that poor bloody horse. can't be right surely?

[AtYourCervix]

A 3 month old foal has been sold for a million quid. It's mother is already pregnant again.

I know nothing of horses but that seems a bit unfair on the poor mum horse to be pregnant again so soon.

AIBU to be outraged over something I know nothing about?

YANBU. I also know nothing of horses but I'd feel plenty of sympathy for a woman who was pregnant again so soon.

Save your outrage my lovely. Happens in nature. And the mare will have the life of Riley as she is carrying another of Frankel's offspring.

Personally I am not a fan of anything that involves animals and money, but there are many worse things to worry about.

I was more concerned about all the travelling they were doing, although no doubt in the lap of equine luxury.

Yup brood mares pregnant roughly 6 weeks after having foal. This is a multi million pound industry.

It doesn't happen in nature as a wild horse would still be suckling her foal at 3 months old. Traumatic maternal separation and intensive pregnancy happen in industry, for money. Brood mares, dairy cattle etc

Sorry sunshine. I knew as soon as I pressed post that I was wrong

And the HRT industry. Isn't one of the ingredients extracted from the urine of pregnant mares.

Oops must not go down that route in my head. Sad enough without it.

do you feel the same about the dairy industry?

You should see how some of these horses live .... you'd swap places with them in a heartbeat.
Don't be outraged, the horse really doesn't need your concern, she's doing just fine!

Yes. But I know there is jack shit I can do about it. And at least the cows get some time in the sunshine.

Exactly man.

I'd save your sympathy for the thousands of horses and donkeys that are abused and mistreated ,the horse you are talking about has better living conditions than most people and is extremely well cared for .

She probably lives in better accommodation than me. If you're making a million from her foal, you're going to be damn sure you're looking after her.

It's normal for brood mares to have a foal a year (although good breeders will give them a break now and then). But with valuable racehorses, no break.

To put it in perspective though, a horse's gestation period is on average 345 days (not much under a year) - and some can go up to 360 days without it being too unusual. It's a much slower process than we have, so she's not popping them out more than once a year (which some people do, too).

Horses don't get nausea/sickness.

Most mares don't show any visible signs of pregnancy (growing belly) until around 6 months. If they aren't just brood mares, it's normal for them to carry on working up until this sort of stage quite happily. The foal doesn't grow evenly throughout the pregnancy - most of the growth is in the last 3-4 months.

Foals are walking within a couple of hours of birth, are pretty self reliant, and although drinking milk start nibbling at food from a few weeks. It's not like looking after a human baby while going through the human version of pregnancy.

Don't project what it's like to be pregnant/have a baby as a human, on to other animals. Their experiences are on the whole entirely different.

I briefly worked on a small racehorse stud when I left school.

Mares' normal schedule:
7am - breakfast!
7.30am - turned out into large fields with their friends and all their foals.
5pm - back into stable. Dinner!

A mare will come into season about three weeks after giving birth. If she is with a fertile stallion it is entirely possible that she will mate & conceive again at this time, even if in a wild herd.
She will continue to feed her foal while pregnant with the next.

Also, due to the position of the hindquarters ( Ie, not upright like a human), birth is less physically traumatic for horses/cattle.

Yes I'm in agreement that this mare will have a superb quality of life. As flight animals horses tolerate pregnancy well and their young are born alert, mobile and pretty self-sufficient. And yes, mares can naturally fall pregnant very soon after giving birth and this would happen in the wild. Truly not a welfare concern in the slightest, and those claiming it is must know very little about breeding horses.

So not such a big deal for a horse (i did say i knew nothing about them).

Yes, another vote here for perfectly acceptable.

Most brood mares have a a foal annually, the first oestrus after giving birth is colloquially known as the 'foal heat'. I'm assuming that although sold, the foal is probably staying with its mother for at least 3 or 4 months longer.

It's the same with cows or we wouldn't have any milk and calves are removed from their mothers almost immediately.

Well I think its usually considered detrimental both physically and mentally for the foal to remove it from its mother before 6 months. But I only know a small amount about breeding “normal” ponies and cobs and thoroughbreds do mature much faster than your general riding horse, after all they are racing at 2 years old so Im sure its OK, and the stud farm definitely want the best for that precious foal!

I don’t approve of racing at all now for ethical reasons, but I did briefly work in a TB stud in my youth, the mares were pampered beyond my wildest imagination, when so much money is at stake nothing is too much for them. When they were getting ready to give birth they all wore labour monitors round their chests that were linked up to the stud farm owner’s bedroom, so he would wake in the night to call the vet if one started labouring!

I don’t have worries about the mares in stud farms. But I worry desperately about their offspring who don’t make it in racing and end up in horse markets being sold on very cheaply often to people who have no idea how to handle an ex racer but see it as a cheap way to buy a horse. And that’s why I don’t approve of racing now, there is too much “wastage” in the sport.

The mare and foal were sold together.

The million is for the foal, mum and unborn foal. So they are all going to be together.