Excelsior Farms : Artificial Lights, Drawbacks

What are the Drawbacks to Artificial Lighting AND early foaling?

If you are going to use artificial lights to manipulate your mares estrus cycle you will need more management of your mares. I have learned several things the hard way and am willing to pass them along to you.

• No lights at the stallion's farm. If you are going to transport your mare to another breeding farm and leave her there you need to be sure that the breeding farm is using lights as well. It only takes 3-5 days of discontinuing artificial lighting to put a mare BACK into transition and subsequent anestrus. If this occurs (AND IT WILL... this is not theory, it really happens) you will be back where you started from in November! Even if you are in February and the days are getting longer, your mare's body will say it is November. If this occurs you might as well forget about getting your mare settled until late May or June! Keep in mind, the mare is yours. If you want her in foal in February, and the stallion you want to use is not at a farm under lights, save your time and money and either:
     1. don't use the stallion,
     2. take a timer and light with you (if the stallion farm will let you)
     3. take your mare there, breed her, and bring her right home under lights again
            (this requires that you absolutely know your mares cycling behavior, that she has a follicle and is ready to ovulate.)

• Temperature. While it is known that light affects a mare's estrus cycle, it is not the only factor you need to consider. Extremely cold temperatures will void any effect artificial lighting has on bringing a mare out of anestrus. If you have extremely cold temperatures and have no way to keep the mare warm you had better be prepared to have your mare think that it is November again. Pay close attention to the weather forecast. If you are expecting anything below zero you need to get heat to your mare if you want to assure she does not go back into anestrus. If cold temperatures are coming, I blanket my mare and turn on a radiant heater over her stall.

• Blown lights & Power failures. Usually this is not a problem if you are using the 16 hour on method of providing your mare light. If you go out to the barn and your lights are off you notice it right away. However, if you are using the flash method, unless you are an insomniac, you are likely not out in the barn between 1-4 am when your lights need to be on and you will not know if your lights are coming on. Unfortunately, I discovered one of the bulbs over one of my mares stalls was blown when she suddenly quit producing follicles. It was March but she was back in November. I test my bulbs every other day now. I know that after 4 days my mares are likely to go back into transition and I'd like to prevent that.
Another bad experience we had was when we had a power failure and I never reset my timer (duh!) to the correct time. Because I use the flash method, the lights have to be on for at least an hour between 1:00 and 4:00 am. I noticed the lights coming on at 9:30 one day. So one of the things you need to remember to do is reset or calibrate the timer after a power failure.

• Winter Foaling. I have beef cattle and I calve them out in January with regularity. One of the least thought of aspects of my entering the horses foaling in January was postpartum care. Cows are not seasonally polyestrous. Horses are. I discovered that horses are not as winter hardy as my beef cattle and I need to have much better facilities for their postpartum care. Drafts are a problem for newborn foals. One of the most critical mistakes I made was to limit the foals exercise area. While I have no science to back me up, I believe it is vital to get a foal up and running about. The foal needs to get his blood flowing and his muscles moving. Keeping a foal in a limited space (a box stall) where he cannot run, get warm, and get his blood circulation and his organs "woken up" can often have dire consequences. Once he has had his twice a day exercise you need to get him out of the draft and into a protected dry area. If you are not set up to provide this exercise and protection you may have a bad experience. If your NOT willing to make the extra effort to exercise your foals and keep them dry and out of the drafts then wait until April to foal.