Horse Gestation Period: How Long are Horses Pregnant?
only from spring to late fall. Mares don’t generally go into estrous in the winter or early spring. Somewhere between 10.5 and 12 months later, the mare gives birth to a baby known as a foal.
Can Horses Have Twins?
Horse gestation doesn’t result in a litter of young, as in mice, but rather in a
single foal. Mares occasionally have twin foals, but twins are rare in horses. Each foal learns to walk within hours of birth. Horses are creatures of flight, and it’s important that they be able to outrun would-be predators. So, if baby horses couldn’t walk as soon as they can, they would be sitting ducks for whatever predator came around first. Foals are weaned by the time they’re 18 months old.
How Long Can Mares have Foals?
Horses usually live between 25-30 years. A few have been documented
living even longer, but, for the most part, you can expect your horse to live to around 30. Mares are capable of delivering babies all the way into their early twenties. Like humans, once a mare reaches her late teen years (middle age for a horse) her fertility begins to wane.
How Can You Tell if a Horse is Pregnant?
In horse gestation, the only sure-fire way to know that a mare is pregnant is through an ultrasound scan. Ultrasounds can be performed as early as 16 days into the pregnancy. Other signs of pregnancy include anovulation. In other words, if the mare no longer goes into heat, she may be pregnant. However, some mares continue to display signs of estrous long into their gestation. Another sign of pregnancy in mares is the swelling of the abdomen; the larger the foal grows, the bigger the mare’s stomach gets. But, not all mares ‘show’ to the same degree, and some may not show until the final weeks of their gestation.
