mare in foal!

[xjodiex]

hi, not been on here in a while!
i bought i new horse the other day! she is in foal and due at the end of april beggining of may!
as i have never had a mare in foal i was wondering if any one could give me any tips on looking after her etc.
thanks jodie xx

[holiday]

Main thing is not to over feed her she wont need any extra until the last few weeks when the foal does start to take it out of her. Make sure she is well covered and feed her plenty of hay if needed, not sure if she will be in or out over winter. Give her a little extra the few weeks before foaling but dont over do it. She doesnt want to be overly fat it doesnt help her to foal. Make sure she has plenty after foaling as she will need to recover herself and feed the foal!!!!!!

Good luck!!!

[FudgieFoo]

Hi,

My mare is (fingers crossed) due mid June next year.

My plans are:

To lightly hack her and feed her a low energy mix, ablib hay and sugarbeet in the winter. (basically the same as normal)
She will be in a paddock of her own from mid months (8 months) as she is low in the pecking order.
She will go onto a mare and foal mix from this time unless she is doing well on what she's on.
I'm planning a field birth as we have a lovely flat paddock, in view of the yard owner's house, with sufficent lighting if needed. She will have a leather headcollar on from about two weeks before her due date.
As I have Oct 1st terms with the stallion she will have a vet check then.
I will also have a vet check in January to make sure its all still as expected.

Good Luck!

[blackhorses]

Hi, and congrats, all very exciting having foals, but I always find the last few months drag by!!! Your feeding plan sounds fine as long as she gets all the right nutrients she should be fine, I feed all my broodmares an increasing amount of stud mix( I use Allen and Page) for the last 3 months of thier pregnancy, for the fatties I don't feed them until about 1 1/2 months before but they get a molassed stud lick which has the protien they need in it, and they all get good quality haylage ad lib, and oil - usually veggie or olive.
Personally I wouldn't go for a field birth unless she goes in the day time when she is out anyway. It's much safer bringing her in at night, just incase something goes wrong, it means then you don't have to chase her around the field if the baby gets stuck and she doesn't want you near her - even the most friendly mare can have completely different behaviour when they foal. Also if the weather turns during the night you don't have to worry about getting a soggy cold newborn inside with a knackered mother - never disturb a mare once she has gone into labour even if it's pouring with rain as you could loose both. Also if you have to get the vet out she's also not going to do a runner, it's a lot less stressfull. One of our friesian mares had a foal out in the field, we were'nt expecting her to go for another 3 weeks(she ran with the stallion and had a false season 3 weeks after her actual taking date) and she bagged up at the last minute, the foaling went fine, but she retained her afterbirth and we couldn't get near her as she was so foal proud and would attack us or run the baby ragged. We had to wait until the next day when she was quite ill to get near her to bring her in for the vet, anyway all went well and she bounced back within 2 days. So try and get her in at night it will save alot if hassle if anything goes wrong!!
A good book I would recommend is From Foal To Full Grown by Janet Lorch, also Foaling Simplified by Sue Caldwell - good pics.!!
Anyway Good Luck!! I hope all goes well!!:D :)

[FudgieFoo]

What is the molassed stud lick called? Whos it by? Where can I get one!

Also I don't have a foaling box thats why I was going for a field birth. The box my mare is currently in is 15' by 8'. Awkward size. I'm at a livery yard. Could i invest in a field shelter and use that? How big does it need to be?

[holiday]

We foal ours in a 15 x 14.5 box but most of them are ponies!!! I would also go with the indoor birth, especially as one of our mares turns into a raving nutter and will only let me near her after foaling!!! Her foal is now 10 weeks and my OH can just get the water out of the stable to refill now!!!!!!

[Lgd]

Feeding depends on what the mare is doing and her type. Most mares who are spending the pregnancy as feed ornaments need little extra above grass/hay until they get to around 9 - 9½ months of pregnancy. My mare was competing in high level dressage until 4 months pregnant, was ridden fairly normally to 7 months, and was ridden lightly (walk mostly) until 10 months. She stayed on her normal food with it being adjusted down as the workload decreased and then increased over the last month up to her normal 'competition' level of food. I already feed vit/min supps so it wasn't necessary to feed a stud/youngstock mix, I just added limestone flour to up the calcium levels in the last month.

Post delivery she had her usual feed to which I added some barley when she showed signs of losing weight. I only replaced some of her usual mix with stud/youngstock mix once I wanted the foal to have some hard feed and she was tall enough to raid Mum's manger.

She's back in ridden work again but I haven't needed to increase the feed as she is maintaining her weight nicely. Should add that she is 7/8TB so getting way more feed than a native or WB type would require anyway.

[blackhorses]

Not sure what the stud lick is called, as it is our feed merchants own brand, but you could just use Horse Lyx, or ask where you buy your feed what they have that is similar. As for a foaling box you could use a field shelter as long as it has a door that you can close the mare in with and not a gate - foals are very good at getting stuck in things!! Also you would need to have your water buckets up on the wall so the foal doesn't drown in them - it does happen. Also no haynets.
It depends on the size of your mare as to the size of your box, all the books say it should be at least 14 x 14, but personally I go for at least 16 x 16 as I have rather large horses, and most of my foal box's are 22 x 16 ish. As long as you put down a good deep bed of straw on the ground it should be absolubtly fine, if you have electric, all the better, but a good strong torch will do. Also if you have a large box there's plenty of space for the foal to run around in if the weather is bad - after all this is England!!:rolleyes:
I would definitly recommend the Allen and Page stud mix for the last few months, I mix it with oil, sugar beet and some Alphalpha - but I cut this and the sugar beet down to half in the last month, as they don't have much room for bulk, and they have haylage so don't really need them, they also have the licks so don't need any extra vitamin supplement, plus the licks help keep them occupied when they're in! Oh and they get loads of carrots and various other veggies, which I hide in thier haylage, also gives them something to do!

[FudgieFoo]

Also you would need to have your water buckets up on the wall so the foal doesn't drown in them - it does happen.

What about water troughs in the field?

[blackhorses]

Water troughs should be fine, as it is usually in the first few hours they are really wobbly and fall over a lot, and being in a small space they easily get themselves into silly places, once out in the field and running around they are fine it only takes them a few hours to get all those legs coordinated, also they don't really drink water for the first few days so the chances of falling into a trough are very small!!! So not something to worry about!

[FudgieFoo]

Excellent.

Did a bit of research on the internet and Dengie do a stable lick which is 13% protein.