filly of your choice after she is gone, or an adult trained horse that needs the kind of good home you can provide.

The Foal's Future                                                     (Top of Page)

The market for young horses fluctuates during good and bad economies, and with taste trends from year to year.  Even in a "hot" market with high demand, most horses take time to sell, and there are costs associated with selling anything.  If you intend to keep the foal, can you devote the time and funds to feeding, stabling, vaccinating, deworming, hoof trimming two horses, and at a later date, training the colt or filly?

Since 2000, overbreeding, fueled by tax incentives for the large producers and new enabling technologies, especially of Thoroughbreds, Quarterhorses, and Arabians, has depressed their markets for all but exceptional race and show winning horses with the top desirable bloodlines.  This has a trickle-down effect, depressing prices and lengthening sales times for the bulk of the nicely bred, less aggressively shown or raced, and recreational horses.  This trickles down further, depressing prices and lengthening sales times for older horses, horses that "need work", and untrained young horses.  Thus the AHC skips any suggestions or resources in their "Own Responsibly" brochure that amateur owners might use to try to sell their horse, the normal responsible method of rehoming throughout history.  Instead, they advise that you surrender it to an adoption agency, offer it to a hippotherapy center, or find an "alternative use" without describing any such use, as a first, rather than last, resort.  The brochure does not mention any curtailment efforts for the overbreeding, just vaguely alludes to "breeding responsibly." 

This irresponsible brochure and other publicity has driven thousands of horse owners who would have followed the normal sales process, but accepted a lower price in a poor market, and would have advertised their horse a little longer in a poor market, to besiege the already full charities with offers of horses inappropriate for hippotherapy.  It has caused them to try to surrender 400% more horses to rescues than these young organizations, unsupported by the breed registries or the AHC in any way, are able to accept. 

Nurse Mare Foals - a by-product of the Commercial Breeding Industry  (Top of Page)

Thoroughbred breeding attempts to control its runaway overproduction by forbidding artificial insemination (AI) requiring live cover instead.  Whether by live cover or AI, breeders want to re-breed a valuable mare as soon as possible - 10 to 30 days after foaling, so they can get one foal per year.  Since the valuable foal is at great risk if it travels with her, the foal is transferred to a "nurse mare."  This nurse mare must be lactating.  Thus, inexpensive mares are bred, have foals that are discarded, and given the valuable Thoroughbred foal to nurse and raise. This practice is over thirty years old.

At least hundreds, possibly thousands (no entity is keeping accurate records), of foals are born each year to professional nurse mares that are killed on the breeding farm, or sent to you-know-where for the $200 their tiny bodies add to the bottom line.  Too small for slaughter, you say, so you don't believe it?  Actually, just as veal is a delicacy more expensive than beef, and the by-product of dairy cows producing our milk, foals are a European delicacy and the hides are highly sought after for fine leather products.  The trade calls them "pony skins."  Supposedly, they must be 4 months old to be weaned before being transported to slaughter by commercial haulers.  That is not just because most foals are not weaned until about 4 months, but because hauling foals younger than this any distance at all is risky for disease, injury and death.  However, the transport law presently exempts non-commercial haulers and those hauling fewer than 20 horses in a load, or those commercial haulers who only transport horses to slaughter part-time, transporting other animals the rest of the time or doing other farm or ranch work.

Thoroughbred breeding is subsidized by the Farm Bill and producer and first-buyer tax credits and incentives, the work of the American Horse Council Washington, D.C. lobbying group.

To support the efforts of folks who buy (that's right, the unwanted foal by-products are not given to them) the nurse mare foals, or learn more about the problem, visit The Last Chance Corral,  one of the several horse rescues in America devoted to these horses. Or watch the video

Lexington Standardbred Nursery Walnut Hall Ltd., which adopts Thoroughbred mares to use as nurse mares, has been experimenting with inducing them to lactate with a hormone treatment, rather than breeding them to cut down on the number of unwanted foals that must be shipped hundreds of miles to rescues that purchase them, within 5 days of birth, because the expensive Thoroughbred mare's foal must be transferred to the nurse mare that soon.  This is so she can be shipped out again to be re-bred during foal heat at her destination, which occurs as early as 10 days after she foals.   Lexington is one of the responsible Nurse Mare Farms that makes every effort to find a home for the foal by-products.

Stallion Syndicates, Mare Lease Programs, Pinhooking            (Top of Page)

There are legitimate speculative investments in horse breeding, showing, racing, and sales.  There are also scams that can get you into hot water with the I.R.S. and put innocent live animals at serious risk.  Be sure you understand thoroughly how the investment will make money, not just create losses for a tax shelter, and that your Equine lawyer and accountant are comfortable that the program will stand up to I.R.S. scrutiny.

Here is one scam, the ClassicStar LLC Mare Lease Program, that recently made many headlines in the Thoroughbred breeding industry as the principals were found to have defrauded the federal government of $200 million in tax revenues over several years:

TheHorse.com

Portland Business Journal

HarnessLink.com article with details and advice by Chris E. Wittstruck, an attorney and Standardbred owner, who is the founder and coordinator of the Racehorse Ownership Institute at Hofstra University, New York and a charter member of the Albany Law School Racing and Gaming Law Network.

Just in case you aren't aware of how over-saturated the Thoroughbred breeding industry is, and what is actually being done with these intelligent, sensitive live animals for the sake of tax avoidance, click here.  If ever there was an argument for the FLAT TAX, this is IT.

PMU Foals                                                                                        (Top of Page)

These are the foals produced by pregnant mares whose urine is collected for the estrogen hormone used to treat women.  Most of these foals are weaned normally, and many of the PMU farms diligently breed registered horses to produce desirable foals which they market aggressively.   However, there are so many of them, even those farms need help.  Less sentimental farms simply take them to auction as soon as they are weaned.  Others take a middle road and let PMU rescues buy them, reducing the number of times they change hands while vulnerable.  Most of the PMU farms rescue used up mares as well as the foals.

Due to the introduction of alternative medicines to the equine estrogen therapies, many of the PMU farms are reducing their herds and some are closing.  They are doing so in a down market that is continuing to slide, so the mares and foals sold at auction are bringing so little money by the time the rancher expenses hauling and consignment fees, so the rescues that will pick up the horses and pay for them are more attractive.

The bad news for your foal, even if it is registered, is that it is going to compete with registered rescues unless it is a truly top level colt or filly from outstanding winning sire and dam lines.

Your Chances in the Market                                                                (Top of Page)     

If your mare has performance or halter wins of her own, and extremely desirable bloodlines, conformation, and temperament, there may be good reason to breed her and expect to gain a very marketable foal.  But find out first.  For example, certain Impressive-bred Quarterhorses carrying the HYPP gene are virtually unsellable.  Your mare should be registered, with an exceptionally sought-after pedigree, to have the best chance of a good future for her offspring.  After all, if it is difficult to rehome a senior horse, it is even more difficult to rehome an untrained yearling with unremarkable breeding.  Get an expert opinion from someone very knowledgeable about breeding and marketing her breed.  You may have to pay a fee for a consultation - if so, it is well worth the investment.

Three overpopulated breeds (TB, QH, Arab) make up the bulk of the horses sold at auction to the buyers/transporters to the Canadian and Mexican abattoirs.  The statistics do not put a shine on it:  90% of the "unwanted" horses destined for destruction are the breeding excesses of these three breeds.  Yet the breeding continues at a fever pitch, enabled by frozen semen, embryo transfers from senior mares just to get their DNA, to young mares actually capable of carrying to term a healthy foal, and now the new "hot" technology - cloning.  Yes, top stallions in racing and cutting are being cloned, with the clone going straight into the breeding business, on the competition laurels of his "original".  Due to the grave nature of this problem, no one should breed a horse just because it would be enjoyable to do so.  You might have to keep the foal, raise it, train it, and ride or drive it.  If you want to do this, great!

Here's a recent article explaining that top polo horses are now routinely created by embryo transfer costing on average $5,000 - $6,000 not including stud fees and cost of buying or leasing the surrogate mare.  Written by MaryBeth Gokee for the January / February 2008 issue of Central Equine:

it should give you an idea just how far the frenzy to win has taken the upper end of the market, and how the lower end is pushed to buy these services by market forces.  Investors need volume to realize a return on investing in new technologies, and a small high-end market is not enough to support it.  Thus, something that makes no economic sense for the middle to low end markets, that is stressful and risky for the professional broodmares will be "made available" to the occasional and less viable mares in the pursuit of making the dream come true - at the same high price, of course.

Even miniatures are now getting into the act:  Shenandoah Mini

Here's an excellent explanation of why embryo transfer is suddenly, after 25 years, on the rise with professional breeders from a competitive standpoint, and the five main medical reasons veterinarians would recommend it, rather than just advising that the mare should not be bred.  Three are conditions that commonly exist in senior mares.

Can You Make Money?                                                      (Top of Page)

Many people try their hand at breeding because of rumors of making large profits on weanlings and yearlings, or because of the opportunity to operate a business at a loss for tax deduction purposes.  Just as not everyone who invests in gold, stocks, real estate, or orange juice futures makes a fortune, only a small percentage of the people breeding horses make money. The key element is that you must form a business that passes IRS scrutiny, and the mare and foal must be owned by the business, which must keep proper books and demonstrate a legitimate effort to make money.

If it was easy to make money, why would the American Horse Council need to get Congress to add a provision to the Economic Stimulus Act to allow horse businesses to write off the first $250,000 of buying more horses and depreciate them faster?  (You must be a horse business, and the horse must be purchased for the first time from the breeder, to get the deduction.)

American Horse Council President Jay Hickey Pleased that New Economic Stimulus Bill Provides Huge Tax Incentives for Horse Businesses Engaged n Breeding, Racing and Showing

and to obtain loans, grants, and deductions for losses incurred due to natural disasters from the USDA, outside of any relief FEMA or Congressional or State appropriations would make available to regular businesses.)  Again, you must be a horse PRODUCER for PROFIT to obtain any of these benefits designed to enable you to continue breeding at the same levels and profits.  There is no relief for adoption centers, boarding stables, training facilities, retirement and lay-up facilities, horses providing therapy to humans, or private horse owners. 

 $286 Billion Farm Bill Includes 3 YR Total Depreciation for Racehorses and More Disaster Relief for Breeding Farms Due to AHC Lobbying Efforts 

Proceed with caution.  There are about 733 books about breeding offered on Amazon.  Only two suggest you can make money doing it.  That is 0.27% of the breeding advice books!  Most folks who own sweet old mares they have pleasure ridden for years don't really need more tax deductions.  They need hay and grain prices to stop rising.  Either way, whether for profit or deduction, the quality of life for mother and baby now, and in the future, is a consideration when the "business" is based on living, utterly dependent animals. 

One of the top American horsemen in eventing and in training warmbloods and other sport horses just STOPPED breeding horses in April, 2009.  In his blog he explains why a boarded horse in training is good for his business not just in direct profit, but cash flow and add-on sales, and breeding is not economically viable.  For people who want to spend money on it the same way they spend money attending horse shows or races, it is an interesting hobby and when managed by a tax accountant properly, a tax deduction for the wealthy — but they are kidding themselves if they think small-scale breeding is a viable business.

If you are breeding your mare for the sheer pleasure of both of you having a new job that doesn't require her to be ridden anymore, and got a green light from an equine reproductive specialist veterinary exam, and have a virtually guaranteed future good life for her offspring, go ahead, have fun, learn something new, and send us the pictures of the new family!   

Tax Deduction of Recreational Activity or Hobby                (Top of Page)

Many breeders and show trainers suggest that you can tax-deduct the expenses of breeding or showing your horse as a small business activity.  This possibility is very attractive to middle and higher income earners who want to pay fewer taxes while enjoying horse ownership or providing a wholesome lifestyle for their child.  CAUTION!  The I.R.S. audits these so-called businesses claimed by people who have full time jobs in other industries or professions.  The I.R.S. does not care how much money it will have to spend to audit you or to present the case in court or on appeal.  If the I.R.S. finds that you did not conduct the business in a verifiable attempt to make a profit, and did not change your business practices after years of losses or disproportionately low profits, then those deductions taken for show clothes, entry fees, travel, boarding and training, veterinary expenses and congratulations advertisements in trade publications may all be disallowed.  Here is the recent I.R.S. ruling against a California dentist who claimed her Arabian horse breeding and dressage showing was a business for many years.  The I.R.S. Appeals Court easily determined it was exclusively a hobby, despite all of her expense records.  It is NOT enough to set up an L.L.C. and pay the bills from a dedicated checking account and "market" the resulting foal. 

Here is information specific to I.R.S. business deductions of horse businesses from Patrick J. Hurley of Patrick J. Hurley and Associates, Yorba Linda, CA. This firm specializes in horse income tax issues.  In this article DEDUCTIONS FOR HORSE EXPENSES ON FEDERAL INCOME TAX RETURNS Hurley cites an obstretician-gynecologist who was able to show that his Arabian horse breeding operation was conducted with a profit intention and not for personal pleasure.

TIP:  Before entering into a "Make Money by Breeding or Showing Horses" program, consult with a professional tax advisor and an I.R.S. lawyer, about what your "business" must genuinely do.  Then research the market for horses and the trends over the last few years, along with future economic forecasts and political probabilities affecting common tax deductions and "shelters."  

Visit our Starting Your Horse Business Page for more helpful information and free resources.

Real Retirement                                      (Top of Page)

If none of the retirement jobs we have discussed are appropriate for your friend, it is time to just let her hang out and be a horse.  It is time to visit with her pasture buddies most of the day, be groomed by you and enjoy her gentle stretches and massage to stay comfortable,  be inspected daily for possible injury, illness, or loss of condition or teeth, and get a treat.

Your choice for her retirement care depends on how involved you want to be.  Most of the really nice retirement farms are located further from the major metropolitan areas.  If you are a city dweller, commuting between job, home, and stable, paying in-town board for a retiree can be pricey, but enables you to stay involved in her daily care, or at least visit regularly. 

Many more "ranchettes" that do not have the riding facilities to compete with larger stables, just some turn out paddocks, a wash rack, a little tack room and crossties, and a four stall mare motel should consider taking retirees as boarders.  Fortunately, many more are doing so.  The retirees only need room for turnout socializing, rolling and a little light lungeing or twenty minutes on the automatic walker.  Most really senior horses don't need big pastures, and many can't live in them due to infirmities, or the inability to crop grass.  Some have never lived in pasture with other horses and cannot cope with the herd dynamics.  Whether they need the "wide open spaces" or not, their owners don't need a jump course, a barrel pattern, or cattle to cut.  They just need a place to keep a grooming and first aid kit, and the freedom to come spend a little quality time as their schedule permits, and a monthly horse status report with photo with the monthly bill.

The Retirement Stables page has information on retirement stables, and how to choose one, if you cannot keep your companion at home.

This happiness should last while she is still fit enough to enjoy it, a timeline no one can predict.  When rapid decline occurs, when constant discomfort or even pain invades her, you will know.  Your long association as friends and companions will have given you an "eye" and an empathy that is priceless.  No one else will have this insight into the change in her behavior, her demeanor, her eyes - not even your vet who has helped you maintain her for years.

When you reach this leg of the journey, please see it for the natural course of events that life is, and begin to prepare for her to leave you.  Please visit our Euthanasia and Memorials pages, so that you will be ready to help her across "The Rainbow Bridge" responsibly, just as you have cared for her all along.  Choosing to own a horse is something like a wedding vow, and the very best horsepeople are just as skilled at compassionate elder care, hospice, and end of life care as they are at any other.                 

Other Resources                                     (Top of Page)

The Del Camino Products and Services catalog offers some horse products of interest to owners of senior horses.

Horse Welfare Statistics

Equinezone Horse Supply

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