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Thursday, 14 May 2009 |
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Hopping Right Into Breeding Season
Krisean Performance Horses “Life With the Blue-Eyed Wonders”
by Jill Smith • 15221 N. Shady Slope Road, Spokane, WA 99208 • 509-466-4612 •
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Spring is here, the birds are back and the bees are starting to hum in their hives. It was a glorious day and I headed for the corral with anticipation. I knew full well what was probably going through my perlino quarter stallion’s mind!
As I rounded the corner I stopped dead in my tracks and watched Commander, the fore mentioned perlino stallion, literally hop around the pasture. These weren’t little crow hops these were leaping bounds with all four feet up three feet in the air and crashing back to earth all at once with a ground-shaking thud! I noticed the mares in the adjoining pasture lifting two inches off the earth each time he hit! This guy is a big white stallion who carries some weight!
“Uh, Commander, what are you up to? Did you get stung by a bee or something?” I inquired, feeling myself lift at least two inches off the ground with his last hit.
“I’m practicing to be a rabbit.” Came the oofffff of a response as his big white body thumped the ground again.
“Stop! You’re going to have the neighbors thinking we’re having an earthquake! Can you just tell me why you think you might even come close to being a rabbit, aside from being white?” I knew this might be a leading question as quite often I sucker right in to my stallion’s sense of humor. One of the drawbacks of having a talking horse!
With a very serious look in his blue eyes, a winded Commander trotted up to me. “As a human, I know you are a little slow in understanding things. Rabbits have more babies, more often than horses. So that means a male rabbit gets to see a female rabbit more often than a stallion gets to see a mare. If I become a rabbit I get to breed mares more often.”
Animal logic fascinates me! Sometimes they are so smart in such a common sense way and then sometimes they just live up to the “dumb animal” persona. Being a “blonde” I can truly understand that line of thought!
Rabbits actually do live up to their reputation and breed and produce more rabbits on a short regular basis! Another fact that would also impress Commander is that rabbits can start breeding at the young age of 6 months for smaller rabbits and at 9 months for larger rabbits. Does (female rabbits) don’t have a “true” heat (estrus) like other mammals do. They are “induced ovulates”, which means that they release an egg after breeding with a buck (male rabbit). Another Commander impressive fact is that it is possible for a doe to accept a buck for breeding at any time of the year. Horses usually breed Feb to July for babies that are born in Jan to June.
Doe rabbits give birth, called kindling, approximately 31-32 days after breeding. They can become pregnant again a week later, but most rabbit breeders would re-breed the doe when the babies, called kits, are 4 weeks old. When the new litter arrives, the older kits will be weaned, and the doe’s body would have recuperated from pregnancy.
Sometimes my sense of humor gets the best of me and I just can’t help myself. “Commander, I do see your point and I also know how seriously you take your job of breeding nice foals (snicker, his MAIN interest is in breeding nice MARES!). I also understand why you think it might be more fun....er, wiser...to be a rabbit to produce more nice foals, but did you know that chickens have babies every 21 days? So every 22 days a rooster gets to...”
With a sudden squawk, Commander flew back to the far end of the pasture and started practicing take offs rather than hops....ya just got to love him for trying!
Jill Smith is a Spokane, WA entrepreneur, international business owner, artist/potter and cowgirl at heart. She raises Arabian racehorses, Arabian/Quarter Horses, palominos and Cremellos/Perlinos. High N Command (pen name, Commander) is a smart-talking AQHA perlino stallion, constantly trolling for mares. Visit our web site www.kriseanhorses.com
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