This message is from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Hi Fjord Friends-[
I have a question for those of you experienced with breeding. We have a bit of a mystery here on the ranch. The ranch owner, Millard, purchased a Missouri Fox Trotter mare in February; he was told that she was bred in January and would be due in December. I thought Millard was mistaken because I've never heard of a horse being bred in winter, and because she had possibly pregnancy-induced rings on the upper half of her hooves, which doesn't make sense if she'd only been pregnant one month. This month, the mare, Jubilee, started to look like she was going to give birth any minute: protruding belly, udder swollen and hanging down like a cow, extremely agitated and always hungry. I called the vet to confirm my suspicions and he determined that she would give birth within a month. He estimated her age at 7 years. I told Millard and he was baffled, checked his paperwork and sure enough, the mare described as Jubilee was bred and confirmed in foal January 8, 2005. The paper also says she's 15 years old. I'm beginning to wonder if we have the wrong horse! Apparently she came from a big herd of 20+ broodmares, and if many of them were bay... So my questions are 1) does this happen, where someone accidentally gets the wrong horse? and 2) could a mare appear hugely pregnant with udder swollen at 6 months? / )_~ /L/L Brigid Wasson SF Bay Area, CA www.Brigid.Clickryder.com www.MillwoodRanch.com