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| Author |
Message |
    
Christine M Peabody
| | Posted on Tuesday, Nov 30, 1999 - 1:23 am: |   |
I am planning to send my mini mare out for breeding in February so I read your article with great interest. I note that at the end of the article you say to continue the artificial lighting thoughout the breeding cycle...how long does the artifiical light need to be continued? I am guessing this means I will need to coordinate with the stallion owner to keep my mare under lights while she is there...but for how long after? Until she is checked in foal? Until the natural day equals the artificial day I created?
Thanks for your help!
Christine |
Robert N. Oglesby DVM
| | Posted on Tuesday, Nov 30, 1999 - 7:18 am: | |
If you stop but she has not caught, for several weeks her system will think the days are shorter and this may (I know of no research to say one way or the other) impair fertility at the next cycle. So lights until she is checked in foal. I would also stop when the day length (sunrise to sunset) reached my artificial day, if I hadn't given up on this mare already: she should have been covered 3 or 4 cycles by this time.
It is interesting that no one seems to have studied what happens when they come off lights in midspring, a time when most mares will be normally cycling but would be a step down for many mares under lights. Does the one time step down cause cycling to become irregular? Anyone out there with this experience?
DrO |
Christine M Peabody
| | Posted on Wednesday, Dec 1, 1999 - 12:01 am: | |
Thanks for the clarification. I haven't decided whether to put my mare under lights and try for an early foal or not. Of course, I haven't chosen the stallion yet either (still trying to decide between 3 excellent candidates). Only one of the stallion owners has a barn and could keep her under lights while she is at the farm and the mini registries don't accept AI (let alone TS) so that isn't an option (though if it were it would make things MUCH easier in many ways).
Just to add to your wondering about how the transition in spring affects the mares....has there been any research done on putting stallions under lights? What, if any, effect does the length of days have on a stallion's fertility?
Christine |
Robert N. Oglesby DVM
| | Posted on Wednesday, Dec 1, 1999 - 7:05 am: | |
Well as a matter of fact it is a pretty well researched question and yes stallions are more fertile in the winter if kept under lights but do become refractory to the effects of the lights by late winter.
DrO |
Cezanne Ryerson-Jodka (Saqhcr)
| | Posted on Sunday, Mar 18, 2001 - 9:31 pm: | |
Dr. O,
Have you heard of the research in France that says an hour of light between midnight and 3am has the same effect as 16 hours of light? |
Robert N. Oglesby DVM (Dro)
| | Posted on Monday, Mar 19, 2001 - 7:06 am: | |
No I have not seen that. Do you have a reference?
DrO |
Bridgett Mitchell
Member
Username: Sporty
Post Number: 51
Registered: 5-2000
| | Posted on Monday, Mar 17, 2003 - 1:34 pm: | |
Hey Dr.O,
Getting back to the question of what happens to mares coming off lights midspring. I don't know about mares, but I do know that last year, my show horses that had been under lights from Sep 1 grew winter hair during that midspring drop off lights. They kept it all summer too, therefore causing me to body clip. So I would suspect some kind of irregularity to the mares' cycles. |
