A Baby Boomer Dreams of Arabian Horses - The Legacy Continues - Part 10

Part 1 of the Baby Boomer Series

Breeding season was a real trip, all three mares were maidens. While the stallion was no longer a maiden, he wasn't all that experienced either. With only three covers, the Arabian horse still didn't have things figured out. I'd say we'd gotten them done more by accident than understanding.

The first mare we bred was KG Phadra Rose. She had been here since she and Legs were both yearlings. Even though they'd never been turned out together, they had been in adjoining fields for two years, which was really most of their lives.

Faye flinched when Legs raised up to mount her. A worried look washed over her face but she stood there quietly. Legs, as usual was off target and managed to strike Dave on one of his arms. I kept telling him if he would just build me my breeding wall he wouldn't be in the way but it didn't even sink in.

Breeding Lilly went about the same way. She's such a little mare. It was interesting to see Legs's reaction. He was ever so careful like he too thought he might crush her. Other than more worried looks on the face, the mare stood quietly.

Bey Aana was the mare I was worried about. At ten she was still a maiden and she had little exposure to other horses. While she was used to being turned out with another mare, she'd never been in close proximity to a stallion or anything that resembled a herd.

Here I was turning her out in the field that the stallion's stall faces. That way she could come up and meet him if she was so inclined. It took her a while, even though she was in heat. But he was smart and figured out he was intimidating her by screaming, so he just got real quiet and let her come to him. Towards the end of her first heat cycle she was actively showing to him.

The breeding wasn't quite as smooth. We thought that she would be frightened of him raising up, so we tried to blindfold her. That proved to be a big mistake. She was more frightened of not being able to see than she was of the stallion. Once we gave up on the blindfold and a twitch, she stood quietly.

We waited the fourteen days and checked the three mares. Faye and Lilly were both in foal and Aana was open. Not only was she open but she had an odd ring in her vagina where the hymen had been. The ring was thick and brittle. It wouldn't respond to palpation by the vet and was causing fluid to be retained in her uterus. That fluid was why the mare was still open.

So for the next breeding cycle, we flushed the mare with antibiotics before we bred. Then before she went out of heat, we flushed her again to clean out her uterus. Then we waited another fourteen days to ultrasound.

This time, the mare was in foal. BUT she was in foal with twins. They were too close together to pinch one off so we waited to day twenty-five to see if she'd absorb one on her own.

That didn't happened. When she was checked again, there were still two pregnancies. So the vet gave her a shot and headed down the road. I stayed with the mare to be sure she was ok.

Almost immoderately the mare started to sweat but the side effects didn't stop there. That shot almost killed her. Her eyes rolled back in her head as she convulsed uncontrollably. When she could get control of herself for brief instances, a pleading look for help crossed her face. I couldn't reach my vet or any other for that matter. There was nothing I could do but watch.

For nearly an hour that poor mare convulsed. I did what I could to prevent her from running into things. It was one of the worst experiences of my life with horses. I really didn't think she was going to live. But she did, although it took her over a week before she showed any signs of normal.

By the next breeding cycle we found she was badly infected. While the drug had caused an abortion, her cervix was brittle and had closed too rapidly trapping the matter in her uterus. It took two complete cycles to clear us the horrible infection.

By then, Bey Aana was no longer producing normal follicles. Instead she was producing what they call an "Autumn Follicle." It is an abnormal follicles that fills with blood instead of developing like it should. The hormone levels with autumn follicles are all out of whack. Mares experiencing this usually show mixed signs of estrus and inestrus. It was going to be another year before we could try breeding this mare again.

But the vet convinced me to do a casslick to keep her clean so we'd be ready to go in the spring. This was my first experience will all of this stuff so I followed his recommendations. You wouldn't believe my vet bills for those first two years of breeding. Not knowing what you're doing and letting the vets do what they do can get pretty darned expensive!

To be continued...............

this picture is me in between Solidare the white mare,and Faye. Lilly is in front of Faye almost hidden and Aana is the bay off on the left.

The Legacy Continues - The Second Foal Crop


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