When breeding horses, the important point is the correct selection of individuals capable of producing offspring with an optimal set of positive qualities: from the appearance to the working potential. For this purpose, various methods of breeding animals are used, and the horses themselves must be prepared for this process. How to perform this training and what is required from the farmer to properly mate the horses, we will tell you now.
Methods of breeding horses
Horse breeding is practiced by both private farmers and large horse-breeding organizations, however both use two main methods: purebred and crossbreeding.
Purebred method
Pure breed horse breeding provides for the selection of representatives within the same breed, which guarantees the preservation of all the breed qualities of animals. This method is used mainly for breeding the most valuable breeds, with the aim of further improving their characteristics. They also highlight the possibility of related breeding - inbreeding and unrelated - outbreeding.
The heterogeneous breeding of horses involves mating animals that are very close relatives for each other: father and daughter, mother and son, brother and sister. Mating children of siblings or a brother with the descendants of their brother is considered to be closely related breeding. At the same time, mating of a mare and a stallion, which have common ancestors, is only considered in distant rows as distant, related breeding.
However, in order to achieve the desired result, it is not enough just to choose suitable individuals, it is also important to provide the necessary conditions for feeding and keeping young stock.
Did you know? When breeding Arabian breed and riding thoroughbred, pure breeding is called purebred.It should be noted that in purebred breeding, linear reproduction is most often used. A line is a group of animals from several generations that originate from one prominent progenitor. All representatives of the line should have similar hereditary features of the exterior and performance, which is very important when breeding thoroughbred horses.
The essence of linear breeding is not only to get animals with signs characteristic of the selected line, but also in the future (in subsequent generations), to improve the desired qualities and try to eliminate unwanted line flaws. When breeding animals on the lines used:
- uniform selection - provides for the mating of individuals of the same type, which belong to the same line and have similar heredity, or similar in type representatives of different lines;
- heterogeneous selection - This is a combination of representatives of different lines, which differ among themselves in type and heredity. Such a combination of individuals enriches the line with new useful characteristics, thereby increasing the viability and performance of representatives.
Did you know? Sexual hunting for mares lasts for 5-7 days, but there are exceptions - 2-12 days, which largely depends on the conditions of feeding and keeping of animals.
Crossbreeding
Unlike the purebred method, crossbreeding involves mating of a mare and a stallion, which do not belong to the same breed or are mestizas of different breeds. Interbreed, introductory, industrial and absorption mating are distinguished.
Interbreeding used to produce offspring from stallions and mares belonging to different breeds. Such offspring is called a cross between.
Opening crossing - this is a horse mating that preserves the basic properties of the local breed, its adaptability to the specific conditions of animals, but together with an increase in the number of horses and an increase in their efficiency. Usually introductory crossing is limited to a single viscous with the improving breed, after which they proceed to reverse crossing of local-type hybrids with stallions or mares of the breed being improved.
Industrial crossing It is usually used to enhance the working qualities of non-pedigree animals by crossing mares of one breed with stallions of another. The individuals obtained as a result of such crossing do not pair with each other, but are sold as working animals. Reproductive reproduction using the interbreeding of hybrids between themselves, is used only for the purpose of breeding a new breed or type of animal.
Absorption cross apply when there are all conditions for breeding a horse close to the improved breed. This method involves crossing the first generation of hybrids with purebred producers, after which from the resulting offspring of the next generation mares are chosen again and knit them with purebred stallions. This happens with all subsequent generations.
If the selection and selection is done correctly, and the young growth has been created all the appropriate conditions for normal feeding and rearing, then the absorption mating from 3-4 generations allows to obtain individuals, the main features of which are as close as possible to the characteristics of improving plant breed.
Selection and preparation of horses for mating
As we said earlier, it is not enough just to choose a pair of horses for mating, it is still necessary to properly prepare animals for this process. For example, some farmers mistakenly believe that before viscous horses you need to fatten well, but in fact you can not do this, because the stallion (like a male horse) can cover a mare, he must be in good physical shape.
Mare Requirements
A mare selected for mating must be completely healthy (checked for inan, ailing disease, glanders, and conagios metritis) sufficiently well-fed and adapted to specific conditions of detention and feeding. Therefore, selected for breeding animals below average fatness increase the diet, so that by the time of mating their weight increased (but we should not allow obesity). Workers who are constantly experiencing heavy loads must be transferred to an easier mode of operation.
Important! To obtain good offspring, queens should be used at the age of four, although on breeding horse farms they are first sent for mating at the age of three years.The mare should not have any pronounced exterior flaws. It is also desirable that she had a lot of milk, but this can be judged by growth, well-being and development of the young in the first three months (since the previous chaff, it must take at least a month).
It is rational to begin checking the mares for the presence of sex hunting with lengthening of daylight (February-April), since this is the main signal for the start of the reproductive cycle.Given the long-term gestation of the fetus, it is recommended that the mares be inseminated on the very first hunt after the birth of the previous foal, even though the high probability of fertilization has already been proven in the second cycle.
Important! Knitting mares carried out only during heat.To understand that The animal is ready for mating by the following characteristic features:
- the female becomes agitated and restless;
- when approaching a mare (it doesn’t matter to a worker or another horse), she becomes in a posture characteristic of urination and releases small portions of urine;
- the animal is very eager for other horses, showing heightened interest specifically for stallions, constantly neighs;
- the vulva swells, and the musculature periodically contracts, slightly revealing the genital slit;
- at the initial stages, as well as at the end of estrus, characteristic viscous, yellowish discharges are observed, which become liquid and transparent closer to the middle of the hunt.
Requirements for the stallion
Certain requirements for horse binding are also advanced to the stallion. So, for mating choose the strongest and most hardy individuals with high breed indicators (exterior). If this requirement is met, the mare does not have to be a high-breed animal. If the stallion breed is worse than that of the mare, then there is a high probability of having a foal with low economic qualities.
In order to fertilize successfully, you need to use only proven and well-known stallions, which:
- must be completely healthy;
- have high-grade offspring or offspring approved by quality.
Important! Before mating, animals should be examined by examining the genitals (scrotum, testes, prepuce and penis), and sperm should be taken from the stallion for analysis. In addition, it is necessary to collect all possible information about the horse's origin, assess its character and learn about possible hereditary diseases.
Description of the methods of mating horses
The mating season in horses is a natural process, but not always mating occurs without human help. For various reasons (for example, the inexperience of the stallion), farmers have to help the male to cover the mare. Therefore, it is quite natural that today there are several ways of this process.
Manual mating
Manual mating is widely popular for keeping animals in stalls. The stallion is used to identify a mare ready for insemination, after which mating takes place (not necessarily with this male). To understand the mood of the female, she is turned into a separate room and, holding the reins, brings the stallion to her head. If the mare is not yet ready for mating, she will pinch his ears and try to bite or kick the male. When this does not happen and the female takes the "writing" position, you can proceed to the organization of mating: the tail of the mare must be bandaged, and the genitals should be washed well with warm water. For the process of mating apply a special harness that will save the male from mare blows. Mating can take place both in the arena and in the open area.
When the mare is ready for it, the male is brought in and, as a rule, one can immediately observe how the horses mate. However, for successful completion of the process, the male must be on the female until complete ejaculation (this moment is determined by the position of the tail). In case of failure, the horse is led for another 20-25 minutes and repeat the procedure. 
Kosechaya mating
In some private farms, horses are kept in herds, therefore, in such cases, they use the kosyachny or herd method of mating. There is no need to think long about how the horses mate, because after the formation of jambs from 25 mares and running the stallion to them, the case can be trusted to nature. The male itself finds females ready for fertilization and mates with them. The effectiveness of this method reaches 100%.
Warmer knitting
As well as the kosyachny method, brew mating is used for fertilization of females with herd content. The farmer selects several mares and leads them into a separate pen, then picks up a stallion and runs to them for the entire period. At the end of the mating period, the stallion is removed from the pen, and the females are sent back to the herd.
Artificial insemination
When there are mares, but there are no males in the household, artificial insemination is often used. Usually, this method of insemination is more characteristic of large farms and stud farms. For the procedure, the breeders themselves collect seminal fluid from stallions, analyze it and freeze it, or use ready-made samples immediately. A veterinarian injects semen into the body of a mare, for which he has special devices. This method of obtaining offspring has several advantages over natural mating:
- the seed of one valuable producer can be used for fertilization of a large number of mares (sometimes up to 20 heads, and during this season, up to 200-300);
- all possible genital infections are excluded;
- there is the possibility of obtaining offspring from a valuable producer, which is located at a great distance from the mare.
Features horse mating, what factors affect the sexual process
The beginning of the sexual season of horses usually falls in the middle of spring or the beginning of summer, although this does not mean that the mating process will be successful. There are many important factors that can in one way or another affect the success of this procedure:
- the individual characteristics of the female's body (age, breed, fatness, etc.);
- conditions of feeding and maintenance of mares (with good care, libido will be pronounced, with a normal duration and a high coverage);
- workloads on animals (in a state of fatigue, the sexual attraction of mares will be much lower, as concerns the level of marriage);
- Sex hunt is most pronounced in good weather, especially in the morning (spring sun is the natural stimulant, green grass on the pasture and a favorable calm atmosphere);
- Evening or early mating will give greater results, since ovulation in mares most often occurs at night.
So, we figured out how horses breed and what affects the success of this process, so you just have to choose the method that is most suitable for the specific conditions of the animals.
