Sitemaps

Whats the different PMU/ Orphan2007-11-24 21:22:43

you go girls!!

---

I went to a PMU auction several years ago and bought two young horses. They hadn't been handled, except to have been recently caught, haltered and checked for health problems, so they were a bit of a challenge to halter break as they were 3-4 months old.

Here in Alberta where I live there used to be many PMU farms, they're now almost non-existent. PMU breeders do not take the babies from the moms at birth as they only collect the urine from pregnant mares. The urine is no use while the mares are open or first pregnant, they must be along in their cycle to produce the hormones that are extracted from their urine. Therefore they keep the mares in pasture for rebreeding and keep the foals on them until they are weaned (fairly early, three months is the youngest they are allowed to sell them) The mares then spend several more months in pasture before they are brought into the barn in the fall.

PMU foals can be total junk, but there also can be some nice quality horses in the bunch, too. Many PMU farms found there was alot of extra value in raising decent quality colts as compared to culls, they were already paying the same amount to feed a poor mare as a good one, so they upgraded. Many of the foals are registered, and I have shown against some lovely horses that were raised on a PMU farm. My own two foals were a registered AQHA colt and a grade Paint filly. Both had nice conformation and were sound and healthy.