What time of the year is best for breeding?
That depends upon you. We have some mares that start naturally cycling in Feb, but these are transition heats. Racehorses are typically forced to cycle so that they can breed at that time due to the ‘universal birth date’ of 1 Jan. They hope to get the most mature foal possible to compete in their age-range. The important thing to remember is that the horse’s gestation is typically 11 months. If you breed in Feb, you will have a foal shivering in the Jan cold & unable to go outside for several months. Optimally, we try to breed for an end Mar birth. That is the most natural time for the mare physiologically and is the time when she is most fertile. That way our foals can stay inside for a couple of weeks & still head outside for some fresh air on warm spring days. However, in cases where the embryo was absorbed, we have successfully bred as late as Jul for a Jun foal. Heats which occur later in the summer into fall, could still be bred successfully (but with a decreasing chance as the
