b'Whats Plaguing YourProblem Mare?AMY K. DRAGOO/ARND.NLIf youre struggling to get a mare pregnant, heres how to work with yourveterinarian to resolve the most common issuesHEATHER SMITH THOMASM ost mares get pregnant withoutand didnt take after getting bred back once. Both are major problems, but some en- considered barren mares, says Wolfsdorf, but only the counter difficulties along the way.former is likely a true problem mare.Breeders have a hard time gettingThis is one of the reasons Wolfsdorf gets a history on a mare thats struggling to conceiveto determine why. certain mares in foal altogether, while otherHas she had a dystocia, or difficult birth? Past postpartum mares conceive but lose the pregnancy. Thecomplications?list of what can cause these reproductive is- Besides her general background, we need to know if sues is lengthy; when they occur, breeders andshes been bred before, how old she is, if shes ever had a foal, and if not, how many times was she bred? adds veterinarians must work together to deter- Patrick McCue, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACT, professor in Colo-mine the reason and find resolution. rado State Universitys Equine Reproduction Laboratory, in Fort Collins. What type of semen was usedfresh, Is She Truly a Problem Mare?cooled, or frozen? How many cycles did they try? Preg-If a mares having difficulty conceiving, Karen Wolfs- nancy rates in mares may range from 40 to 60% per cycle, dorf, DVM, Dipl. ACT, field veterinarian and reproductiveso not getting pregnant on the first or second cycle would specialist at Hagyard Equine Medical Institutes McGeenot be grounds to think there is a reproductive problem.Fertility Center, in Lexington, says the first thing to do isThe next step is conducting a basic physical exam to identify whether shes actually a problem mare.ensure the mares healthy. This includes looking at body Consider, for instance, an 18-year-old mare that hasntcondition to make sure shes not too thin or too fat and had a foal in two years, was bred repeatedly to a fertilefor signs of metabolic disease or other underlying health stallion, and is still not in foal. Then consider a 14-year-oldissues, Wolfsdorf says.mare thats had multiple foals, foaled late in the season,Then the veterinarian will likely perform a breeding TheHorse.com|The HorseJanuary 202021ProblemMares USE.indd 21 12/3/19 3:34 PM'