First time breeder - Foal inside or out???

Weeash7

Weeash7

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Last summer I put my 16.2hh belgium warmblood mare into foal as i was away over the summer and was starting a new job so decided this was the best time to do it. She is around 9 months along and so far the pregancy has gone without a hitch and everything has been great but I am having a bit of a dissagreement with the yard owner over the best place to foal.

i have spoken to the vet and she advised that if i can foal her in a stable that would be better as if anything goes wrong during the birth she is already in. yard owner on the other hand wants me to foal outside as she said there is less chance of her droppning next to a wall or a door and crushing the foal.

Now, if i decided to foal inside I would need to use her stable as it is much bigger than our other normal 12x12 stables and I kind of get the feeling she is trying to discourage me because it would be an inconvienience to her and she would need to remove her bedding ( although I did say I could put straw down over the shavings bed and make sure it is very thick and so when the straw is removed after foaling her bed would be intact - she did not like this idea too much as she said the placenta etc would still soak through to the shavings.......I don't have a clue if this is the case or not)

Anyway, I am inclined to go with the vets advice but at the same i feel pressured to go with her advice and she has managed to scare me with stories of foal getting stood on ( mind you this is the girl that said that the foal has a 50% change of dying! tried to explain statistics but that didnt go down well, did say ' so that means that half of all foals born die......eh don't think so, we wouldnt have so many horses if that was the case).

what are other peoples experiences and where do they feel is the best place to foal their mares???

thanks.
 
I'd always foal inside if possible. They are also much easier to monitor through the night. Your mare will need to be watched and checked upon during the night and day and her being in a box at night is so much easier - plus as you will be watching and fingers crossed she wont foal when you pop for a drink etc, you will be there to prevent the foal being crushed etc. My mare last year did foal into a wall, que me having to go in and scrape away my banks etc but in honestly, my mare stuggled with the foaling and it really took it out of her - IF she had been in a field, i may have struggled to get her in as she was exhausted.
The other consideration is the fencing of the field, and if there are any dyke/dips which are puddle prone etc as you dont want to risk your mare foaling there and the foal drowning.

I would TBH insist that i foal her inside, but why dont you move her shavings bed into your 12x12 stable so it doesnt get wrecked, offer to fully disinfect the stable afterwards etc. OR, offer to replace her shavings bed if you put straw on top.
I wouldnt like the idea of a mare foaling on my shavings bed and it not being replaced TBH, sometimes there is a lot of mess/water that you expect.

I really wish you luck with it and i would follow your vets advice, and a YO cant really agrue with the vet (i am a YO and you have to respect the owners/vets advice and wishes even if that means having to jiggle things about).
 
If it is mid summer and days and nights are good we usually foal outside.Mares and foals are healthy.If however the weather is bad then I would suggest she foals inside but probably would need something more than a 12x12 as they do get themselves into some compromising positions.Maybe just take out all of your straw after a few days foaled and move mare to smaller box and wash and fog yard owners box and she will have no need to get petty.
 
I would foal inside if its your first time and her first time, personally i would want to take the shaving out completely, I have always been told the mare should go into a completely washed out,disinfected stable with clean bedding to foal but why dont you do this and replace the shavings? then she cant complain at having her bed replaced! :)
I like the idea of foaling outside but I personally wouldnt do it because I would be too scared of missing the birth and something going wrong.
 
I am hoping to foal my maiden in the paddock that is right outside her stable, in fact the paddock is between the house and the stables and we overlook it so easy to monitor. I am lucky in that I can electric fence off half the paddock (it's all post and rail) and keep the mare in an area that can be floodlit using the yard lights. My mare is due early July.

However if the weather is really bad or I decide to use CCTV in the stable I have a 15x20 stable I can use.
The horses are used to being out and night and in during the day in summer so I think it will be easier on the mare to follow her normal routine.
 
thanks for your advice guys.

this will acctually be HER 3rd foal and MY 1st so shes more experienced than I am haha. we do have a small paddock right next to the stable block that she could foal in if thats what I decide. And it is eletric fencing and flat land, so no barbed wire and no ditches etc. The stable she would foal in would be around 12x22 ish. and i know foaling boxes are normally much bigger than this but is the biggest stable we have on the yard and the vet did say that this stable would be ok.

I had originally said I would remove all the shavings but to cut a long story short she went on about how long it had taken her to get a good deep litter.

I like the idea of being able to foal outside but at the same time I would hate to miss the birth (but I bet i do neway, she'll drop wen I go to the toilet or something) and If anything went wrong when she was outside........
 
I'm planing for my mare to foal in the stable because this is her 1st foal, and like many have already said, if things... might/and do go wrong, hopefully will be a lot easier to deal with in the stable :)
 
i have spoken to the vet and she advised that if i can foal her in a stable that would be better as if anything goes wrong during the birth she is already in. yard owner on the other hand wants me to foal outside as she said there is less chance of her droppning next to a wall or a door and crushing the foal.
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Personally I'd follow your vet's advice. And as for where the mare has the foal - that's fine. You'll be there with her to ensure there are no problems.......

You'll also want to reconsider the electric fenced paddock.
 
Weeash7,

poor you. You not only have the question marks, of a first time foaling mare, but now contradictory views from your vet and your yard owner! You will understandably be stressed yourself, and if you can manage it, then trying to stay calm, around your mare anyway, will help her.

Providing that you can be assured that the mare will have an eye cast over her, at the time of foaling, then I would foal outside. I would be highly suspicious of any electric taped fencing, and as your mare is a maiden, and she may not be too sure what to do with her foal at birth, then there may be a risk of the foal and the mare being separated after birth.

If you think that your yard owner is more concerned about the additional work, then why not offer to take that work on, yourself? Would that placate her?

After all the worry and stress which you're enduring, the chances are very high that your mare will be fine, inside or out, and that when you have a healthy feeding foal, then you'll put all the worry behind you.

Good luck, and please do let us know what happens!! :)

Alec.
 
My mare had her 1st foal outside and I was there it was 11pm on a warm July night

My vet told me that this would be fine only advantage to a stable is being able to monitor and lighting should anything go wrong. my mare was 8 foot from th house with lots of lighting should we need it.

I struggled to gett little one to feed so they came in 3 hours later and the smaller space helped me to get her to stand still so he could find what he was looking for.
 
Alec Swan said:
Weeash7,

poor you. You not only have the question marks, of a first time foaling mare, but now contradictory views from your vet and your yard owner! You will understandably be stressed yourself, and if you can manage it, then trying to stay calm, around your mare anyway, will help her.

Providing that you can be assured that the mare will have an eye cast over her, at the time of foaling, then I would foal outside. I would be highly suspicious of any electric taped fencing, and as your mare is a maiden, and she may not be too sure what to do with her foal at birth, then there may be a risk of the foal and the mare being separated after birth.

If you think that your yard owner is more concerned about the additional work, then why not offer to take that work on, yourself? Would that placate her?

After all the worry and stress which you're enduring, the chances are very high that your mare will be fine, inside or out, and that when you have a healthy feeding foal, then you'll put all the worry behind you.

Good luck, and please do let us know what happens!! :)

Alec.
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We foal everything inside but then as a professional stud we have a responsibility to our owners .
One thing i would say though is that never in a million years would i let a mare foal outside in a paddock with electric fencing.
It doesnt bare thinking about what sort of trouble a new born foal stumbling about trying to get up might get into .
All well and good when the foal is 12 hours old and has mastered the art of getting up and down but if for any reason the foal is week i have visons of foals crashing headlong into electric tape and getting hung up or even strangled by it.
Sorry but couldnt do that one.
With regard to stable size many mares will happily foal in something 12 x 12 if they have to.
Something i have learnt is that if a mare is going to foal against a wall they will do it whether they have 12 feet or 50 feet believe me we have seen some bizarre foaling in the biggest areas possible.
 
sallyf said:
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One thing i would say though is that never in a million years would i let a mare foal outside in a paddock with electric fencing.
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I echo this but I do foal all mine out (they are all mine so no one is paying except me of course!) But a young foal has no idea of an electric fence and before you know it will have fallen through it! They get to know about electric fences when they are older as I turn it on on the post and rail when they are a month or so old.

Mine are foaled in a post and rail paddock with a field shelter and they choose, but only once in cold weather has anyone chosen the field shelter over the paddock, and then at dawn she took baby off down the paddock. The paddock is fully lit and I have found it much better this way for me and mine.

They have been much more relaxed out and having monitored them they have all chosen the best weather to foal as they are more in tune with it living out. I like to be there to check everything is OK and let them get on with it watching from a distance.
 
Foaling outside in a paddock is more hygenic however with that comes many obstacles. It can be difficult to monitor the mare pre-foaling and especially if she decides she wants to foal at night. Any problems with birthing can be tricky if you can't get lights etc out to them. I, like the others, would never dream of putting a foal in a field with electric fencing. I've known too many people lose foals because of electric fencing. I don't see a huge problem of foaling in your stable with a deep litter shavings bed so long as you put a ton of fresh clean straw down for foaling on top of it. The size of your stable should be fine. It's smaller than a lot of foaling boxes but many horses foal down in much smaller areas. If the mare goes to foal in a corner or an inconvenient spot then you'll have to get her up and let her choose, hopefully, a better place in the stable to foal down.

I foal all of mine inside because I can monitor them easily and I have lights and electricity there so it makes my life easier but I do like to get the newborns outside in a paddock the following day providing it's not raining. Hope all goes well whatever you decide.
 
Just to clarify, in my situation the elec fence will be removed the second foal is born, it's just a short distance to keep the mare where I can easily see her in the dark. They would then have access to a 1/2 acre or so post and railed (3 rails) paddock.
 
Thistle said:
Just to clarify, in my situation the elec fence will be removed the second foal is born, it's just a short distance to keep the mare where I can easily see her in the dark. They would then have access to a 1/2 acre or so post and railed (3 rails) paddock.
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Sorry my commensts wernt aimed at you so hope you didnt think they were :)
You did say your paddock wa basically post and rail in your original post.
Its just i see pictures of newly foaled mares out in fields with multiple strands of electric fencing dangling everywhere and it sets alarm bells ringing .
 
Personally I foal outside. I was told that as long as the mare has been in the foaling field for a while, they build up antibodies to the nasites present and this is not the case in a stable unless it is thoroughly disinfected and shavings bed underneath removed. Ditto the electric fencing though but over all I think there is actualy less of a chance with foals knocking into walls etc. but if the weather's bad inside is best.
Good luck!
 
ok, so now im thinking deff foal inside. but now my question is.......we only have eletric fencing in ALL of our paddocks and feilds. so how soon can i put mum and the liitle one out to grass if there is a risk of foal getting caught up in the fencing.

oh dear, now im getting slightly stressed lol.
 
Does the mare have to foal at your yard? If the facilities aren't ideal, and the YO is not being helpful, it may be worth sending her away to foal, then having her back when the foal is old enough to cope with electric fencing and other problems.
I've foaled mares at home, several of whom decided to foal outside, and I prefer it that way - but I would also have no hesitation in sending a mare away to foal if it was in her best interests.
 
Weeash7 said:
ok, so now im thinking deff foal inside. but now my question is.......we only have eletric fencing in ALL of our paddocks and feilds. so how soon can i put mum and the liitle one out to grass if there is a risk of foal getting caught up in the fencing.

oh dear, now im getting slightly stressed lol.
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Perhaps it might be an idea to look at more appropriate facillities to foal your mare down at.
 
I think it's up to you, inside or out, you need to decide which you are happier with. There is no right or wrong answer!! (I foal mine in BUT purely as it's more convienient for me to monitor them on camera and to assist if needed)

I have foaled a 15.2hh mare in a 12' x 12' box with no problems, so I wouldn't worry too much about the size of box you have.

However I would NEVER run foals in fields with any kind of electric fencing. I have had 2 bad accidents involving yearlings, 1st time I just put it down to bad luck (and a large vet bill) after the second one I just won't risk it again. Thats just my personal opinion though as I know others that use it with no problems.

Good Luck with whatever you decide and keep us posted :)
 
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