Light Up The Girls

 It comes around quickly - no sooner have we finished the selling season it dawns on us that the breeding season is rapidly approaching.

The July 1st entry in my dairy in my diary tells me that it is the time of year we start getting our dry mares under lights. At this point some of the dry mare population may not yet be booked to a stallion (perhaps this is a timely prod to get onto this too!). Regardless, if it is your intention to breed a dry mare this year, and you want to do all you can to encourage an early service date, then light therapy is the way to go.
Whilst you are at it, it is also a very good time to go and have a hard look at your pregnant mares. If there is any shadow of doubt that she may not be in foal, get her pregnancy tested. Should she not be pregnant, you have the option of getting her under lights at the first opportunity extending the time frames in which to get her cleaned up and pregnant again. A veterinary certificate stating this non pregnancy status should be obtained at the same time as it will probably be required by the stallion owners for possible a free return or other contractual grounds.

I have got a couple of articles on the subjects “Dry Mares and Light Therapy” ,and "The Dry Mare Cycle” on our web site.