The Benefit of Hindsight - Musings of a First Time Breeder

by Canda Atkinson

Due to the on/off recovery of my lovely RID mare Shanacloon Rose from two successive injuries, I was able to spend a couple of years choosing a stallion, just in case breeding from her was the only option open to me. I had owned her for five years prior to injury and we had enjoyed doing just about everything except show jumping, which is not my bent. We had numerous successes in the show ring, including at County Level several years on the trot, and enjoyed low key dressage, but had come to really love doing pleasure rides. In the last 18 months of her ridden career we went on rides all over East Anglia. Being a “bright” girl with boundless energy she thrived on lots of exercise, was very fit and honed and probably in better shape than I had ever seen her.

The injury was caused by an ill timed meeting with a tractor and enormous potato trailer on the way home from a glorious autumn hack. The tractor was driven by a dolt who would not stop, causing a severe over extension and a ruptured distal sesamoidean ligament. She recovered fully from this injury and came back to full exercise but sadly the next year suffered a tear in the deep digital flexor tendon in the same leg necessitating surgery to remove tear fibres from the navicular bursa. Although we did get back to ridden exercise, I always doubted that she felt completely “right” and I was very depressed about her future, especially when she tweaked her leg in the paddock and was very lame again. My insurance on that leg had expired, I had no substantial funds for future investigations, so I decided to give her a year off, put her in foal and see whether she would come right.

I knew I wanted to breed a pure Irish Draught. Rosie is such a good example and has so much going for her that I felt we owed it to the future of the Irish Draught to breed pure. I saw a good few RID stallions on regular tours around the country and I am so glad I did this as their stud cards either did them no justice at all or gave me a misguided impression of type and substance.

I wanted to try and compensate for what I considered to be Rosie’s conformational downsides, a slightly long back and very, very slightly toe out and I wanted a stallion with an exceptional temperament as any future foal was almost certainly going to be my future riding horse. Artificial Insemination was essential as I was not prepared to send Rosie to stud - I wanted to get her as sound as possible. I found what I was looking for in Lancashire at Bowlands Irish Draughts where Michael and Julie Cornthwaite were standing Barracaberry Orbit RID (by O’Sullivan). He was lovely and compact but slightly bigger than I had planned at 17hh. I was invited into his stable where he showed me how happy and relaxed he was, enjoying scratches and cuddles and behaved impeccably on trot up. I was also shown Alice’s Diamond Slipper who appears to be a more popular stallion than Orbit but whose breeding I felt was rather too close to Rosie’s. I decided there and then to use Orbit.

I read lots of books and studied breeding forums for all the information I could glean on AI and pregnancy, and received wonderfully sound advice from my friend and neighbour who has bred horses for years, although she had little experience of AI as all hers were natural coverings. Rosie proved to be clockwork with her cycle and although she had not had a foal for 10 years she took on the second cycle. Her pregnancy was uneventful. She foaled at midnight on Saturday 17th May 2008 after I had spent 16 nights sleeping in my trailer after an early false alarm, waking up hourly through the nights and still working fulltime. Needless to say I was exhausted and was in danger of missing the birth altogether. My neighbour had been visiting me each night at about 11pm to say hello and check on progress and luckily she did so that night and was on hand to help with the delivery. I was over the moon to welcome a beautiful filly into the world.

Shanacloon Rose, RID, (Hornby Premium) with her filly foal Crofts Hill Selene by Barracaberry Orbit, RID

We had a bit of a blip as Rosie was terribly foal proud and every time the foal went to try and find the milk bar Rosie would turn around to have the foal in front of her. The foal became very tired and we could not get her to suckle successfully, so called the vet who sedated Rosie enough allow the foal to plug in and we were well away.

My little tiny filly that was born at midnight is now nearly 17 months old and about 15.1hh. I have to say that I feel so incredibly privileged to have this youngster in my life. She is very correct conformationally, has a huge character with a sense of humour to match, and seems to have inherited her father’s very laidback attitude. I suppose it is too early to say that I have got what I wanted – there is many a slip between cup and lip, as they say, but so far, so good!

So, in hindsight, what have I learned and what are the mistakes I made?

I think the biggest thing I have realised is that you can do all the research in the world to produce the foal that you want and of course by doing so you improve the odds. BUT, at the end of the day you need a huge dose of good luck too. Nothing beats seeing stallions in the flesh and you can never ask enough advice – but you have to sift that advice to suit your knowledge and your situation.

Would I have done things differently?

Yes, there is no doubt about that.

When you don’t know any differently you do as you are advised unless there is a clear reason not to. Having limited funds I should have arranged an AI package with my vet, which I did not. As it was, it seemed that Rosie had endless scans and the whole thing ended costing about £1,000 including the semen. If I did this again, I would definitely arrange a package.

If I faced another 16 nights sleeping in my trailer I would most definitely arrange to have time off. I would almost certainly consider a foaling alarm. The fatigue I suffered was really horrible and every time I hear the alarm on my mobile I am right back there stumbling out of my makeshift bed to check the mare.

I should have planned to have an experienced person with me at the delivery – the fact that I had someone there was more due to good luck than judgement, but if I had been alone and things had gone wrong, I would have wasted valuable time getting help. I know that it is possible to miss a birth even with the most careful planning, but I cannot understand how casual some people are about it.

I listened to all the different advice I received on getting the foal suckling, amongst which varied from “milk the mare’s colostrum into a bottle and get this down the foal straight away and then you don’t have to worry” to “gently guide the foal towards the teats”, etc. Nothing prepared me for my mare’s determination to have that foal where she could see her. Two of us tried for two hours to get the foal suckling but we COULD NOT DO IT. The foal would not suck, but in the short snatches of time that my mare allowed her to get near the milk she would lick and I ended up milking the teat and squirting the milk at the foal’s mouth. It was only that I was concerned she wasn’t getting enough colostrum quickly enough that I called the vet.

I should have learnt to lead a foal properly from birth, i.e. arms around bottom, etc. I somehow never ended up doing this and went straight to foalslip and leadrope. She didn’t really understand the pressure but she got the hang of it.

The things I felt I got right!

I would not change a thing that I did with weaning, however much I was advised that I was doing the wrong thing! I took my mare and foal a mile and a half away and put them both at DIY livery at a small, local Arab stud where they could be out together during the day and in separate but adjoining stables at night. After eight days of doing this I brought Rosie home and left the foal there to play with another weanling and a 2 year old. Whilst there, Rosie’s udder was huge at night and of course went down during the day, but after bringing her home it only took a couple of days for the udder to go down significantly and although she was a little depressed for a couple of days she soon picked up. The foal missed her mum for a day but had so much playing to do that she soon found her feet. I was extremely lucky with this set up.

And, if I were doing it all again, I have to say that at this stage I would not hesitate to use the same stallion.

At the time of writing, my beloved Rosie is away on breeding loan and I hope she will produce another stunning pure foal which will be a credit to the breed. Before she went I had “the” leg x-rayed to put my mind at rest and those x-rays showed that Rosie had recovered from her injuries but now suffers from slight arthritis which I understand is not uncommon after such injuries. She remains very slightly unsound and this will, of course, be taken into account with future breeding plans.