You waited nearly a year for this, now what do you do?


This time of year we see a lot of neonatal foals come through the clinic in various states of disrepair.  None of them look at the clock and check to see if it is still banker’s hours when they take a dive.  About 3am is a popular time.  Some just need a bit of a push to get going, while others become an assault on all that Mother Nature forgot to do to give that foal a decent shot at being a racehorse.

We are faced with the question - is it worth it to spend money on this foal?  Many things play in to that decision.  For some people, it is emotional, there are no limits and how far you go is determined by how the foal progresses.  For most, economics and a cool head must rule the day, the foal is part of a business, and everyone still needs to eat.

You need an objective assessment on where you are starting from.  Foals will surprise us in both directions: apparently minor issues at first look can hide serious problems that rapidly spiral out of control, while some very sick foals do nothing but improve with timely treatment and defy the odds.  Foals don’t wait for us to make the correct decision, they will just go ahead and do what they are going to do and leave us to sweep up the pieces.  Not really a time to guess or suffer paralysis by analysis.  Make a call.

This year, as in every year, the Derby winner may, or may not, have already been born, but I guarantee you it will be, and I defy any of us to know when it hits the ground which one it is.  That is the fun of the horse industry, you never know which one will be a star, it truly is ‘breed the best to the best and hope for the best’.  With that said, do we really know what that foal is worth?  We have an idea from how it is bred, but we don’t know if a half sibling will win a stakes race next week and bump up the value of the whole family.

I get a few funny looks when I say this, but that brood mare can be thought of as a beef cow.  Her lifetime profitability can be measured not only by her race career to the point she got married off, but in how many foals she produces, and more importantly how many are reared or sold and make the track.  The viability of the equine breeding industry depends on the reproductive success of each and every brood mare, and this is measured by live foal production.  This is approximately 80% for mares bred in various locations (Kentucky, New Zealand).1, 2

Further to this, economic modelling has shown that 6 foals must be produced over a 7 year period to achieve financial viability for the individual mare, this including the sale of viable progeny.3  That becomes a tall order any time a foal is lost, especially if it could have been saved by timely intervention.  Sometimes, that foal cannot be saved no matter what you do, but that dead foal becomes a goose egg alongside the mare when she is sold, and that hurts her value.  There is less money circulating in the horse world.  Survival of each foal delivered when there is a decent chance of it living to be a horse is therefore critical to the health of the overall equine industry.

No one remembers when the horse game was easy and the money was good, and if they claim to remember they sure didn’t know it at the time.  It is worth spending money on that foal, but time taken to make the decision can be your enemy.  We all want the same thing – healthy foals, mares that turn around and get pregnant quickly (more about that another time), and a viable industry where we all make a fair living.  Every foal gets us all closer to that goal.


1.    Bosh KA, Powell D, Shelton B et al. Reproductive performance measures among Thoroughbred mares in central Kentucky, during the 2004 mating season. Equine Veterinary Journal 2009;41:883-888.

2.    Hanlon DW, Stevenson M, Evans MJ et al. Reproductive performance of Thoroughbred mares in the Waikato region of New Zealand: 1. Descriptive analyses. New Zealand Veterinary Journal 2012;60:329-334.
3.    Bosh KA, Powell D, Neibergs JS et al. Impact of reproductive efficiency over time and mare financial value on economic returns among Thoroughbred mares in central Kentucky. Equine Veterinary Journal 2009;41:889-894.




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