When it comes to mares, you can start the season full of hope and be left feeling completely hopeless after a few bad cycles. While there are a lot of things outside of our control, there are things we can do as mare owners to help our mares have the best chance of getting pregnant — and to keep our own stress levels down.
Financially, breeding is expensive. The fewer breeding attempts needed to achieve a pregnancy, the better your bank balance will look at the end of it.
Breeders who have the smoothest seasons are generally the ones who sorted out mare readiness, stallion bookings, and semen logistics before the first mare came into heat. This checklist walks through what to do in the weeks before the season starts.
Get mares ready
Body condition and cycle timing drive conception rates, so start here.
- Body condition: too fat or too thin can each be problematic. Try to make sure
your mare's body condition is just right.
- Veterinary check: a breeding soundness exam catches problems (uterine cysts,
uterine infection, poor perineal conformation) while there is still time to treat them.
- Cycle baseline: note when each mare last cycled so you can anticipate the next
one and plan collections around it.
Barren and maiden mares
Barren and maiden mares deserve extra lead time. A maiden mare may need a Caslick evaluation — and remember, maiden mares can have uterine infections too; a barren mare from last season warrants a uterine culture and cytology before you commit a stud fee.
Confirm stallion bookings
Choosing a stallion for your mare can be a lot of fun, but there are logistics to consider too. Maybe your preferred stallion has a cutoff date for the season that doesn't line up with your mare. Maybe they only offer frozen and your mare would do better with fresh cooled. When looking for the right stallion, try to think about the logistics as well as the fun part.
Line up each mare's intended stallion early — popular stallions book out, and collection schedules fill up.
- Confirm the stallion is standing this season and to which breeding methods.
- Review the stud fee, booking fee, and contract terms — see
Equine Breeding Contracts Explained.
- Note collection days and the semen-request cutoff so you can time requests to your
mare's cycle.
Sort semen logistics
Fresh cooled semen is a race against the clock. Know, per stallion:
- which days the stallion is collected;
- how far in advance you must request semen;
- the courier and typical transit time to your area.
If you are using frozen semen, confirm dose availability and storage before the season — you can see all of this information on the stallion's StallionApp profile.
Set up your records before the first cycle
The season generates a lot of events — ultrasounds, ovulations, requests, shipments, pregnancy checks. Decide now where they live. In StallionApp you can set up each mare, follow the stallions you plan to use, and log cycle events as they happen, so by foaling you have a complete, per-mare breeding history rather than a shoebox of notes.
Pre-season checklist
- Mares' breeding soundness exam.
- Culture and cytology on the first heat cycle of the season for open and barren mares.
- Stallion bookings confirmed with contract terms reviewed.
- Collection days and request cutoffs noted per stallion.
- Semen logistics (courier, transit time, frozen doses) confirmed.
- Records set up so the first ultrasound has somewhere to go.
Do the preparation once, and the season becomes a matter of following the plan.