The Hats We Wear: Breeding Manager

I've always been fascinated by the reproductive side of animal care and management. As a high schooler at 'cow camp' I was thrilled to have the chance to spend extra time with the presenters who came to demonstrate embryo transfer for us and my dad very graciously spent several evenings driving me to a class to learn how to do artificial insemination on my own animals. In college, I had the chance to spend time working on a research project tracking follicle growth on dairy cattle. So when we made the transition from cattle to horses I brought a solid foundation of knowledge about the reproductive process and a strong desire to learn and do as much as possible myself.

As it turns out, cattle and horses are very different in some important ways when it comes to breeding. Broadly speaking, cattle ovulate a set period of time after they come into heat, leading to the ability to predict with a fair bit of accuracy when is the best time to breed them, while horses ovulate a somewhat-set period of time before going OUT of heat, leading to the need for either a lot of repeated breedings or ultrasounding to see how the follicles on the ovary are growing and maturing in order to time the breeding correctly. When I bred my first mare, I had the vet out to do the ultrasounds, tell me when to breed, and confirm pregnancy. As our herd grew it quickly became apparent that repeated vet visits for breeding work were going to become cost prohibitive, as well as a scheduling nightmare given that I was working full-time at the time, and we needed to explore other options.

I found an ultrasound class through The Breeder's Assistant where we had the chance to do hands on practice and also classroom learning and in 2018 I purchased my first ultrasound and began tracking and managing my own mares. Now it's one thing to ultrasound a mare through a normal cycle, but the real challenges come in when things don't go as planned... which is more often than we like! As I grew in my ability to 'see' what was happening it also led to developing other skills such as doing uterine lavage to clear fluids, infusions to treat bacterial infections, on-farm AI and hormonal control of the estrus cycle. I love to read up on strange cases and have found a variety of helpful Facebook groups for discussion on reproductive management as well as textbooks full of good information, all of which has to be put to use practically to stick!

Our foray into the stallion side of breeding management came when our Brabant stallion, Ash, proved to be a very difficult stallion to collect for AI. After hauling him to multiple facilities only to have them give up on trying to collect him and then following up at a vet school where he was pronounced 'physically fit' but difficult we decided that it was another case of needing to do it ourselves. I travelled to Texas for a stallion oriented class with The Breeder's Assistant and came home to start amassing the equipment necessary for stallion collection and semen processing. Having done a lot of work on the female side of things with the cattle the switch to the male side of the equation was a big leap into the unknown. It has taken several years and a LOT of trial and error to get to the point where we can (mostly) collect Ash and are expanding to some of our other stallions as well. Unfortunately, with his challenges it is becoming clear that we are unlikely to be able to ship semen on Ash but the ability to do on-farm AI is a step in the right direction and so far he has done an excellent job of settling our mares this way and putting amazing foals on the ground. With the purchase of Boone earlier this year we finally have a stallion who is easy to collect and has excellent fertility so we have started slow working on shipping semen to outside mares.

Day to day, breeding management at AKH means keeping a ton of lists to stay on top of who needs to be checked (and why), when we plan to breed, stallion semen numbers, and any treatments that we're performing. It's a job I enjoy but requires all of my ability to organize, brainstorm, and focus to keep on top of the different needs of each horse. I believe that our hard work is paying off as our conception and foaling rates have improved drastically since we started taking control of the process ourselves. There are plenty of other areas of equine breeding and reproduction that we hope to explore in the future but for now we continue to plug away at managing our mares, working with our tricky stallions, and growing our ability to serve our customers through our knowledge and services.

The Wheel Keeps Turning

One of the craziest things to me about breeding horses is how quickly we go from rejoicing over a new foal to fretting about getting the mare bred back for the following year. Because a mare's gestation is around 11 months we are working on a tight timeline to try to keep as many mares as possible foaling in the spring, on fresh grass, rather than in the heat, mugginess, and flies of summertime. We do have some summer foals and they always amaze me with how well they handle it but overall we prefer to have as many born in April/May as possible.

A mare will naturally come into heat and be ready to re-breed within the first 1-2 weeks after foaling. In the wild, it's not at all unusual for the stallion to breed the mare and keep the cycle going. In a managed breeding program there's a lot more that goes into the care and decision whether or not to breed on the 'foal heat.' We are looking at things like- was the delivery normal and uncomplicated, did the mare clean as she should have, does her uterus appear normal on the ultrasound, how long after foaling is she ovulating, when would she be due, is this a mare we even intend to foal out the following year, etc. If anything at all seems off we can skip the foal heat and breed on the next cycle, around a month after foaling, which puts the following foal due at around the same time of year.

As we grow our breeding herd and work hard to tighten up our foaling season this leads to a very hectic period of ultrasounding, managing and breeding mares that have recently foaled. This year, we bred 8 horses in the first 2 weeks of our breeding season. Although it's unlikely that they will all take on the first cover (but we're hoping for it anyway) if they did that would put nearly half of our anticipated 2022 foals due in that two week timeline! I'm tired just thinking about it...

In this crazy period it takes work to consciously slow down and enjoy the fruits of last year's hard work. It's easy to get caught up in the stress and micro-managing of trying to get another mare checked off for the following year, but the really amazing part is the foal we have on the ground and growing! The young foals are a little shy for the first week or two but as they mature and get a bit more independent from their moms we enjoy spending a few extra minutes loving on them and marveling at their unique personalities and looks. Life isn't likely to slow down anytime soon... there are more mares to foal, breedings and re-breedings to manage, hay to cut, pastures to mow, and the list goes on. But if you see us running around like crazy people you can remind us to stop and smell the horsey smells :)

Foaling Season is in Full Swing

Well we had to wait a couple of weeks longer than we expected but it seems that the mares have finally decided to get on board with foaling season! We currently have 6 foals on the ground, 5 of which arrived over the course of 10 days. It's been a good year for fillies which is always super exciting for us and also very tempting to find one or two to keep. Here's a little picture of what things looks like during this exciting time of year.

1. Foal Watch: This part involves a lot of waiting and wondering! We have a foaling alarm system that measures the mare's temperature every 5 minutes and compares it to her average temperature for the time of day. Prior to foaling mares will often show a temperature drop and this is the signal to send an alert that foaling is imminent. The system works well and the temperature drop is consistent, however we also get a lot of false alarms during the spring season when our daily weather does drastic swings. So there's a lot of sorting through the alarms to see which are legit! We're also watching for physical signs of foaling- udder development, softening around the tailhead, waxing (beads of colostrum on the teats), and attitude changes. When we see these signs we know to be extra vigilant because a foal is going to be arriving soon.

2. Foaling: Once the system alerts and we recognize that a mare is about to deliver we make it a point to attend the foaling. This allows us to recognize any problems and address them quickly. Ideally, we can sit back a little ways and just monitor but if something isn't right acting immediately is critical to increasing the odds of a good outcome. Our system generally alerts 1-2 hours ahead of the actual delivery so there is a bit of down time waiting and watching as the mare gets increasingly restless. Once her water breaks and active labor begins the process is quick- generally a foal should be on the ground within 15 minutes. To make things extra complicated, mares have a tendency to foal at night. Ours seem to prefer 12-1AM or else around 5-6AM. This means that even when all goes well the arrival of a foal usually means lost sleep and a day of being very groggy.

3. Foal Care: Getting a foal on the ground is great, but it's really just the beginning of our adventures with the new arrival. There are several steps to take after birth to make sure mom and baby are healthy and off to a good start. The 1-2-3 rule of foaling says that foals should stand within one hour and nurse within two hours, and the mare should pass the placenta within 3 hours. Getting the foal on it's feet and nursing is especially important as foals are born with no immunity and receive antibodies from the first milk that their mother produces (colostrum). Getting this colostrum into their system within the first few hours of life is absolutely critical to their long term health so we are sure to stick around and make sure the foal can stand and nurse before leaving mom and baby to bond. We also pull blood when the foal is around 18 hours old to see how well they received and absorbed the antibodies so that supplemental colostrum or a plasma transfer can be provided if needed. Another important step in the first few days of life is dipping the foal's umbilical stump in a disinfectant to help prevent bacteria from entering the body through the stump. These steps are just the basics for a healthy foal, any signs of trouble can involve temperature checks, extra assistance standing/nursing, vet checks, antibiotics, and other various steps. We do a lot of foal checks for the first couple of weeks to be sure our babies are active, nursing and happy!

In all, foaling season is an exciting but chaotic time of year. We love welcoming new arrivals but there's always a sense of anxious concern in trying to be sure that everyone is thriving. The start of foaling season is extra crazy because we have so many mares due at once. At the moment we are nearly halfway through our 2020 foal crop, with the remaining 8 foals spaced out a bit more over the next 3 months. We have been blessed with some very exciting babies and healthy deliveries so we're excited to keep going and get a few more on the ground!