An August foal

[Tia]

What are your thoughts on this?

 

[vicijp]

Spit it out!

 

[Tia]

PMSL!!!! Okay ......well.......

Not the best timing admittedly but I believe that my stallion bred our palomino mare....was intended by the way. Do you think it really matters that it is so late in the year? I had already considered the extra work necessary to see foaly through the winter - our winter doesn't really start until foal will be 5 months old and I have a large foaling box to keep foaly in on very cold days and overnight.

Problem was that I only bought palomino a month ago so it was now or not till next year.

Would it worry you? Or are you like me and you would just deal with it?

 

[vicijp]

I would just deal with it too. As long as you have something suitable to help with weaning it shouldnt be too much of a problem. I wouldnt fancy putting a young foal in with a bunch of boisterous older ones.
I know of a local trainer who has bred an August foal. As in his one and only foal, none of his other horses winter out. Nutcase.
Just out of interest, what age do you wean at? And what age do you geld at?

 

[S_N]

As you are able to provide more than adequate care and shelter for the foal then I would not worry unduely!! You won't be whowing it will you? If not, then it won't matter a jot!! You might want to invest in a foalie rug or two though.....

 

[Tia]

I wean naturally so no problem there - most are fully weaned by 8 or 9 months at the latest.

Tend to geld early, generally before 12 months.

 

[Tia]

Oh foaly rugs are a must - I have one already!!

 

[vicijp]

Do you ever geld on the mare?

 

[henryhorn]

We've had a couple over the years, the biggest problem is how backward they are if you wanted to show them compared to other stick born in January.
Ours was a chance covering when the stallion arrived a mile up the road on loan over the winter. Until then his fee and stud fees had been over £1000 and the mare came home in July empty. When she came in season in September we shot up the road with her, covered her once and bingo, she caught..
The only other time have been when husband suddenly changed his mind about putting various mares in foal, and covered them very late.
By choice I prefer ours all born in May, but it doesn't work out like that..

 

[peapod]

In my opinion (for what it's worth!) it wouldn't worry me - obviously you have the facilities and the expertise to deal with the situation - like I said we had a July foal - she was born July 15th I think, so verging on being very late! I don't believe having a later foal would add health complications to the mare or the foal. We had a mare in this year, she didn't come into season but we were prepared to cover her at the end of August/start of September - wasn't to be however! We've also got a recently bought mare who we believe to be in foal - the poor thing is only two (we were told she was a four year old - long story!) It's looking likely that she'll foal soon - certainly not ideal, but the fact that it'll be colder doesn't unduly worry us (her age DOES though, but again, a different story!).

 

[Cobnut1]

Nothing wrong with a late foal..... The oldie i ride is an August baby, has just turned 29! As long as it's born healthy and you take extra special care, should do fine.

 

[Tia]

Skipper, last years foal was still on his Mum when he was gelded - it's more a timing thing for us over here, much more so than for you guys. He had to be done before the winter as after could have been a bit risky. He was 8 months old when he was gelded and Mum pretty much threw him off a few weeks later.

 

[Tia]

No it won't be shown so no probs there.

Clouds foal is due in the April so there will be another foal around and I will still have yearlings and the little 2 year olds so there shouldn't be an issue of littlies to play with.

 

[Tia]

Great to know that others have done this. Incidentally my palomino mare was born in September and she's a big strapping lass.

Mid April is probably the best time here so with Cloud it was a case of having her foal around the 1st April or the 1st May - well May this year was very very hot and the bugs had started coming out, so I went for April as this year April was so nice. Whatever so long as the foal is healthy when it is born, we'll look after it.

With Golden, because I only bought her less than a month ago, I really didn't have the option of doing it earlier, it was just a case of do it or don't. So we did. Of course it isn't confirmed yet - watch this space.

 

[Tia]

Thank goodness I am not alone in my thinking. The trouble with life is that sometimes it doesn't work out quite how you would prefer.

Yes I have quite a few options in relation to how I keep this foal if the weather were to turn really nasty. We have the stables but we also have large barns which can easily be penned off to give Mum and babe a good amount of space for overnight or bad weather accomodation. Mind you all the fields have barns in which are pretty big and the horses all go inside on bad days - they have hay and water inside so they don't have to go out if they don't want to.

Oh I feel better now after speaking to you other breeders. I wasn't worried but it's just that I have never had such a late foal and wondered if there was something I might be missing.

Thank you all for replying.

 

[Tia]

I'm sure it will be fine too.

 

[KatB]

My boy was an september foal, result of being accidental!! Means we've taken things slowly with him, but he's never had a problem. Someone else viewed him before me and turned him down because he wouldnt have been mature enough to do a full season eventing this year, but their loss! Justdepends on the horse me thinks!!

 

[miss_bird]

Had a foal born 2 august this year and she is living out full time, big field shelter for when its wet, and she is a large lass and prop stronger at 2 months then most other foals at 2 months.
Dont worry you will deal with everything as it happens

 

[Dougie]

we had a mare at work who had a foal in ocotber!!!!

tia, u have enough experiance, more than most, at breeding and horses in general sure it will be fine