We are now offering our breeding, foaling and raising services for those that want to bring their own dream to life. Whether by creating your own perfect partner, or living vicariously through ours, we invite you to follow along the journey with regular updates from the mare barn.
Every foal starts as a dream. Whether it’s a rider with aspirations for the world stage trying to create the partner that will take them there, or breeders like us who want to help the US market flourish with quality mounts for amateur riders. We’re pleased to now offer our services to help you attain that dream. From first daydreams to under saddle, we’ll be with you every step of the way.
Stallion Selection
Mare and stallion selection is where it all begins. We spend countless hours pouring over results, conformation, offspring, and any bit of information about temperament to find the best match. As I’ve said, the goal of our breedings is to create amateur friendly horses in the US that can still dazzle enough to make riders not want to fly over the pond to find their partners. It’s a delicate balance between high quality performance and disposition and we look forward to keep refining it with only stallions with top trainability.
Breeding Management
We are proud to work with the best reproductive veterinarians in Florida. We work closely with the team at Harbour Ridge Equine, including Dr Fullana and Dr Rogers who are available for everything from breeding soundness exams to artificial insemination and foaling. We also work with the elite team at Peterson and Smith Advanced Fertility for recipient needs. Our thoroughly coordinated breeding schedule ensures pregnancies as smooth as you can hope for. A lot goes into a successful breeding from pre-breeding appointments, visits to the clinic for insemination with round the clock monitoring for the right timing, ultrasound exams and wellness checks.
Into late gestation, we take even more care to notice every little nuanced change in our mares to make sure all is progressing as it should. Attentiveness ensures any potential issue may be noticed early and alleviated. Our girls live a peaceful life at Copper Light, they are happy to turnout for as long as they please and come into roomy stalls when they’re ready. Handled daily for leading, feeding, grooming and inspection, we are fortunate to have exceptionally sweet mares who will pass on their kindness to their progeny.
Nutrition for Mare and Foal
When the baby bug found its way back to me, I started by diving into research. What I realized along the way is that a lot is mentioned about “proper mineral ratios” and making sure mare and foal are fed appropriately but NO complete supplements or feed exist on the market that cover the requirements for gestating mares and newborn foals. So the research took some winding paths to develop a robust feeding program to cover all nutritional needs and give our foals the best start. Two of my main concerns regarding nutrition are; supporting the mare’s production of high quality colostrum and the proper mineral balance for bone and ligament development (and avoidance of OCD). With an exhaustive analyzation of feeds and supplements, we’ve made sure to cover those concerns and so much more. Our forage, grain and water is tested to ensure proper mineral balance is accounted. Of particular note, we’re utilizing high quality pre and pro biotics including MOS which is proven to show an increased IgG and IgM content in mare’s milk and foal plasma thus setting up foals for healthy immunity from the start. The quality and bio-availability of all forage, feed and supplementation is held to scrutiny in hopes to set our horses up for healthy futures. Additionally, all of our broodmares are supplemented two months pre-breeding with Platinum Performance Advanced Fertility to increase fertility chances.
Nutrition also plays a huge role for developing foals and during weaning. We always aim for steady growth and during weaning particular care is given to supporting their immune and nervous systems.
Foaling
We are fortunate to have the option of foaling out on property with our newly redesigned mare barn, or sending high risk mares a short way to the clinic for foaling. Cameras on the oversized foaling stalls, mare watch sensors and round the clock care are just the start.
Weaning
The weaning process for a foal is an incredibly stressful time – even when done thoughtfully to minimize emotional stress, it’s a big change. We use a scientifically backed approach of gradual weaning to minimize the potential consequences. Before weaning, we introduce omega-3 fatty acids to help with the immune and nervous system. Weaning stress can increase cortisol which is proven to negatively impact immune function, potentially putting foals at risk for infection, decreased response to vaccination or cause ulcers. Our gradual weaning system minimizes stress as much as possible and allows each foal to take it on their own unique timeline, when their bodies are ready for the challenge.
After weaning, we prefer to allow for the foals to continue socializing with their existing herdmates and for their bodies to acclimate and adjust post weaning. One stressor at a time! Foal buyers can continue to board with us for a few months post weaning to help with this transition. We’re here for a lifetime of support for our foal buyers and are available to consult regarding nutrition and next steps after a foal arrives to his or her new home.
Young Horse Development
We’ve helped countless riders find their equine partners, and temperament remains the predominant criteria. I believe that temperament is both inherited so mare and stallion selection is extremely important, but also that disposition can be molded carefully by handlers. We will offer some in utero and foals, we are especially excited to bring along our carefully bred young horses with tactful training to develop confident horses that are ready for life experiences with new owners. Horses will always be flight animals, but I can’t express how many are simply missing gaps in their education. For that reason, I am most excited to produce well rounded youngsters who will gladly take on the world with you.
Stay tuned to our foal page, blogs and Breeding Highlight on instagram for updates!
