Horses mating

Best Methods of Horses Mating

Some horse owners new to breeding are quite embarrassed by the functions involved in horses mating and the best methods to get proven results from each breeding encounter. There are two main methods used in producing results from your horses mating: pasture breeding, and hand breeding. Of those two, hand breeding is the one that is proven to be the most reliable method, but it is the one that also produces the most embarrassment for beginning breeders.

Pasture Breeding

Pasture breeding is the simplest form of breeding in that the only thing that needs to be done is to release a stallion in with one or more selected mares to be bred and leave them alone to do what nature intended them to do. There is no need to watch your horses mating, in fact, it may be near to impossible to catch some of the shyer stallions in the act although most are quite exhibitionist in nature and have no shame in doing their thing in full view of anyone who desires to watch.
Some of the pros of pasture breeding are:

o No embarrassment-There is no need to watch.
o Less hassle-Horses are simply left together and the time spent is only in putting them out in the pasture.
o Physically less dangerous for the owners-Since there is no contact with the animals involved during the mating it is safer for the owners.

Some of the cons regarding pasture breeding horse mating methods are:

o No Assurance-Since you are not likely to stand watch 24/7 to ensure the stallions have successfully mated with the mares in question there is no way to tell for sure that the mating took place.
o Unknown breeding dates-While you will know the average range of dates calculated from the day you released the stallion in with the mares to the day you took him out of the pasture that the foal may be due you cannot know the exact date of expectancy making it harder for you to be present when a foal is born.
o Stallion risks-One reason so many valuable stallions are only live bred by hand are that in a free and open situation a reluctant mare can seriously damage the stallion as he attempts to seduce and mate with her. There have been many instances where extremely valuable animals were even castrated by a well aimed kick from an angry mare.

Hand Breeding

By far the most popular method of getting the best results from horses mating is using the hand breeding method. This ensures copulation in a safe and controlled situation where the dangers to the stallion are also greatly reduced.

In this method the stallion is lead on a lead rope to where the mare is being held and allowed to court and then mount. If a mare becomes reluctant, or even violent the stallion can be pulled away to keep him safe. It is imperative that a stallion be taught impeccable ground manners beforehand so that they are completely controllable even when hormonally aroused. This method is also best because if a stallion is successful in courting and the mare is willing but he has trouble getting the proper position he can be assisted by hand to ensure the copulation actually takes place.

Pros of hand breeding are:

o Insured insemination
o Accurate delivery dates-Since you are present at the breeding you know exactly when to calculate the arrival of an expected foal. This allows you to be present should any difficulties occur during delivery and possibly prevent the loss of a valuable foal.

Katie Appleby is an accomplished niche website developer and author.

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