The equine breeding season is to a certain degree depicted by the time of year as this relates to daylight hours. The breeding season in Southland is later than further north by approximately 2-3 weeks mainly due to this daylight hours difference.

The breeding season referred to here is when the horse is best suited to get in foal. However, this may not coincide with when owners want the mare to foal. In racehorses, their age and birthday are depicted by the time of year so they both have a nominated ‘end’ to breeding to fit this time.

However, pleasure horses don't have to fit into arbitrary dates so breeding in these horses can go on longer. It gets more difficult to breed later in the season - both for the mare and your veterinary team. We all do extra nights and weekends over the breeding season and are pretty strung out by the end of February. If possible consider getting your mare in foal by the end of February - this equates to the more natural equine breeding season and is when your veterinary team is all geared up to assist.