Pictorial Pregnancy - A Visual Gestation Timeline

[BlackOak2]

New edit information of June, 2021. In response to a request, I am adding two new example mares for this topic. They can be found in sequence below. Plus, I'm including some additional information about each of these three mares to aid in understanding the images themselves and comparing them to your broods.


These are continuing questions that keep popping up. How far along is my mare? When will she give birth? When can I breed her? How long will it take? Can my mare have twins?
Perhaps this visual topic will offer a little more insight into these questions. But first... the answers to the above questions.

How far along is my mare? If you did not mark what age she was when she was bred (or year or season), defining how far along she is, is not an easy task, you May get within three or four months and that's only if you're used to looking at pregnant mares. The following pictures may offer a clearer insight.

When will she give birth? How long will it take? A mare will give birth somewhere between 20 to 26 turns. That's about 10 to 13 months. That being said, I've experienced a couple mares (rare however) that haven't dropped their foal until 13 months and 2 weeks. Most seem to birth at month 11, 11 and 2 weeks, a year and a year and 2 weeks.

When can I breed her? A mare is able to breed at 4 years and can breed successively until they die.

Can my mare have twins? Admin is secret about this yet. So far, there have been no reports of twins (beyond a glitch that produced 'ghost' horses. That glitch has been resolved). However, when directly asked, our admin offered a response that the programming for twins May be in game already... or it May not yet have been implemented. Considering twins (in real life) is supposed to be a rare (and arguably dangerous) occurrence, IF it has already been added to the game, consider the chances of a twin birth at next to impossible.

So now I come to the visual representations of pregnancy. I chose one mare as the example and she dropped her foal at 11 months and 2 weeks. Unluckily, her foal did not meet my expectations, so I chose not to keep him (even with the nice color he offered). This has been added to, there are now three examples of differing body styles for better clarity.

Keep in mind, there are a couple different things that can make your broods look or carry slightly differently from my examples. Of these, back length and overall weight (not build) are the two largest factors. A horse that is obese may not show pregnancy early and each turn may offer slightly less visually than a moderately-weighted horse. Likewise, a horse that is far too skinny, as she progresses through her pregnancy, will make her look much more emaciated than when she's not pregnant. However! Please remember that our horses cannot pass away in the middle of carrying and also, being at incorrect or poor weights will NOT affect either her lifespan or the foals well being. This may change in the future, but for now, we're good to roll.
As an example of how weight can make a horse look drastically different, here is a sample of our third brood, the first one is her when she is in the 'Very Fat' weight and the second in the 'Moderate' weight (she is NOT pregnant in either picture).



Please welcome Howl, a grade mare. This is her at 15 years and 4 months. This is before breeding. From what my memory offers, this mare is a medium build mare (maybe medium light), likely pony and she was kept at moderate weight throughout her pregnancy. I don't recall her back length, from visual identification, I'm guessing she's between a medium and a long, but without the evaluation, she could be anywhere on the scale, with the exception of the extremes (super short or super long).



She was bred to a mixed Tarpan, dappled stallion named Juice. This is her at 2 weeks. If you look closely, even at a single turn, there is a slight 'baby bump' already expressing itself.



At 1 month.



At 2 months.



At 3 months. There is No mistaking that she is pregnant now and there's no going back. She's only going to get larger. I hope she still fits through those barn doors!



At 4 months.



At 5 months.



At 6 months. Here at approximately halfway through her pregnancy, her bellow gets so distended that it begins to appear to deform at the back. If she were carrying twins (if or when that may be added to the game), would she look even larger yet? Who knows? There hasn't been any confirmed twins, let alone pictures of twin-carrying mares.



At 7 months.



At 8 months.



At 9 months. She looks ready to pop. It's still at the very least a month too early and indeed she still has some growth left in that belly of hers.



At 10 months.



At 11 months. She dropped her foal a single turn (2 weeks) after her 11 month picture. I was hoping she'd carry for at least another month, but that wasn't her plan. At least she still fit through the barn doors...



As far as other questions or some more in depth answers, please visit the other help guides and also, you can search the forums (specifically the questions forum) for others who have asked the same question.

Good Luck and Happy Breeding!

Additional Examples Follow

Now, please welcome Opal Rebellion. Opal Rebellion is a buckskin. She's a purchased mare from the market to be utilized just for this topic. She is a blooded horse (comes from a lineage and not AC stock) and was originally bred by Elite Fantasy. We thank Elite Fantasy for having put this mare up for sale.
She is 10 years, 4 months and 2 weeks in this picture. Before breeding. She is a very light build and was kept at moderate weight throughout her pregnancy. She has a very long back and her size and type are 10.8 and 100% respectively. So about as super light as the game can offer us.



This is her at 2 weeks. Like with the very first example, if you compare these two side-by-side, looking closely, there is a minuscule difference of the baby bump. However, most people likely cannot see it. Longer backs appear to 'hide' the progress this early, a bit more than others... maybe.



First month. Again, perhaps admin designed and checked pregnancy progression on a long-backed horse. As you'll notice, this particular mare will progress quite nicely, evenly and in a fine development to dropping.



Second month.



Third month.



Fourth month.



Fifth month. At this month, our brood does look a bit on the fat side. A distinction that can be attributed to being pregnant, but with a scratching of the head, 'well, maybe she's just fat?'. She is two months late for this 'obvious' stage, compared to our first sample mare, that was obviously pregnant at 3 months.



Sixth month.



Seventh month.



Eighth month. She's growing!



Ninth month.



Tenth month. Definitely getting close! This tenth month is within a turn (two weeks) of dropping, with some mares. Most of the mares on this game seem to drop right around their eleventh month, usually shooting for eleven months, two weeks.



Eleventh month.



Twelfth month. This mare passed right by her year-anniversary (this image) of her breeding and finally dropped her foal on her thirteenth month. The longest I've had a mare carry is thirteen months, 2 weeks. So it was possible that she could've carried for one additional turn. There are suspicions that a mare could carry for longer, they're not supposed to, however, and should be offered as a glitch of they do (still pregnant at 14 months and above). But catching proof of this is a difficult process. One would have to type down the mare's age at breeding, capture at least a few pregnancy images while pregnant in the first, second and third trimesters... rather... quadmesters and then also offer still pregnant images after 14 months.



*****************************


And now our third brood sample.
Please welcome Night Spirit. Night Spirit is a Bay Dun Pangare Roan Tobiano. She is another purchased mare from the market to be utilized just for this topic. In her case, she's an AC stock horse, a purebred Shetland. She was bred to a purebred Shetland stud on the market named Small One.
She is 7 years and 4 months in this picture. Just before breeding. Again, she was kept at moderate weight throughout her pregnancy. She is a very heavy build, has a super short back and her size and type are 81.45 and 93% respectively. That's just about as heavy as this game offers.



Here she is at 2 weeks pregnant. Maybe because of the super short back, her baby bump is evident. Though difficult to see, her's is much easier than our second broodmare example.



First month.



Second month.



Third month. Much like our first mare, Night Spirit is quite evidently pregnant at three months.



Fourth month.



Fifth month.



Sixth month.



Seventh month. Definitely starting to get large! If you take a close look, the pregnancy artifact at the front of that baby bulge is starting to appear.



Eighth month.



Ninth month. Now, if we look at that artifact, it's pushing outward. What is an artifact? It's something that happens sometimes in graphics work when things become a bit distorted. Admin may get to it at some point. I kind of like it. Makes me think that she's carrying a bit awkwardly or that it might be a hoof or something reaching forward. Or maybe a tiny fat pocket. Personally, although sometimes this artifact looks weird, I'm inclined to like it as 'personality' instead. That is my opinion, however, not everybody will share it.



Tenth month. Oh! Beginning to knock knees! She's fat! Just alllll!!!! baby!



Eleventh month. Our example broodmare dropped her foal on her year anniversary of breeding. She carried beautifully and offers another good, strong example of how pregnancy progresses through visual illustration.

That's it! Hope you enjoyed the updated version.
Any questions, comments, concerns about this topic, feel free to reply. Please Do Not quote the entire post, it takes up way too much room! Thank you!

[stephanie111]

These are continuing questions that keep popping up. How far along is my mare? When will she give birth? When can I breed her? How long will it take? Can my mare have twins?
Perhaps this visual topic will offer a little more insight into these questions. But first... the answers to the above questions.

How far along is my mare? If you did not mark what age she was when she was bred (or year or season), defining how far along she is, is not an easy task, you May get within three or four months and that's only if you're used to looking at pregnant mares. The following pictures may offer a clearer insight.

When will she give birth? How long will it take? A mare will give birth somewhere between 20 to 24 turns. That's about 10 to 12 months. That being said, I've experienced a couple mares (rare however) that haven't dropped their foal until 13 months and 2 weeks. Most seem to birth at month 11, 11 and 2 weeks, a year and a year and 2 weeks.

When can I breed her? A mare is able to breed at 4 years and can breed successively until they die.

Can my mare have twins? Admin is secret about this yet. So far, there have been no reports of twins (beyond a glitch that produced 'ghost' horses. That glitch has been resolved). However, when directly asked, our admin offered a response that the programming for twins May be in game already... or it May not yet have been implemented. Considering twins (in real life) is supposed to be a rare (and arguably dangerous) occurrence, IF it has already been added to the game, consider the chances of a twin birth at next to impossible.

So now I come to the visual representations of pregnancy. I chose one mare as the example and she dropped her foal at 11 months and 2 weeks. Unluckily, her foal did not meet my expectations, so I chose not to keep him (even with the nice color he offered).

Please welcome Howl, a grade mare. This is her at 15 years and 4 months. This is before breeding.



She was bred to a mixed Tarpan, dappled stallion named Juice. This is her at 2 weeks. If you look closely, even at a single turn, there is a slight 'baby bump' already expressing itself.



At 1 month.



At 2 months.



At 3 months. There is No mistaking that she is pregnant now and there's no going back. She's only going to get larger. I hope she still fits through those barn doors!



At 4 months.



At 5 months.



At 6 months. Here at approximately halfway through her pregnancy, her bellow gets so distended that it begins to appear to deform at the back. If she were carrying twins (if or when that may be added to the game), would she look even larger yet? Who knows? There hasn't been any confirmed twins, let alone pictures of twin-carrying mares.



At 7 months.



At 8 months.



At 9 months. She looks ready to pop. It's still at the very least a month too early and indeed she still has some growth left in that belly of hers.



At 10 months.



At 11 months. She dropped her foal a single turn (2 weeks) after her 11 month picture. I was hoping she'd carry for at least another month, but that wasn't her plan. At least she still fit through the barn doors...



As far as other questions or some more in depth answers, please visit the other help guides and also, you can search the forums (specifically the questions forum) for others who have asked the same question.

Good Luck and Happy Breeding!

Thanks for doing this! The stall door thing? I loved it !

[Scythian]

Thank you for the thorough, well-displayed sequence. As a breeder, I can say that this is typical. Some of my mares start showing earlier than others, and some seem to get even bigger toward the 11th month.

When a breeding is completed, the system message includes this phrase " ... a foal may result in 20-26 turns [equivalent of 10-13 months]." So far, Admin has assured us that breeding is trouble-free; we always get a single healthy foal in that amount of time. Or a little more. (I've had at least 1 mare take 13-1/2 months.)

Until last fall, there was a bug/feature that kept a mare alive as long as she was pregnant -- you could breed her again on the same day she gave birth (you still can), and she'd keep going. Some dedicated players had mares over 40 years old! But then that was "fixed"; now any mare over 20 will either give birth and live, or give birth and die. We're still able to enjoy the foal being healthy and automatically provided with mare's milk for the first 6 months, even if it has been orphaned.

Of course, Admin can make the game harder if they want to -- or we want them to. Seems as if for now, they aren't planning any major changes to breeding, gestating, or giving birth. But who knows ...

[BlackOak2]

I am hoping that this will alleviate some of our repeating breeding questions. I know that much of these same answers are a little buried amidst the other guides... and those continue to grow. So hopefully this will do just that as it sits, not within another guide, but as it's own topic.

Perhaps in the future, we'll have to do just that and separate our guides info parts into specific topics to make locating answers much quicker.

Even I have trouble locating answers when I've forgotten something. So what does that mean for somebody just signing up?

[ST0RM]

I am hoping that this will alleviate some of our repeating breeding questions. I know that much of these same answers are a little buried amidst the other guides... and those continue to grow. So hopefully this will do just that as it sits, not within another guide, but as it's own topic.

Perhaps in the future, we'll have to do just that and separate our guides info parts into specific topics to make locating answers much quicker.

Even I have trouble locating answers when I've forgotten something. So what does that mean for somebody just signing up?

My mare once was pregnant for almost 1 year and a half. Equines rarely survive multiple births and when they do the mare often dies so maybe not

[BlackOak2]

My mare once was pregnant for almost 1 year and a half. Equines rarely survive multiple births and when they do the mare often dies so maybe not

There has been suggestion by our admins that twins are already programmed into the game. But that they haven't been turned on.
Although this game is mostly modeled after real life, certain things would take away the fun of the game. So I suspect, though I could be wrong, that mare death or foal death from twin births will be low or even nonexistent. For now, there are no deaths from pregnancy and in fact, a mare cannot die while pregnant, although she can pass on the very day she gives birth.

Is that a real mare or one on HWO. I've heard of real mares carrying for over a year. 14 months is the longest on record of a live birth. That's pretty short of a year and a half, or 18 months. On another note, I don't generally hear that the mare dies from twin births, I hear that the twins, one or both, often die. Or that the surviving one doesn't grow well for a number of reasons. And so forth. But that's neither here nor there.
Anyway, it's interesting to hear your experiences on the matter.

If that is an HWO mare, admin might want proof that the pregnancy counter isn't acting right. In that case you'll need screen shots or in a pinch, gallery images every turn might work for them.

[ST0RM]

My mare once was pregnant for almost 1 year and a half. Equines rarely survive multiple births and when they do the mare often dies so maybe not

There has been suggestion by our admins that twins are already programmed into the game. But that they haven't been turned on.
Although this game is mostly modeled after real life, certain things would take away the fun of the game. So I suspect, though I could be wrong, that mare death or foal death from twin births will be low or even nonexistent. For now, there are no deaths from pregnancy and in fact, a mare cannot die while pregnant, although she can pass on the very day she gives birth.

Is that a real mare or one on HWO. I've heard of real mares carrying for over a year. 14 months is the longest on record of a live birth. That's pretty short of a year and a half, or 18 months. On another note, I don't generally hear that the mare dies from twin births, I hear that the twins, one or both, often die. Or that the surviving one doesn't grow well for a number of reasons. And so forth. But that's neither here nor there.
Anyway, it's interesting to hear your experiences on the matter.

If that is an HWO mare, admin might want proof that the pregnancy counter isn't acting right. In that case you'll need screen shots or in a pinch, gallery images every turn might work for them.

My mare was fine. I bred her in winter and she gave birth the next summer. The foal was fine and it wasn't a glitch/malfunction 'cause it has happend to another breeder.

[FantasyRanch3]

...

Hey idk how long this has been up but I would suggest that you do what you did with that mare with a light horse (like a TB, Standardbread, ect light horses) and a draft horse (Belgiums, Clydesdale, ect drafts) as when I'm breeding I can tell a difference between my TBs and Drafts. The TBs belly's heng way lower and are more distinctive as where my drafts aren't as defined and mostly just make them look really fat till later on. I would do this myself but don't know how u did the pics and I love how you did it to. I just think having the different body sizes through the pregnancy would be helpful to all to see.

As now I'm breeding light horses more atm I can pretty much tell how close they are to foaling. But if I were to fallow your gide line with your mare it would be confusing to me (if I hadn't breed them much before) to see mine with a huge belly and yours with a big belly. At your 6 month pic she look pregnant but with my light horses they look way farther ahead..

So that all sorry if I barged in I just thought it woyhell to have the different size horse in this. Hope all is well

[BlackOak2]

...

Hey idk how long this has been up but I would suggest that you do what you did with that mare with a light horse (like a TB, Standardbread, ect light horses) and a draft horse (Belgiums, Clydesdale, ect drafts) as when I'm breeding I can tell a difference between my TBs and Drafts. The TBs belly's heng way lower and are more distinctive as where my drafts aren't as defined and mostly just make them look really fat till later on. I would do this myself but don't know how u did the pics and I love how you did it to. I just think having the different body sizes through the pregnancy would be helpful to all to see.

As now I'm breeding light horses more atm I can pretty much tell how close they are to foaling. But if I were to fallow your gide line with your mare it would be confusing to me (if I hadn't breed them much before) to see mine with a huge belly and yours with a big belly. At your 6 month pic she look pregnant but with my light horses they look way farther ahead..

So that all sorry if I barged in I just thought it woyhell to have the different size horse in this. Hope all is well

I will consider adding a 'very light' and a 'very heavy' mare examples. Keep in mind that the weight of the mare may make pregnancy look different as well. As a general rule, she was kept at moderate weight for the duration to show what an 'appropriately weighted' mare should look like. Not one that's practically starving and not one that's so obese that they can't walk through the barn doors before getting preggers. Because both of these do, indeed, make the appearance slightly different.
I think I'll get around to this, perhaps I'll get this started today. I will need to find appropriate mares to cover this and that won't be hard to tackle.

[FantasyRanch3]

Hey idk how long this has been up but I would suggest that you do what you did with that mare with a light horse (like a TB, Standardbread, ect light horses) and a draft horse (Belgiums, Clydesdale, ect drafts) as when I'm breeding I can tell a difference between my TBs and Drafts. The TBs belly's heng way lower and are more distinctive as where my drafts aren't as defined and mostly just make them look really fat till later on. I would do this myself but don't know how u did the pics and I love how you did it to. I just think having the different body sizes through the pregnancy would be helpful to all to see.

As now I'm breeding light horses more atm I can pretty much tell how close they are to foaling. But if I were to fallow your gide line with your mare it would be confusing to me (if I hadn't breed them much before) to see mine with a huge belly and yours with a big belly. At your 6 month pic she look pregnant but with my light horses they look way farther ahead..

So that all sorry if I barged in I just thought it woyhell to have the different size horse in this. Hope all is well

I will consider adding a 'very light' and a 'very heavy' mare examples. Keep in mind that the weight of the mare may make pregnancy look different as well. As a general rule, she was kept at moderate weight for the duration to show what an 'appropriately weighted' mare should look like. Not one that's practically starving and not one that's so obese that they can't walk through the barn doors before getting preggers. Because both of these do, indeed, make the appearance slightly different.
I think I'll get around to this, perhaps I'll get this started today. I will need to find appropriate mares to cover this and that won't be hard to tackle.

Ok I'll keep an eye out for when u do it