Breeding & Foaling

From breeding decisions to a healthy foal on the ground — planning, mare care, foaling prep, and raising young stock.

• Should you breed your mare? An honest checklist — A foal costs more and takes longer than almost anyone expects. Before you book a stallion, run your mare through the questions a repro vet actually asks.
• The first 24 hours: the 1-2-3 of a healthy newborn foal — Three numbers tell you almost everything about a newborn foal's first day: standing by one hour, nursing by two, placenta passed by three. Miss the windows and you call the vet.
• Caring for the broodmare through eleven long months — Most of a mare's pregnancy is gloriously uneventful. The trick is knowing the few dates that genuinely matter and not over-managing the rest.
• Foal watch: reading the signs and prepping the kit — Mares foal fast, usually at night, and almost always when you blink. Here's how to read the run-up and have the right kit within arm's reach when it happens.
• Handling the foal: building a using horse from day one — The handling you do in a foal's first weeks shows up under saddle three years later. The goal isn't a clingy pet — it's a confident horse that leads, loads, and stands for the vet.
• Weaning without the screaming match — Weaning is the most stressful day in a young horse's first year — and most of that stress is avoidable. The method matters less than the planning around it.
• Choosing a stallion: matching to fix faults, not chase fashion — The flashy stallion in the magazine ad is rarely the right answer for your mare. Good matching is unglamorous: you breed to correct her weaknesses, not to admire his strengths.
• Foaling complications: when minutes matter — Most mares foal cleanly in twenty minutes. The rare ones that don't can lose a foal or themselves in the time it takes to second-guess yourself. Know the few that can't wait.
• Feeding the pregnant and nursing mare — A broodmare's diet barely changes for most of pregnancy, then her needs explode after she foals. Get the timing wrong and you under-feed when it matters most.
• A foaling-night kit and prep checklist you can print — The night a mare foals is the wrong time to be hunting for scissors and a vet's number. Here is the exact kit, stall setup, and printable checklist to assemble weeks early.
• Should you breed her? A clear-eyed broodmare decision playbook — Love is not a breeding credential. This is the structured, scored decision framework we walk owners through before they spend a dollar on a stud fee — so the answer comes from the mare, not the feelings.
• A pregnancy-to-weaning care calendar for mare and foal — One timeline, from confirmation to weaning, with every scan, shot, and milestone on the dates that actually matter. Copy it, fill in your mare's due date, and stop managing eighteen months from memory.