Breaking while in foal?

Hello77

Hi everyone, new to these boards, so 1st off hello!
Have been out of horses for a while but have just acquired a 5 year old pony which i want to break for my son. She is in foal, due next mar/apr. My question is would it be ok to start breaking her now or would it be too stressful? (I won't be riding her, as i am too big anyway) but could i do some gentle lungeing, longreining etc? Or should i leave it til after she has her foal? And if so, at what age could i start then - ie at what age could you separate mare and foal for 30 min sessions? Or is that not possible either - would the foal need to be weaned completely before i attempt this? (there would be other equine company in the field, if i was removing the mare for training).
Any replies/suggestions/opinions welcome
Thanks in advance

Wicked

this is just my opinion.

If you decided to break the mare now - as in mould her, have her driving in long reins etc and then leave her , it should be ok - i dont think you should back her as that can get very stressful.

Then having said that, if you mould her, leave her, let her foal and wait until the foal is weaned your talking about nearly a year so you may have to start breaking all over again.

it's a tough one really, personally i'd wait till she had foaled and weaned the foal and then start breaking.

you could ask your local vet if it would harm her.

Also it depends on her temperment, if shes very quiet she might take to moulding with no stress at all and just get on with it, if she's lively she might be more stressed out.


you said your too big to ride her, so who do you plan on getting to back her when the time comes? dont' put a child up on her first time.

i wouldn't do the 30 minute session thing, i'd wean the foal and then start work. weaning is very stressful to, make sure you've the foal eating pellets or munch before you wean him/her to or else he/she will loose alot of condition when weaned.

ecaf

Just want to agree with what wicked has said. I bought a mare in foal last year, she is broken but hadn't been ridden for 6 or 8 months before I bought her.
I lunged her (a good bit) when I got her first, and lunged her with tack on too, which caused a good few bucks. I sat up on her for 5 minutes, but due to a previous accident my nerves started coming back and I wasn't doing either of us any good.
When she was 6 months gone I left her to it, and will be weaning the foal who is 6 months now. After the foal is weaned I will be back to lunging the mare again, and then try braving sitting on her again, but I definitely feel that there is going to be a good bit of ground work needed again, even though she is broken, its over a year off and she'll need to remember the rules again, as in she can't just do what she likes anymore. (P.S. anyone with advice in my situation either - appreciated!)

What I'm saying is that it wouldn't do your mare any harm lunging / long reins etc, but you are going to have to leave her a good while without any learning, and afterwards you may have to start almost from scratch again. If you have a few months to spend with her (without backing) then it would be no harm putting the ground work in place.

Hello77

Thanks for your answers. Yeah, ye are prob right, she will have forgotten everything by the time i have her weaned. Will prob just leave it til after so.
Thanks again