Terms used in equine reproduction

                  COMMON TERMS USED IN             

              EQUINE REPRODUCTION

Maiden mare

Female equine over two years of age that has not been covered by a stallion. The term filly could also be used with the female that is 2 or 3 years of age.

Barren mare

A mare bred several cycles in a season without pregnancy or lost pregnancy.

Open mare

A  mare that has had foals previously but is not pregnant now.

Nightmare

Don't get confused by this word by correlate with horses.

However does not related to the horses. Rather, the word is derived from mara, a scandinavian mytholigical term referring to a spirit sent to suffocate sleepers. The early meaning of nightmare included the sleeper’s experience of weight on the chest combined with sleep paralysis, dyspnea, or a feeling of dread.

In foal

Pregnant mare

Wet mare

Intact female horse that has foaled during the current breeding season and is nursing a foal.

Dry mare

There is no foal at her side.

Broodmare

A mare kept for breeding.

Dirty mare

Many mares that are cyclical, but fail to conceive and have infections in their reproductive tracts. Hence they are sometimes called dirty mares. All dirty mares either have, or are at risk for, inflammatory changes involving the endometrium (endometritis).

Open the mare

This is the old belief that mares require an attendant to insert his arm into the vagina and dilate the cervix with the fingers before breeding. But it has no basis in fact, and is contraindicated because of the danger of introducing infection.

Doubling a mare

A practice of breeding a mare twice or more in a heat period.

High flanker

A male in which the testis descend into the inguinal canal but not into the scrotum

Ridgling or Rig

It is a cryptorchid male animal with one or both testicles undescended.

Gelding

It is a castrated male horse.

Scirrhous cord

Chronic infection of the spermatic cord stump, typically with a Staphylococcus sp., In these cases, the scrotum incision heals, but the infected stump continues to enlarge and abscess; eventually, a draining tract develops.

Champignon

It is the infection caused by the Streptococcus sp., is charecterized by the presence of a purulent discharge from the spermatic cord stump surrounded by a mound of granulation tissue. This was common when non sterilile materials were used for castration.

Wobbles

It is due to a defect of a cervical vertebrae causing a compression of the spinal cord. It cause an unsteady (wobble) gait and weakness.

Wry neck

It usually occurs in transverse bicornual pregnancy in the mare in which movememt of the fetal head and neck is restricted or prevented during most of the gestation period. It may occur in a longitudinal pregnancy with the fetus in one horn and the body.

The cervical vertebrae are curved and the articulations and atrophied muscles produce a sharply bent “muscle contracture” condiyion of the neck resembling torticollis that cannot be straightened, even outside the dam, without fracturing the cervical vertebrae.

Long day breeders

Animals that are in estrus when days get longer.

Winter anestrus

Anestrus in the mare occurs during the winter and spring. It is the failure of mares to come into estrus during months when daylight hours are below the minimum level. Artificial lighting is an important technique for the seasonallynanestrus mare.

Split estrus

Behavioural estrus interrupted by 1 or 2 days of sexual nonreceptivity is also observed in mares, especially at the start of the breeding season.

Autumn follicles

Towards the end of the breeding season many barren mares would develop a large graffian follicle that failed to ovulate but eventually becomes atretic during the anestrous period.

Winking of clitoris

This is caused by the contractions of the muscles at the base of the clitoris and in the perineum amking the clitoris protrude spasmodically betwwen the vulvar lips.

Flehmann reflex

It is a behaviour in which an animal curls back its upper lip exposing its front teeth, inhales with the nostrils usually closed and then often holds this position for several seconds. It may be performed over a site of the animal or may be performed with the neck stretched and the head held in the air. This behaviour facilitates the transfer of pheromones and other scents into the vomeronasal organ (jacoson’s organ) located above the roof of the mouth via a duct which exists just behind the front teeth of the animal.

Windsucking mares or Pneumovagina

It is the habit of aspirating air into the vagina. Pneumovagina is usually a result of poor vulvar coinfection which can prevent establishment and survival of pregnancies.nformation in mares. It can be a significant contributor to ascending