You can comfortably continue to ride your mare until she is about 8 months into her pregnancy and even compete safely, however after about 6 months you may just want to reduce her workload and slow things down a bit. Watch her closely and adjust her exercise accordingly.
Most mares benefit from exercise during pregnancy. Many owners use their mares for rigorous athletic competition (including racing and jumping) up to five months with no problems. You can continue light trail riding until the start of the last month of pregnancy.
A healthy pregnant horse can be ridden during much of her pregnancy. However, there are periods when riding should be avoided, don't ride a mare for at least 30 days following conception or during the final two to three months before her due date. Otherwise, it is ok to ride your pregnant horse.
Riding your broodmare before, during, and after her pregnancy is extremely beneficial for her conditioning. Each broodmare must be evaluated on an individual basis during their pregnancy to know what level of physical activity is required.
Mares can safely be ridden until they deliver, as long as the rider is careful,” said Callahan. Most people who ride pregnant mares do so with young mares that will be put back into competition after weaning the foal—and those mares usually don't have much abdominal enlargement.
Allowing the foal to run alongside the mare while you ride is perfectly fine, so long as you're in a safe, enclosed area. Within the first two months of the foal's life, it will be extremely attached to Mom, and will be frantic – sometimes to the point of risking injury – if she is taken out of sight.
The Logistics of Riding a Mare With a Foal
A mare that experiences a straightforward birth should be ready to go back under saddle six to eight weeks after foaling. However, if your mare had a complicated birth, it might take far longer.
“Many people also use acepromazine, which is more of a calming agent (tranquilizer) than a sedative.” While none of these are labeled for use in pregnant mares, she says they typically don't cause serious side effects. Still, ask yourself why you are giving sedation and if it's necessary.
Your mare can be turned out with other mares as long as they get along. A pregnant mare should not be turned out with a stallion or even geldings. Geldings, while they no longer have the sex drive of a stallion, can still get an erection.
Many owners believe riding a pregnant mare will harm her or even cause her to abort. Fear not, though, our sources say. If she's generally healthy to start with and her pregnancy isn't considered high-risk (for example, a mare with a history of pregnancy loss or abortion), saddle her up and enjoy a ride!
You can continue working your mare as normal for the first five to six months of her pregnancy. Turnout in a pasture is also good for your mare (and all other horses) throughout her pregnancy – she certainly does not need to be on stall rest unless there is another medical issue.
As the mare progresses through the later stages of pregnancy, she may begin to act cranky or restless. Another late sign that a mare is pregnant will be changes to her udders.
Provide nutritious forage, but don't overfeed. Supplementing with vitamins and minerals is unnecessary in mares being fed a balanced diet. Make sure the mare is current on vaccines and deworming. Consult your veterinarian for recommendations regarding specific vaccinations and deworming interval during pregnancy.
While this may result in many sleep-deprived nights for stable staff, night-time foaling has important physiological relevance. It makes sense that a prey animal out on the open plains would seek the safety of darkness hiding their vulnerability during the birthing process to avoid the attention of predators.
Foaling with no bag or wax:
While one may wax up weeks in advance, its also not uncommon for maiden mares to foal with no wax and a very small/no bag. No wax means there's one less sign to look out for – so don't always count on seeing wax leading into your maiden mare foaling.
As a result, stallions have evolved strategies to safeguard against raising other stallions' offspring. And one of these instincts is to kill young foals – especially males – that are probably not their own, if the opportunity arises.
They may try to breed mares, herd their mares and fight with other geldings. They may behave aggressively toward people and attack foals. Most of these “sexy” gelding are in their teens.
Normal mares have a broad range of gestation. It is very normal for mares to carry a fetus for 320 to 380 days. In general 330 days (11 months) is the most commonly cited gestation length.
The placenta should never be manually pulled out, as this may cause parts of the placenta to be retained or cause damage to the lining of the uterus. A retained placenta should always be treated promptly.
Abortions. Causes of abortion in mares include viral diseases, ingestion of poisonous plants, mycotoxins, bacterial infections, stress of either the mare or the fetus, gene mutations, mare reproductive loss syndrome (MRLS), and lack of sufficient nutrients to support the fetus, especially in the case of twins [32, 33].
Worming is imperative to your mare's health and shouldn't be avoided when she's in foal. Your worming program can remain normal throughout her pregnancy, with just a few simple changes. The biggest thing to remember when worming your pregnant mare is product selection.
Gestation Length
There may be much variability, but most individually follow similar patterns year after year. Foals are considered premature if delivered at less than 326 days of gestation and usually require immediate veterinary attention. Mares foaling before 310 days are considered to have aborted.
“The pelvic area will remain soft until about six weeks postpartum,” says Dunn. “Some people want to go back to riding sooner, but I don't recommend that. If you want to get on and walk or jog slowly, you'll probably be OK. But you don't want to gallop or jump.”
When a mare is approaching her foaling date it is best to disturb her as little as possible, especially during the night. Most mares will foal between the hours of 10pm and 2am, but parturition (aka birthing) can occur at any time of day.