Breeding Season Finally Gets Started at Our Small Arabian Breeding Farm Part 4

Part One

When I did get the vet on the phone, his schedule was so hectic the only way he could work us in was for me to take the mare to him. So the appointment was set for Thursday afternoon.

I was worried if the mare was in heat, I was going to be running out of time to breed her. But I sure didn't want to take a chance and breed her only to abort a pregnancy. Something was definitely weird about this cycle. I was going to have to wait for the ultrasound to decide what to do with the mare.

I have seen mares behave like this in the past. Each time it had turned out to be some odd anomaly of Mother Nature. None of them had involved a pregnancy. But I did know that there was still a chance the mare could be pregnant.

The first time I'd encountered this kind of behavior, it had been an aged mare that was here to be bred. The mare had settled on the first cycle but had then absorbed that pregnancy after she went home. Once she came back to be bred she behaved just like my mare.

The vets had told me to go ahead and breed that mare even though she was showing resistance to the stallion. I tried to do as they directed but it just wasn't working. Someone was going to get hurt. In addition the behavior just wasn't normal for this particular mare.

When we ultrasounded her the mare was found to have an autumn follicle. It's a huge follicle that just grows and grows all the time filling with blood. It is not a viable follicle and is caused by opposing production of hormones. That mare ended up not having a normal cycle the rest of the season. She was sent home and returned the following spring.

Then one of my mares, Bey Aana, had had a weird cycle like this. It was after she had aborted a set of twins and become badly infected from that procedure. Once the infection was cleared up, the mare ended up with this strange behavior showing mixed signs of being in and out of heat at the same time.When she was ultrasounded, we found that she, too, had an autumn follicle.

So now with Lucy, I wasn't sure what to expect. Since this was the first time for me to breed her, I had no frame of reference. The farm that had bred her in the past hadn't kept extensive records. Little x's in boxes on a form don't tell you much when it comes to the peculiarities of the broodmares psyche.

Once we got to the vet's clinic. Lucy when in the stocks like an old pro. That's one thing about mares that have been breed only AI, they know the stocks intimately.

Jack asked me to back her up a step or two in the chute. This mare knew too well what this was about and didn't want to get any closer to what was waiting her at the butt end of the palpation chute.

Once the images began coming up on the screen, I saw a large follicle. It was on the left horn and measured about 40 cm. Jack went over it and over it, making sure it was a follicle and not a pregnancy before he proceeded to the right horn. There, on the right horn, he found a 21 day pregnancy.

Lucy was right on schedule. She had ovulated the day we bred her. The odds are it's going to be a colt. BUT this is the mare that has been AI every single time she's been bred on a large breeding farm. That translates to she is usually bred on the day she ovulates. AND she has had 3 fillies, never a colt. So there's hope...........we'll know more May 19, 2008 or there abouts! WHOOPEEEEEEEEE!


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