IRRESPONSIBLE breeding

[Apopli]

I sold one of my horses to a woman a couple years back. We kinda keep in touch, and the other day we got a phone call from her saying that my horse had a foal.

This first sounded suspicious because she didn't call to tell me she was using my horse as a brood mare. But she invited us over, and I wanted to go see how my horse was doing anyhow, so we went.

She has a small barn with only 3 stalls, and she had 3 horses (minus the foal). She tells me Rare Breeds of Canada had called her to breed this rare breed of horse. They sent her a stallion (boy horse) and a mare (girly horse), told her to keep them outside 24/7, and when the mare throws a foal (baby horse), to call them, they pick up the stallion, then the foal when it turns a year old. They use host families to house them to help increase the herd.

Well the mare was 17 years old, which is WAY too old to breed responsibly in the first place. She never threw any foals. BUT, HER three horses are all mares. The stallion broke the top of the fence twice. For SOME reason she thought the stallion would NEVER jump the fence when there's THREE MARES in the feild RIGHT NEXT to him that go in heat often...

Well in 2 weeks, all three mares had foals. Two colts (baby boys) and a filly (baby girls). She DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THEY WERE PREGNANT until the first one had the foal.

Rare breeds of Canada has no use for these foals, because two are appaloosa crosses, and the other's a quarter horse cross, so they took their mare and stallion back, and now she has 6 horses, ONLY three stalls, two colts she'll have to geld ($500 each), PLUS West Nile vaccinations ($70 each), deworming, rabies shots, ect. She was saying she has NO idea how she'll be able to pay for all this, let alone have the time to break the three foals while keeping up the training of the other 3 horses.

EVERY responsible horse keeper KNOWS that when you keep a stallion, you can't keep him near mares in heat without an incredibly strong fence high enough so he can't jump (even if it's just precautionary measures for well-behaved stallions). Then she asked ME if I could help her break the horses. I mean, I CAN, and I want to because one of those horses is my old horse's baby (she's SUCH a great momma, too), but this REALLY upset me!!

She didn't know they were pregnant, so she couldn't give them proper diets, plus they were ridden almost every day up until the day they gave birth, she wouldn't have had time to call in the vet if she needed it...

And WHERE is she going to KEEP all these horses with a barn only big enough for THREE stalls!!?? Let alone the fact that she doesn't have the money to keep them all! AND she says there's NO way she's selling them, because they're "her babies" UGH!!

[BabyBlue]

Irresponsible breeding knows no boundary huh? How wonderfu to know there are all sorts of people breeding all sorts of animals without having a clue. Sigh... I know nothing about horse but sounds like someone needs to knock some sense into her. Any takers?

[flannel]

Didn't know they were pregnant!  Sorry, I haven't been around alot of horses, but any I've seen that were pregnant were pretty obvious. Especially towards the due date.  Isn't that usually the case?  Uggh.  Some people! And they wasted the time and resources of the Rare Breeds people too.  I can understand why you are upset. Hopefully everyone will turn out healthy and happy.
*crosses fingers*

[Apopli]

It's Rare Breed's fault for sending a 17 year old mare to try and breed, so it wasn't really a waste of THEIR time.

I can see why they pulled the Stud out, though, instead of replacing the mare. 3 "accidental" foals is unheard of. If it was just the one, that's not so bad. But THREE? C'mon, now! Don't you keep an eye on your horses at all?? She works from home!! She's always there! How do you MISS osmething like that?

[-Dani-]

How old is she? Honestly you see 12 year old breeding hamsters, but a grown woman so careless with such expensive creatures? ugh.

[Apopli]

She's in her late 30's, early 40's.

She has a 16-17 year old daughter, and an 8 year old daughter. 2 dogs, a cockatiel, 3 rabbits, used to have a couple pigs, but they died.

[swedishnightingale]

This is kind the of person who could get pregnant herself and 9 months later a baby would come as a complete surprise...

[Noe]

This is kind the of person who could get pregnant herself and 9 months later a baby would come as a complete surprise...

Yup. Irresponsible breeding is quite prevalent among humans.

[Rattie639]

Ummm Theres something strange here. Yup there is. Pregnant horses are big.... huge....gigantic. How could she not have seen a change in her mares size. Wouldnt any responsible horse owner take their horse to a vet if they suddenly got bigger and fatter.

[Dani]

She sounds like a complete idiot.   How could she not know?!

[Apopli]

Ummm Theres something strange here. Yup there is. Pregnant horses are big.... huge....gigantic. How could she not have seen a change in her mares size. Wouldnt any responsible horse owner take their horse to a vet if they suddenly got bigger and fatter.

Horses over the winter do often get what is known as "hay bellies", and they do sometimes look pregnant, and I could KINDA see why she didn't feel the need to call the vet for that. My gelding go SO big over the winter he was larger than one of our pregnant mares (when I was working on the breeding farm).

HOWEVER, how could you MISS a mare lactating? You'd have to NOT have cleaned the mare's udder the WHOLE time she was pregnant to miss that... and that's just gross.

[ruthiechan]

I thought she just had the babies?
So isn't it past winter and therefore should've had some clue?

[Suebee]

In Canada, it's winter until July...

*duck*

[ruthiechan]

In Canada, it's winter until July...

*duck*

Oh. Shows what I know.