Advice for a first timer...

[Scarlett]

My mares due date is rapidly approaching. This is her first foal, as well as mine, and it's getting to the nervous excitement 'OMG what have I done?!' stage

So far everything has gone like clockwork. Finding the stallion was easy, covering went exactly to plan, we could tell next day she had taken, scans etc all ok and she has been turned away since covering eating grass and getting fat.

She comes home in the next couple of weeks - I am lucky to live on the yard and thus will be there with her pretty much 24/7 - and then the countdown to foaling begins.

My question to all you experienced breeders is if you could give a first time, and probably only time, breeder a piece of advice what would it be? Whats the one thing you would like to have been told when your first foal was due?

 

[s4sugar]

Get some sleep.

It is easy to stay up all night and be no use when needed. Try napping whenever you get chance while on foal watch - whenever there is anyone around who can alert you if any change occurs.

 

[Scarlett]

My house is attached too the stable block and my bedroom is directly above her stable so hoping to run a web cam between the two, then hopefully we can keep an eye out without upsetting her. Plus we can be inside in the warm with tea!

 

[s4sugar]

Same here but you can spend all night watching and then be a zombie when activity starts. Hourly alarms work better for me until you see something happening.

 

[AdorableAlice]

How exciting, I bred my first foal in 2011 and apparently I became totally unbearable with the stress ! I have a second one due this year and feel a bit more in control this time.

This is what I learnt with the first foal.

I watched her far too early and by the time the final two weeks came I was utterly knackered, I work fulltime and there was more than one occassion when I fell asleep on my desk. I had saved leave and was glad I did in the end. I have saved even more leave for the second foal.

The one bit of advice I would offer is to realise just how quickly they foal and how quickly it could go wrong if the unthinkable happens.

My mare (not maiden) got thoroughly fed up with being pestered to the point she would walk off as soon as I went into her paddock.

Remember to top up the tet jab to cover the foal.

Have your vet on speed dial, have a vet with a sense of humour, endless patience and prepared to answer the same question even though you have asked it 10 times over !! I know I drove my vet dotty.

Have a clean and mega deep straw pen ready with access to a clean and foal safe paddock. I also had a camera up that covered the entire area. Move the mare into nursery area several weeks before foaling to enable her to get used to and comfortable in it and create antibodies for the foal.

Remember your camera + spare batteries.

Be observant of what is 'normal' for the mare. My mare gradually consumed less and less fibre because the foal was taking all the space up. In the last few days she also took to standing on top of a little bank in the paddock almost as if she was watching for 'danger' from a vantage point. I took water buckets up to her because she did not come down to the trough.

We watched on a camera that covered her straw yard and nursery paddock, (infra red needed for night viewing). The mare followed the same pattern each night with the amount of time and when she lay down. I could almost set my clock by her routine, and that was very nearly the undoing of the foal because the mare followed the routine on the night she foaled.

No changes in the mare, no looking round at her tummy, no pawing, no sweating and no warning other than waxing. She followed her routine and at 4am lay down as usual and bingo, waters gone and front feet visable. I am a 5/6 minute drive from my yard and thank god I was up and dressed when I was watching her, I was with her very quickly and the foal was out all bar her hind feet, but the membrane had not broken on her nose and she was gasping. I broke the membrane and then stood in total awe of the new life lay in the straw. The vet arrived and did a quick health check, within the hour the foal was up and sucking. Despite being the over side of 50 I was like a over excited kid in a toy shop !

The weather was lovely and after 24 hours the vet allowed mum and baby out into the nursery with instructions to me to 'keep an eye' on them. The mare was a little foal proud and would not be caught so I just put my car by the post and rail and sat and watched them in the sun. I was found 4 hours later, fast asleep and wedged under the steering wheel. The mare and foal were also lay out in the sun. Exhausting business having a first foal !!

Good luck OP, pictures please.

 

[Spring Feather]

Adding to all the good advice you've been given in other posts above.

Pre-foaling, the best advice I was ever given (albeit 25 years later) was to milk test. After years and years of red eyes at foal watch, and often watching for weeks beforehand, milk testing is such an easy (and for me) failsafe means at letting me know within 24-48 hours of when the mare will foal. Foal watch is so much easier now that I do this. Also cctv. Again, years ago this was not available so it meant getting up out of bed, dressed and wander to the stables to check every hour when the mare appeared to be nearing her time. Cctv is another thing that has revolutionized foaling. Back in the day, because we didn't have milk testing or cctv, so many foalings were missed. Now, none are.

At foaling. No matter how many foals I've foaled, I still always read up on presentations prior to going on foal watch. Do read up on Red Bag deliveries as that is very important to know because you will be the one who first sees the bubble. Reading and knowing what to do is invaluable because if this happens your vet will not be able to get there in time and the hands-on will be left to you. As is making sure your foal kit is all up and together so you have everything you need to-hand should anything look like it's going wrong. My vet cannot get to me in time should something untoward happen at foaling so I need to be able to cope alone and know what to do in an emergency. Always, always time the stages! And watch your mare carefully for a number of days, weeks beforehand so that you are familiar with her patterns. When these patterns change, you'll know something is about to happen.

A good piece of advice I can give is to make sure you do not go into your maiden mare too early when you can see she's in labour. I always leave it until the mare is at the stage of no return. With the mares I've foaled out numerous times I know I can go in early and they won't halt the progress, but for any of my maidens, I leave them till the can't do anything about it. And another piece of advice; although some horrid things can happen, it is still very rare for things to go wrong, so try not to over-worry everything. Sometimes mares will do very strange things in labour. Sometimes they will violently bang themselves against the walls of the foaling box, sometimes they'll drop down, roll around and get back up, only to drop down, roll around and get back up. None of this is abnormal, the mare knows the foal is not in the correct position and is trying to reposition it, but to an inexperienced onlooker these actions can be quite upsetting to watch.

Some of my mares are corner-foalers. They love nothing better than to get their butt as close up to the walls as possible. I put down huge banks (at least 1-2ft diameter) so that should they go right into the corner I can move all the straw away and still have room to get the little ones legs out without any damage being done. I usually leave the mares to it unless I can see there's a problem, however last year there were so many accounts of mares having trouble foaling and people losing foals/mares that I erred on the side of caution and did gently help my mares. That's personal preference though. I do cringe when I see helpers yanking on foals legs and often not in tune with the mares contractions. You should only ever do that in an absolute emergency. Anyway, hopefully your vet will be with you and should any emergency action need to be taken, he'll be the one to do it.

Worm the foal ivermectin pre-24 hours old (I generally ivermectin them within 8 hours of birth) as it helps stave off scours at the mares foal heat.

My foals all go outside within a few hours of their birth providing the weather is nice. I don't let foals under 2 weeks old get wet so they either stay in or I'll pop a little foal rug on them (Horseware Amigos are best I've found). However if you are going to put a rug on the foal you must be very careful that the mare has the smell on it and that you've rubbed the outside of the rug on the foal so she can smell it. Maiden mares in particular can become quite distraught and think they've lost their foal and it's an imposter in the rug, so if you can avoid using a rug that's favourite.

You WILL become obsessed! I warn you now lol! I've done it lots of times but I still become obsessed with whichever mare looks like she's next

 

[angrovestud]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r_tgocv9Dw

Good luck with your First foal I hope you enjoy the experiance Its a wonderful thing to bring new life in to the world then watch it grow and develope you will find that you will become very protective of the baby even when it grows up. As we have now bred 14 they are all special

 

[Delicious_D]

Fantastic thread, will be bookmarking this for myself!

Any help/advice for someone who's mares on livery? I live 40 mins away. tempted to rent/board up somewhere closer whne the time comes.

 

[JanetGeorge]

Any help/advice for someone who's mares on livery? I live 40 mins away. tempted to rent/board up somewhere closer whne the time comes.

40 minutes is often much too far away. Some mares keep their legs crossed and act totally 'normal' until you decide you can head to the house for breakfast! 10 minutes later the ruddy foal is born!

This one didn't do that - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78cavYZIlyc - she was in pre-labour for nearly an hour before the bag appeared and it was possible to help. It was only her 2nd foal - and the first was lost before we could get it out!

Some mares aren't as 'settled' about being helped - but I delivered this mare so she trusts me completely.

 

[Asha]

what fantastic video, brought a tear to my eye

Lovely foal, how old is he now, do you have any recent pics of him now ?

 

[JanetGeorge]

what fantastic video, brought a tear to my eye

Lovely foal, how old is he now, do you have any recent pics of him now ?

Right soppy, aren't you!

He's coming up 2 now. This was taken last summer when he was a yearling - he's the 2nd from the right - Indigo Hero. His Mum is Indigo Three Times a Lady (Trio for short) as she is by Lady's Tralee Raj ex Corraslira Lady.

Trio's foal are named for songs - so 1st was Hero (I want a hero!) and last year's filly is 'Call Me Maybe'!

The 4 yearling boys are all by the lovely Avanti Amorous Archie.

 

[Asha]

when it comes to foals, I confess, unashamedly soppy.

it reminded me of the birth of one of mine when i had to try and help, as mare was struggling a little. As the foals head was coming out she opened her eyes and looked right at me. Felt amazing.

Cant see the pictures you mentioned ?

 

[Scarlett]

Thanks everyone for the stories, pictures, videos and advice - lots to take in.

My mare is home in 2 weeks so starting to get things ready, it's all feeling a bit real now!

 

[seabsicuit2]

How exciting!
With hindsight these are the things that I would have done better with my foal-

- always made sure that I had a second person to help with leading around and handling. I was always on my own and this proved to be a nightmare. Got into a few v risky situations.

- get their feet handled and get them used to picking up their feet from day one.
Have a friendly patient farrier. No one that shouts or yells. Seems obvious but you'd be surprised how many if them can't handle foals or don't have the patience ( lesson sadly learnt there with a fractured skull)

Fencing!! They will eat and gnaw anything wooden!!

Get feet trimmed regularly and get the vet to check straightness of the limbs on a regular basis. Sometimes the regular person or farrier just cannot see if a limb is going crooked and it will take a good vet to notice it. You only have until they are 1 years old to correct limb crookedness .

Feeding- talk to a good nutritionist on exactly what to feed. It's very confusing as some studs feed their youngsters a lot, others feed nothing at all. It's so hard to know what the right thing to do is ( I'm still not sure)

Get foal traveling on horsebox with mum a few times before weaning

Get a few good companions/ other foals to live out with. This will help with weaning. I bought a weanling to live out with my foal and it made the weaning totally stress free. My foal didn't even notice her mum had gone and never turned a hair. I think having a stress free weaning is so important.

And lastly , get covering papers off the stallion owner AsAp as soon as pos after the foal is born!

 

[seabsicuit2]

And another thing. Always lead foal with a slip rope - dont attach rope to headcollar in any way. I knew this full well but one day for some reason I decided to clip the lead rope on, then something happened, I lost hold of the foal, and foal panicked because of the leadrope trailing, and galloped off straight through several fields, through fencing etc.. Proper heart in mouth moment, and my own fault :-( altho again, if I hadn't been on my own it wouldn't have happened!

 

[HandTS]

Very exciting times, my mare ran milk and foal delivered a couple of hours later at 7.30pm so not always a night time delivery as I was expecting! Enjoy every moment they grow up so quickly! Good luck.

 

[mynutmeg]

Fantastic thread, will be bookmarking this for myself!

Any help/advice for someone who's mares on livery? I live 40 mins away. tempted to rent/board up somewhere closer whne the time comes.

Am expecting mine and my mare's first foal this year as well at livery. My plan is to camp out in our tack room just down the line of stables. (Yard are well aware of this and happy with it) I've camped up at the yard before with a sick horse and you can get pretty comfy with enough horse rugs under you

 

[JanetGeorge]

when it comes to foals, I confess, unashamedly soppy.

it reminded me of the birth of one of mine when i had to try and help, as mare was struggling a little. As the foals head was coming out she opened her eyes and looked right at me. Felt amazing.

Cant see the pictures you mentioned ?

Me too, I confess. Once a new foal doesn't 'grab me' - I'll give up breeding!

And I forgot to put the pic in - here they are:

 

[seaofdreams]

Fantastic thread, will be bookmarking this for myself!

Any help/advice for someone who's mares on livery? I live 40 mins away. tempted to rent/board up somewhere closer whne the time comes.

We lived only 10mins away from the yard, but parked our Lorry around the side of our yard owner’s house just out of sight of her stable and hooked up a baby monitor and cctv so we could keep an eye on her.
3 weeks me and my mum lived in the lorry, we both took time of work to watch her in the day too.
Lottie had a firm routine and we knew the night he was going to be born as she wasn't quite herself and after watching her for 2 weeks before we knew her routine inside out. Spyro was born at 02.10am and we knew at about 10pm something was going on!
It was a truly amazing experience, terrifying but amazing!

Enjoy they grow up so fast!!

 

[AdorableAlice]

It was a truly amazing experience, terrifying but amazing!

Enjoy they grow up so fast!!

So true ! that little bundle of joy in my previous post is 2 in May, 15 hands of muscle and at times attitude. Time just flies by.

 

[Victoria25]

Ah, brill post and very interesting

We are also first timers (mare and me) and due middle of April .... so exciting and so strange seeing the little one moving about inside each day ... can actually see the outline of limbs now rather than just a 'slight movement'

 

[mel_s]

I cant wait for mine (due March) this is really helpful. Thanks

 

[seaofdreams]

It was a truly amazing experience, terrifying but amazing!

Enjoy they grow up so fast!!

So true ! that little bundle of joy in my previous post is 2 in May, 15 hands of muscle and at times attitude. Time just flies by.

Spyro is six in May, I honestly do not know were the time has gone!

 

[MouseintheHouse]

This is a great thread!

 

[Spring Feather]

Just to clarify. When I said use ivermectin to worm the foals to help stave off foal scours - it's the MARES you worm, not the actual foals. Sorry, I don't think I was clear there and I wouldn't want someone to worm their newborn foals

 

[Enfys]

Good Luck.

One thing that I don't think has been mentioned, or I missed it, is standing delivery.

I had a big maiden last year who foaled at 7.30am ish. She upped and downed but in the end stood to deliver, (sorry Adam Ant came to mind unbidden then ) There is nothing wrong if they do this, I think gravity actually helped a lot I didn't interfere or feel that she needed any help at all. I do actually have the video clip somewhere I think.

I use towels to help grip if I have to help a foal out.

As SF said, watch your maiden mare carefully, some can be very foal proud, and they are sometimes quite sore and shy about feeding and may need to be held if they won't let the foal nurse that first time. I have never had a really foal proud mare, but I have had more than a few maidens who took one look at their foal and ran away

I always leave halters on the mares just in case I need to be able to hold them.

 

[stimpy]

I was a first timer last year and it was an experience of unmitigated excitement and joy

I would echo the milk testing advice, get yourself some pool testing strips and it lends some very welcome science to all the emotion!

I would also echo SpringFeather's sentiment about trying not to get obsessively worried about the small chance that things could go wrong. Be as prepared as you can be but don't dwell on it. Further to this, awful as it sounds, make sure you are clear in your head about who is the priority if you have to choose between mother and foal. I was very clear that the mare was the number one priority, having this sorted in my head beforehand made me feel a bit calmer.

I so hope that you get to look back on it all, from the comfort of having a happy and healthy mum and baby, with as much pleasure as I look back on my experience

 

[AengusOg]

Make sure your mare cleanses. If she hasn't expelled the afterbirth within six hours of foaling, she needs an urgent visit from the vet who will probably administer Oxytocin and manually cleanse her.

If she is cleansing gradually, but getting her hind legs caught up in the afterbirth, you can double it up and tie it with baler twine so that it continues to come away but doesn't get covered in bedding or tangled round her feet.

 

[Whoopit]

OMG! This has scared me!

My youngster is 3yrs in April and she's going to be one of these that is dogged with leg problems. She has had cellulitis from mud rash in a hind leg, which was caught early, but the swelling still hasn't gone yet and she's now on another course of antibiotics. And then I got thinking about putting her in foal (not yet obviously, I'll probably give her a year or so yet depending on her legs).

But having read all the posts about no sleep (I need at least 8hrs a night) and i'm on livery (14x14 box though so plenty room) and what to do in an emergency, I may well just ensure she stays a virgin!!!!

 

[Spring Feather]

OMG! This has scared me!

But having read all the posts about no sleep (I need at least 8hrs a night) and i'm on livery (14x14 box though so plenty room) and what to do in an emergency, I may well just ensure she stays a virgin!!!!

Horse breeding is not for the faint-hearted that's for sure!