This year the UK has 8,284 active brood mares. Less than
in 2013. They foaled the lowest number for a long time too, 4328 between them.
Over the past few years 700-800 new brood mares were
registered on average, and 761 retired.
The best breeding age is between 5 and 12 with an average of 11 months for
gestation which can be from 10 to 13 months.
Apparently there are statistics of how many foals a dam
will produce over 8 or 9 years of breeding activity. They produce at their best
between 5 and 13 years of age when most of the foals on are born live. Yes
there are dead ones.
146 stallions were on the job in 2014 and those in their
3rd year of covering mares did 80% of the work. 63% of them are stallions aged between 6
years and 14 years old. 50% of the stallions are British, the rest are Irish,
American, German, Australian, French or Brazilian - very international. They
work from late February to late June. Nice work for some.
With so many foals bred for the race course one would
think statistics to find how many actually got there would be easy. You would
also think it possible to know how many are sold on for other duties and how
many end up at the slaughter house! But it is not.
It is common knowledge that 302 race horses died on the
race course whilst racing last year but what happened to the rest that no
longer race. That too is proving very difficult to find out. Some do get re-homed or re- trained but not too
many. Few hundred may be.
I will take a look at that over the next week and see if
I can’t find out how many race horses end up going through the slaughter houses
and what happens in the coming weeks.
Jemima J Jones
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