I have 20 years experience live covering mares. The safety of your mare/foal and my stallion are very important to me. I hand tease daily over a double plank fence and also have the option to tease in a large pen 8 ft from the stallion. This works great for a nervous maiden as well as the really well broke mares that are afraid to misbehave/tease while haltered. I allow them to tease on their time and get accustomed to Gunner talking to them. I tease every mare the day of arrival. I skip the first day of heat and breed the next and then continue to cover the mare every other day until she shows no sign of heat. On average a mare will be covered 3 to 4 times. Mares with foals at side will be teased together to ease the stress of the mare and lessen the chance of her not showing signs of estrus from worrying about her foal. At time of breeding and after thoroughly teasing, the mare and foal are walked back to their pen and the mare is led out leaving the foal in the pen. The mare stands directly in front of her foal while I lead the stallion to her to be bred. This eliminates any risk of the foal getting stepped on or kicked and keeps the mare calm.
If you stand your own stallion and plan to tease and bring the mare when she comes in heat, keep in mind that this is a new place with a lot of things going on and a new stallion. Please bring her just as soon as she shows interest in your stallion. Some mares, especially those with foals at side, are nervous and take longer to settle in. If she is brought within a day of ovulation, but is too nervous to tease, she could be missed. A couple extra days of mare care will save money in the long run.
Cheyenne River Vet Clinic does an excellent job ultrasounding mares for us. They are accurate at 14 days. We can haul mares in a stock trailer the 50 miles to be preg checked. The mare and her foal are in a compartment of the trailer alone. Charge to the mare owner is $50.00 due when the mare is picked up.
I have individual pens for mares. And will combine mares that are housed together at home. They are offered free choice brome grass meadow hay, a redmonds salt block and fresh water. I am happy to offer grain if provided. Pens are cleaned every other day and before new arrivals.
