Equine Reproduction, Mating

Livestock Production Management

systems & Care of pregnant mare

Dr N.RAJANNA
Professor
Dept.of Livestock Production Management
College of Veterinary Science, Rajendranagar
Hyderabad-30
 Reproductive management
➢Mare is one of the domesticated animals having lowest
reproductive efficiency due to
➢Seasonal occurrence of estrus,
➢Erratic and expanded estrus behavior in early spring,
➢Uncertainty of the ovulation,
➢ Incorrect heat detection
➢ Arbitrary January first is the date of birth in registering
horses in racing industry so people attempting to breed
in low fertility months.

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 Parameters of reproduction
Parameter Months/days
Age of puberty : 12-15 months
Type of oestrus : Seasonally poly oestrus
Interval of oestrus cycle : 21-23 days (average 21 days)
Oestrus length : 5-7 days
Time of ovulation before end of : 24-28 hours
the oestrus

Average length of gestation : 340 ±10 days

period
Time of foal heat : 9-11 days
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 Reproductive cycle
➢ The average estrus cycle length is 21 days (21-23 days)
➢ Symptoms
➢ Raising of the tail without switching
➢ Spreading of the hind legs apart
➢ Flexing of the pelvis
➢ Winking ( Eversion of clitoris due to regular contraction and relaxes of the labia ) is
characteristic symptom
➢ Frequent urination
Factors influencing the estrus cycle
✓ Length of day light exposure (Shorter in April to October and Longer in December to
February)
✓ Presence of prolonged corpus luteum: Causes the secretion of progesterone which
suppress the symptoms of heat
✓ Silent heat
✓ Lactation
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 Reproductive cycle
Heat detection
▪ By external symptoms of heat
▪ Using teaser – Vasectomized pony or horse or donkey can be used
▪ By using records
Time of breeding
➢ After heat detection breed the mare every other day starting from the
second day of heat until they go out of heat.
➢ Vaginal swab is used to determine the bacterial infection is present or not by
using Antibody sensitivity test.
➢ Breeding or mating is done either by hand mating or pasture mating or corral
mating or Artificial Insemination.

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 Reproductive cycle

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 Reproductive cycle

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 Mating systems
Mating of the mare can be done by hand mating or pasture mating or corral
mating or Artificial Insemination.
Hand mating
▪ This is commonly used method of breeding of horses.
▪ In this normally one person hold mare while another one or two people handle
stallion.
▪ The mare should be examined for heat previously.
▪ The hind legs of mare should be hobbled together to prevent kicking the stallion
and the handler.
▪ The tail of the mare should be wrapped with muslin cloth. The external genitalia
and buttocks should be washed and rinsed thoroughly.
▪ Penis of stallion washed once in a week
Advantages
▪ Accurate breeding record maintenance
▪ Mating behavior can be supervised
▪ Decreases the chances of coital injuries
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 Mating systems
Hand mating
Disadvantages
▪ Foaling rates are lower
▪ Labors are required for breeding observation and handling
▪ Cost of breeding is high
Pasture mating
▪ The stallion is simply allowed with group of brood mares for the entire breeding seasons.
Advantages
▪ Stallion does the teasing and breeding.
▪ Conception rates are usually higher than for other methods of mating
▪ This method saves the cost of labour
Disadvantages
▪ Animals may get injured
▪ Loss of supervision of breeding
▪ Increased chances of spread of venereal diseases.
▪ Difficulty of assessing the fertility

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 Mating systems
Corral mating
✓ The mare to be breed brought into a small paddock or corral
when she is ready to bred.
✓ Then stallion turned with the mare
✓ The mare and stallion brought out after successful mating.
✓ It is not suitable for valuable animals because of injuries.
Artificial Insemination
A.I is increasingly used with horses except in thoroughbred
horses
Stallion ejaculates about 25-150 ml of semen with the
concentration of 30-800 million sperm

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 Mating systems
Artificial Insemination
Procedure
• Semen has to be collected from jump mare or phantom in Artificial Vagina
and can be inseminated either fresh or extended semen with a volume of 5
to 20 ml and concentration of 250 to 500 million sperm
• Insemination should be done manually with gloved hand or through the use
of speculum.
Advantages
• Problem mares having long estrus cycle
• sutured mares which show no external symptoms of heat but cycling and
ovulating can be bred easily
• Venereal diseases can be easily controlled

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 Mating systems

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 Pregnancy diagnosis
Once the mare has been bred it is advisable to have her pregnancy checked
by the following methods
1. Non-return
If mare shows no signs of heat for 23 days after mating there is chance of
90 % becoming pregnant
2. Ultrasonography
As early as 14-15 days post ovulation the pregnancy can be diagnosed with
this method
3. Rectal palpation
By this method pregnancy can be determined by 30-35 days after mating
and it should be repeated once again between 100 to 120 days
4. Chemical test (Cuboni test)
Estrogen is determined in urine

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 Pregnancy diagnosis
5. Hormonal test
eCG (Equine choriogonadotropin hormone) presence of this
hormone in blood can be tested 40-120 days after fertilization.
1 IU/ml of blood is + ve for pregnancy
Progesterone : 4 ng/ml of blood indicates the pregnancy
Estrone sulfate: This hormone presence in the blood @
200pg/ml, 60 days after mating indicates the pregnancy

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Care and Management of
Pregnant Mare
 Care and Management of pregnant Mare
• The goal of all pregnancies is to have a live foal.
• Good broodmare management is necessary for the mare and foetus to
make it through pregnancy.
Livestock Production Management

• The mare should go into the breeding season in good body condition
(nutrition), in good health (immunizations) and under a parasite control
program.
• Exercise and Changes During Late Pregnancy
• Moderate riding/work is safe up to 8 months of gestation.
• The activity level should remain the same as pre-pregnancy.
• Moderate activity and free exercise are encouraged throughout
pregnancy.
• A gradual decrease in exercise will become necessary as the mare's
abdomen becomes larger and her centre of gravity changes.
• Free exercise is important in the last few weeks since ventral oedema
often occurs at this time.
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 Care and Management of pregnant Mare
Feeding
• First 7 to 8 months routine diets of hay or concentrate should be provided to maintain
body condition.
• Mare too thin not milk well, too fat will have foaling difficulties and develop laminitis.
Livestock Production Management

• A mare should gain 9-12% of her original weight during the pregnancy.
• However, two thirds of the total weight gain occur during the final three months of
gestation.
• During this period a good quality hay or concentrate which contain 12-14 % protein
should be provided and broodmare's energy needs progressively increase by 10 to 20%,
almost twice the calcium and phosphorus and 1.3 times the protein.
• The copper content of the mare's diet in late pregnancy directly effects foetal bone
development. Selenium (Se) is important in muscle function.
• The lack of Se in soils used to grow forages may lead to white muscle disease in foals.
• Only limited amounts of Se cross the placenta so pregnant mares should be
supplemented from late gestation through lactation, or foals should be supplemented at
birth.
• Mare's milk is known to be low in Se so injectable Vitamin E and Se may be given after
birth.
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 Care and Management of pregnant Mare
Accommodation
➢Stables for brood mares must be airy, roomy and protected from draughts.
Brood mares as a rule are kept in liberty and should be provided with covered
Livestock Production Management

as well as open dry paddock.

➢Covered accommodation is provided at the scale of 4.25 X 2.50 m per mare
and the brood mares should be stabled in small batches if individual boxes
are not possible.
➢Ideal stable for a batch of 15 brood mares or 10 brood mares with foal at foot
is 4.25 x 35.00 m covered standing and 35.00 x 75.00 m dry paddock.
➢The feeding troughs should be provided in the covered standing and as well
as in the open dry paddocks.
➢The mares should be allowed to roam about at their will under cover or in the
open.
➢There should be a water trough, with running clean and fresh water provided
outside in the dry paddock. Fencing for dry paddock should consist of upright
angle iron posts with four strands of wire.

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 Care and Management of pregnant Mare
Accommodation
➢Each dry paddock should have some trees to provide shade for the brood mares.
The ground should be level, sandy, free from stones and holes and must have
facilities for quick draining during monsoons.
Livestock Production Management

➢Each group of brood mares in the paddock should have an independent grazing
paddock, easily approachable.
➢The foaling boxes should be roomy and spacious in order to provide enough room
for the mare and the foal.
➢An ideal size for foaling box is 4.25 x 5.50 m. It should have independent watering
and feeding troughs inside, should have electric ceiling fan and be provided with fly
proof windows for cross ventilation, so that it does not become stuffy during hot
weather.
➢The floor of the foaling boxes should be made of cement with gentle slope of 5 cm
in 3 m for the drainage of urine and water.
➢It should have few shallow grooves to prevent the mares from slipping, to take the
liquid away and keep the bedding dry.

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 Care and Management of pregnant Mare
Health care
▪ Normal health care management should be followed with the pregnant mare
(dental care, hoof care, immunizations).
Livestock Production Management

▪ If the mare is prone to pneumovagina ("windsucking", leads to endometritis or

uterine infection), a Caslick's closure may be performed to partially suture the labia.
▪ The vulvar lips must be opened prior to foaling to prevent tearing the vulva.
Immunization
✓Foals are vulnerable to disease and infection.
✓ Because of their immature immune system, vaccines are not effective in young
foals.
✓ Passive immunity is achieved by the transferred of antibodies from the mare to the
foal via colostrum.
✓No vaccination during first 90 days in general except botulism and rhinopneumonitis
should be avoided until 30 days before foaling.
✓4-6 weeks before foaling a tetanus, eastern, western, west Nile encephalitis vaccine
should be given.
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 Care and Management of pregnant Mare
• Deworming
❖Internal parasites remain one of the largest health threat to the horse.
❖The broodmare should be on a regular deworming program prior to and
Livestock Production Management

during pregnancy.
❖The program should take into account the age of the mare, number and age
of other horses on the farm, the stocking rate in the pasture, pasture
management and season.
❖Deworming the mare with Ivermectin (@ 0.2 kg/Bwt) within 12 hours after
foaling has been found to help with foal diarrhoea during the mare's 1st heat
cycle (threadworms, Strongyloides westeri infection).
❖ Foals may acquire threadworms through larvae present in the mare's milk,
larvae penetrating the skin or by ingestion.
❖Threadworm larvae are found in mare's milk from 4 to 40 days after foaling.
Foals may become severely infected by two to three weeks of age, exhibiting
diarrhoea, indigestion, and un thriftiness.

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