Breeding horses is a very specialised and complicated undertaking, requiring years of training, and drawing from a long, rich history that goes back hundreds of years. When adding the element that the animal is intended for the purpose of specific sports such as racing, the task becomes even more advanced and specialised.
These are some interesting facts about breeding horses for sporting events that you may not know.
Busy Schedule
The mares that are most sought after for breeding will be actively competing in events. This means that finding time in their lives for breeding is very taxing, and one of the most carefully thought out aspects of the breeding. Adding to this is that horses only breed for a few months a year. Most commonly the months of May and April are focused on, which are also often the busiest racing months.
Performance Problems
Often a performance stallion will have a lasting injury from participating in events. This can cause a serious problem, in that the horse may experience pain during the process of mating. Often times this will result in the stallion not wanting to mate, making it very difficult to pass the horse’s prized genes on to his offspring.
Cared For Pregnancy
There are many challenges involved in ensuring that a mare has a healthy pregnancy. Even the slightest bit of exercise in warm weather can complicated the pregnancy, and harm embryo survival rate. This is why when a mare is going through her 11 month pregnancy, she will be carefully looked after and cared for in every regard.
Some professionals have the job of caring for a pregnant mare on a 24-hour basis, including feeding, grooming, and walking. It isn’t a very exciting job, means those must have plenty of time on their hands. Chances are, they spend a lot of time playing top slots online in Australia on their phones so as to have some fun while they pass the time.
Scoring System
Sport horse breeding is a very serious business. Professional breeders take into account every aspect of a horse in order to determine if it will have success when breeding. Mares are rated via a system called the Body Condition Score. A veterinarian looks over a mare and rates the success that the mare is likely to have when breeding, which is broken down into a Body Condition score. A horse must score at least a 5-6 out of 9 on the BCS scale in order to be considered.
Prove Your Worth
Stallions are also considered very seriously before being allowed to breed. The horse must first prove itself in sports for a few years, after which its performance will be compared, and the horse will be determined to be allowed to mate. The stallion may also require specialised training in order to mate.
Embryo Transfer
In the wild, a mare will only produce a single foal in a year. But an especially successful mare may produce several in the right breeding system. In this, however, the foal will not endure each pregnancy. Instead an embryo transfer method is used, whereby the embryo is transferred to a surrogate mother horse.