The operator of Dahomey Plantation farm and Mallard Manor waterfowl hunting resort, Jimmy Winemiller has established and directed agriculture and animal husbandry businesses, including Iron Horse Farm, a state-of-the-art thoroughbred facility that bred and trained horses. While affiliated with Iron Horse, Jimmy Winemiller learned a great deal about the science of equine breeding.
The science of breeding horses is largely centered on efforts to overcome their naturally low birth rates in the wild. Like most animals with correspondingly low death rates, horses have the capacity to sustain just one, if any, pregnancy per year, and successful pregnancies result in just one foal.
Thanks to advances in veterinary medicine and breeding technology, however, horse breeders have been able to significantly increase the breeding capacities of stallions and overcome many of the fertility issues that have plagued stallions and mares alike. Among major horse breeds, live-foal rates per cycle have consistently averaged between 60% and 65% for more than a quarter-century. This is a particularly impressive statistic in light of the significant increase in the scheduled breeding services of popular stallions over the same time period.
