Husbandry and Management Series
May is the month that many single mares and mares with foals are shipped home from the breeding farms. If you have bred your mares to the more popular stallions in California you will have mares coming home from several different areas in the state. And you will be bringing home mares and foals who have been exposed to a wide variety of germs and infections. How do the breeding farms handle the large influx of mares during the breeding season and how do the private farms handle the home coming?
Joey Weaver, manager of Applebite Farm in northern California, talks in depth about how his farm handles quarantine and isolation during the breeding season. While Leigh Ann Howard, manager of Valley Creek Farm in southern California lists her method of handling visiting mares and controlling infection.
We interviewed several non-commercial farm owners and managers to get an idea how they handled the quarantine and isolation issue when their mares came home. everyone's facility and situation is a little different but the basic methods are the same. The veterinary community would like to see the isolation time increased to at least 21 days but farm owners seem to be comfortable with 14 days unless a problem is observed. If there is a problem the farm veterinarian should certainly be informed and length of isolation time discussed and extended.
Many of us find that our yearlings are getting bigger, playing rougher, and are harder to handle. The colts and fillies have been separated for several months now and the colts are feeling the strong spring hormonal surge. Many owners are facing the castration question. Dan Schiffer of The Hat Ranch West in southern California gives us a look at his method of handling this situation.
Disease/Infection Control - Breeding Farms
Joey Weaver, manager,
Applebite Farms, San Joaquin County
The Spring is the busiest time of the year at a breeding farm. It
is also one of the most dangerous from the perspective of horse health. Whenever horse
populations come together, each is exposed to ailments carried by the other. The resulting
illnesses are costly from many perspectives, from veterinary and drug expense and added
farm labor to late pregnancies, sick or dead foals, and infertile stallions. Both breeding
farm and mare owner have much at stake and very good reasons to take every precaution to
protect the health of both incoming horses and resident herds.
The first line of defense is good basic horse husbandry and healthy horses. Good clients send mares that are in good condition. This means that they are well fed, they have been regularly wormed, their teeth have been attended to, and their vaccinations are up to date. Mares in poor condition do not usually conceive promptly or at all, and clients with mares like this are often unhappy clients, blaming the farm or the stallion for a late or failed pregnancy. Mares in poor condition are also more susceptible to disease and often have not had the vaccinations they need, which puts them and the resident horses at risk.
All farms prefer to deal with clients who send healthy mares to begin with. At Applebite, a healthy mare that arrives with a health history and vaccination record is quarantined for three days, during which time she is carefully observed. If after three days the mare remains free of illness and shows other signs of vigorous good health, such as a good appetite and a glowing coat, she will be put into a pasture or large grass paddock with other healthy visiting mares. When a mare arrives in poor condition, however-and surprisingly, some good ones do-she is quarantined in a separate quarantine barn for a minimum of two weeks. During this time, if the owner is unable to provide a vaccination and worming history-and if she is in poor condition this information is usually not available-she is wormed and vaccinated, and her teeth are floated if necessary (and it usually is necessary). If she is not ill, she will gain weight rapidly, her coat will improve rapidly, and at the end of two weeks she will be showing the signs of good health that permit her contact with other mares. If on the other hand she is incubating a disease, she will in all likelihood not gain weight, her coat will not glow, and the disease will manifest itself within the two week quarantine period. She will then continue in quarantine during her treatment, until she is well and able to join other mares.
Applebite has a nine-stall quarantine barn that is full from January to July and in use the rest of the year. It is always cleaned and fed as the last duty on a given shift-the day crew cleans these stalls and feeds these mares at the end of their day, and the men go straight home afterwards, without contact with other horses on the farm. The night crew does the same when they go off duty first thing in the morning. Their clothes are washed before they wear them again around the farm. When a mare leaves the quarantine barn, her stall is completely stripped, and the stall is disinfected from top to bottom with a bleach solution.
All of the mares (and babies) at the farm are observed one-on-one at least twice a day. A horseperson's skill of observation is as critical as anything to the health of horses. As we all know, horses can get hurt or get sick very quickly, and the sooner a problem is observed, the better the chance to prevent further damage. If any mare is noticed with a dull or turned coat, hesitancy to show interest in her food, listless behavior, or the beginnings of a nasal discharge (commonly called in less than graceful parlance, "the snots"), she is immediately brought in, her temperature is taken, and she is evaluated for further action. At the very least, she will be watched overnight in isolation. All farm personnel are rewarded for noticing a mare or foal that doesn't look right, and encouraged to bring it in or report it immediately. We would rather bring in a few healthy mares that someone had a question about than miss a mare that was coming down with something.
Caution continues throughout the mare's stay, at every stage. Before the mare is bred, she must have a clean culture. If she doesn't have a veterinary certificate when she arrives, she will be cultured at the farm. Infected mares at the very least will not get pregnant or will abort; at the worst, they will infect the stallion and through him other mares. Both mare and stallion are washed before the breeding, and the stallion is washed afterwards. Throughout the breeding season, the stallion is periodically tested to ensure that no infections have crept in.
These practices have to date served Applebite well. We have had our share of sick horses, as all farms experience, but we have not had an epidemic that spread through the herd. It is our expectation that continued caution and adherence to the husbandry practices that are outlined here will ensure good health for the vast majority of horses that visit Applebite, either during the breeding season or at other times of the year.
Leigh Ann Howard, general manager,
Valley Creek Farm, San Diego County
Mares and foals brought into Valley Creek Farm for breeding are referred to as "outside" horses, meaning that they are just visiting. Being there temporarily means that they are not mixed in with the mares permanently boarded there.
This means that we have to have lots of small pens. Our pens are 24' by 24' and are situated in an area away from the home herd. We have a creek that acts as a geographical barrier between the outside and the resident horses.
Mares that foal at VCF are allowed to graze in individual grass pastures through their foal heat and then are placed in the holding pens until they are bred, in foal and ready to go home.
The advantage to this method of handling our horses is three fold.
- Exposure to disease is kept to the minimum for both resident horses and outside horses.
- We don't have to deal with injuries from mares deciding on the proper pecking order.
- We can control the feed received by each mare, so that everyone gets enough, and can eat at their leisure.
Other methods used to minimize infection and disease at Valley Creek Farm:
- All horses on the farm are kept up to date on all their vaccinations.
- Mares give birth in pristine grass enclosures that are washed down with water after each birth and dried by the sun.
- During the time mares with newborns are housed in the barn they are kept in the same stall and that stall is washed down and sprayed with "One Stroke Environ" when the pair is moved to another area.
- Foaling mares are thoroughly bathed after giving birth and before the foal is left alone with the mare.
- Navels are dipped in a dilute solution of Nolvasan at birth and daily for five days after. Handlers wash hands in liquid hand soap containing Nolvasan between handling each baby and thermometer is dipped in Nolvasan solution between uses.
- Sick horses are handled last each day and handlers shower and change clothes after exposure.
Isolation/Quarantine - Private Farms
Comments from private or semi private farm managers/owners:
The consensus of all the managers we spoke with is that they hope to be informed if there is a problem or exposure to an infectious disease on the farm where their mares have been boarded during the spring.
All the non-commercial farms did have various methods of isolating arriving mares for a period of time before reintroducing them to their resident mares. Most of the horsemen kept the arriving mares, especially mares with foals, separate for a period of 10 days to two weeks. Among other things, they were watching for snotty noses with the babies, which could mean the introduction of equine Rhinopneumonitis virus which could lead to virus abortion in the pregnant mares.
Bill Nichols, Mares Nest:
"We don't ship to many large commercial farms, since most of our mares are bred to our own stallions at Rancho Felicia in Santa Ynez, so we are very aware of any illness problems to which our mares are exposed. We trust that we will be informed of any exposure to disease by our friends at the farms we do visit.
To keep exposure to infection to a minimum, mares that are sent to other farms to be bred and returned after breeding are kept separate from the other mares for several days. We keep between 15 and 20 mares during the non-breeding season."
Shirley McQueeney, private owner, Napa County:
"We prefer to foal our mares at home, then send the mares with foals out to the breeding farms when the foals are about 15 or 20 days old. We do this because we enjoy handling the newborns and want to be sure everything is alright before sending them out.
When the mares come home from the commercial breeding farms we isolate them for a week or so. Longer for the mares with foals.
I feel strongly that the babies are made stronger by being exposed to infection so that their immunity is built up, just as long as they don't carry anything really bad back to the home herd."
Laura Cotter, Mandysland Farm, Santa Ynez
"We isolate every mare and foal that comes on the farm for at least two weeks before turning them out with others. The foals are the most likely candidates to be carrying infection since their immunities have not had time to build up. They are watched for snotty noses, temperatures, appetite and attitude. When we are comfortable that they are healthy then they are mixed in with their peers."
Ed Bosworth, San Diego County, single mare owner:
"We isolate our mare and foal when they come home from the breeding farm so that we can watch them for signs of infection. We also take this opportunity to associate the baby with his new surroundings. We foal our mare at the farm where she is to be bred, so when the mare and baby arrive home these are new surroundings for the baby. We also spend time handling the foal so that he will be manageable as he grows up. This isolation and handling before turning the mare and foal out in our grass pasture usually takes about 10 days. We would love to have another baby to turn in with our colt when he is ready to be weaned."
Dan Schiffer, The Hat Ranch West, Riverside County:
Gelding young horses should be the rule
not the exception. Very few horses are stud prospects (based on pedigree and/or
conformation) and generally a gelding will provide a better return at the races than will
be recouped from the same horse used as a racehorse and then stud prospect.
After weaning, the stud colts are separated from the fillies and run together in groups of 3-5 so they can play, fight and act like kids. As the colts grow up together certain tendencies begin to emerge. If a certain individual is constantly injuring the other horses in the pasture or is becoming intractable or dangerous during regular handling it is time to make a decision. Either this individual must be separated from the group so that he can remain a stud or he must be gelded. Racing prospects learn more and become tougher by being grouped together so, all else being equal, the decision should weigh in favor of gelding.
Gelding should take place between ages eight months and two years. Castration by a veterinarian is a simple and inexpensive procedure. It is by all standards a relatively safe operation unless the testicles have not descended and then the operation must be performed in a surgical hospital.
The best time to geld is during cool weather because of the reduced chance of infection, flies, discomfort, etc. After castration the horse should be given vigorous exercise twice daily until their swelling decreases. The incision should be checked daily for the first few days to make sure it is open in order to allow drainage. In this way the horse will heal from the inside out. During hot weather a hose can be used to run water up into and on the incision to reduce swelling and promote drainage. Within a week to 10 days the gelding should have recovered from the operation. Almost immediately he will demonstrate a more tractable temperament. This change will be welcome to other horses he lives with, the farm help, the racetrack groom and your worker's compensation rates!