Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE Newsletter Archives

Breeding two-year-old filly

From: Cindy

Hello Jessica, Thanks for sharing all your wonderful knowledge with us laymen!! My question for you pertains to my 2 yr. old (May '99) filly, "Rose". I was wondering the pros and cons of breeding her as a 2 yr. old. She is out of my American Warmblood mare(16 H) and a Paint stallion(15.3H). Rose is already 15.2, very correct and seems quite mature already. She still needs to muscle out all the way. Will breeding her this spring hinder her development? It is hard to find any articles relating to what age to first breed a horse. I would really like your advice.

Thank you, Cindy

Hi Cindy! I'd give Rose another year or two if I were you. At 2, she is very much still a baby herself. She could certainly carry a foal and probably deliver it safely, but it might be at the cost of some of her own growth.

Rose won't be fully mature for at least another four years. She may look mature, but don't let appearances fool you. She's half Paint, which means that half her heritage (at least) is stock-horse type, and that kind of horse puts on muscle early in life. Muscle development doesn't imply anything about other forms of development, though. Good training can put big muscles on a horse in just a few months. Remodeling bone takes longer - a year or more. In the case of a two-year-old filly, you're dealing with an immature animal. Even if Rose looks big and strong from the outside, if you could see her skeleton, you would see a lot of cartilage that will be slowly replaced by bone over the next four years as she becomes physically mature and the bones of her skeleton close their growth plates.

I've never understood the reasoning behind breeding a very young horse. For one thing, there are risks to the horse's own physical development. For another, the horse is so young that it can't possibly be worked hard without detriment to its health and soundness, much less achieve the kind of performance record or demonstrate the kind of ability that would provide a sensible reason for the owner to want this horse to reproduce.

If Rose is an individual with superb conformation, beautiful movement, and a lovely sweet temperament, then you will probably want to breed her eventually. Give her a little longer to grow up, and get a better idea of how she is going to turn out. Even in terms of height, she may surprise you. If she's 15.2hh as a two-year-old, she may well be 16.0hh by the time she is six and more or less fully grown.

If your nice two-year-old filly turns out to be a spectacular five-year-old, you may find that your choice of a stallion will be different, too. Why not wait until Rose has had a chance to show you where her talents lie? The more you know about her as an adult horse, the more information you'll be able to bring to the planned breeding.

Jessica

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