Breeding Older Mares | Breeding Older Mares Successful Farming Without Insurance
Many horse owners have come to their equine veterinarian or favored expert with the same question: They have a wonderful mare that they're thinking about breeding, but they're afraid she might be too old.
Perhaps she's always been healthy, but they don’t know if she’s ever had a foal before.
Are you thinking about breeding an older mare next spring? Remember there are still steps—some simple, some cutting-edge—breeders can take to obtain a foal from mares with waning fertility.
Of course, each mare is an individual with her own health history and genetic tendencies. But why does mare fertility decline with age, and what can be done about it? We talked with equine reproduction specialists about common fertility and pregnancy problems in this mare demographic to get some answers.
Old Oocytes
Unlike most stallions, who can produce fresh sprm all their lives, a mare is born with all the oocytes, or immature eggs, she will ever have. So basically, if a mare is 20 years old, her ovarian follicles, each of which contains an oocyte, are also 20 years old.
Cycling Abnormalities
Mares are seasonal breeders, meaning they only cycle naturally during a particular time of year so that they will deliver foals, ideally, in temperate weather.
In the winter darkness, a mare’s ovaries are inactive. It’s a period called anestrus. Increasing amounts of daylight in spring trigger the normal healthy mare’s reproductive cycle. It spurs it to life in what’s called the vernal—from vernalis, derived from ver, the Latin word for spring—transition into the breeding season.
Each mare is different and the time of year causes some variation, but there is a basic estrous pattern, or cycle, of 21 days from one ovulation to the next.
Older mares might begin cycling later in the spring than younger mares, and the time between ovulations might lengthen. Problems can arise with ovarian follicle development, resulting in a longer time in the follicular phase and smaller follicles from a slowed growth rate.
Endometrosis
Because of their age, mature mares have had more opportunities to experience a decline in uterine health. Scar tissue could have developed as could endometrial cysts, which can present problems if they become large or are plentiful.
Acute or Chronic Endometritis
An important cause of embryo loss during early gestation is persistent post-breeding endometritis. The primary problem associated with endometritis is poor evacuation of the utrus, or clearance of debris or other foreign material, which then produces a persistent endometrial inflammation (hence, the -itis).
But the older mare might lose her ability to evacuate that material. Instead, the inflammatory fluid can remain there for days and lead to a secondary infection and chronic endometritis.
Acute or Chronic Endometritis
An important cause of embryo loss during early gestation is persistent post-breeding endometritis. The primary problem associated with endometritis is poor evacuation of the utrus, or clearance of debris or other foreign material, which then produces a persistent endometrial inflammation (hence, the -itis).
But the older mare might lose her ability to evacuate that material. Instead, the inflammatory fluid can remain there for days and lead to a secondary infection and chronic endometritis.
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