help trying to be hard and live my mare and foal out!!!!!!!

[valentine]

help finding it very hard to live the mare and foal out as im a big softy

mare has never lived out and is starting to grow a fairly thick coat but finding it hard not to put a rug on but the foal is still feeding and i dont wont them to get tangled up. you may be asking why am i living them out i am doing it because i wont the foal to live out after they have been weaned i want life to be as natural as possible for him

what about her condition she is a 3/4 tb any advice greatly recieved

 

[RachelMcTimoney]

just put a rug on at night maybe, take the leg straps off and put a fillet string on instead! mine have got rugs on it is meant to be 4 degrees here tonight. Could you not get a she;ter for them to use? have they got plenty of she;ter from the elements?

 

[Skhosu]

If they have shelter, they both seem in good condition.don't bother putting a rug on!
My connie boy is fluffing up nicely and has no rug on. As long as they have plenty of hay, shelter etc. then they should be fine

 

[Saber]

I'm in the same position.... Though the mare is a cleveland bay and rather chubby... I'm already starting to think 'what if the weather turns bad?' The foal is only 6 weeks aswell... they look so fragile. I'm sure he'll be fine... not that I could catch him if I wanted to... we're still working on that.. We bought the mare and foal three weeks ago.. and the foals never been handled, the mare is quite timid too... Not even sure she's ever had a rug on... hmm... guess we'll see how it goes.
I'm sure your mare will be fine, just make sure she's got enough shelter and food, if the weather turns really bad rugs or/and stabling might be neccassary.
Good luck with your two

.

Rain

 

[S_N]

PLEASE don't rug her up!! Leg strap and fillet strings are SO dangerous to the foals legs, as are cross surcingles!

If there is plenty of forage to eat and lots of shelter, then she will be fine.

I am bringing mine in atm in the wet weather we have had, but only because my mare has little to no condition, she's doing her foal exceptionally well - they will be weaned in about 10 days, once weaned, she will be rugged to the nines!!

 

[valentine]

hi will you then leave the foal out?

 

[S_N]

Urmmmmm depends on the weather tbh and also if he's been sold. Their stable only provides shelter, not warmth........... They have little to no shelter in the field, otherwise I'd leave them out. If I still have him, then for his 1st winter, I would rather he lived in at night.

 

[Maesfen]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm in the same position.... Though the mare is a cleveland bay and rather chubby... I'm already starting to think 'what if the weather turns bad?' The foal is only 6 weeks aswell... they look so fragile. I'm sure he'll be fine... not that I could catch him if I wanted to... we're still working on that.. We bought the mare and foal three weeks ago.. and the foals never been handled, the mare is quite timid too... Not even sure she's ever had a rug on... hmm... guess we'll see how it goes.

[/ QUOTE ]

Please don't use a rug on a mare with a foal; it can be so dangerous; you might not think it would be but you would be devastated if you got there in the morning to find your foal with either a broken leg or neck which is so easily possible if it got hung up in a leg strap/fillet string.

If your foal is only six weeks old now then I would really suggest you stable them at night for its first winter; it will be so much better for him, a warm bed at night in the dry and out of the wind and able to eat his hay and feed in peace will make so much difference to his rate of growth than if he is left out all winter (his dam will keep her condition better too) It is also a golden opportunity to handle him in the box and you will be surprised how friendly he will become when he learns to associate you with grub and a warm bed, plus it's harder for him to get away from you in there! If he was older it wouldn't be so bad but I would be having nightmares if a foal of mine at that age had to stay out at night for the winter; sorry if that sounds harsh.

 

[marmite]

echo that very good advice

 

[lisaward]

my foal too is lateish july 1st to be precise and she will have to live out as i have no stable where she is.i hope she will be ok.
i will be weaniing her jan so she will stabled at home then suppose the worst of british weather doesn't come till after christmas time anyway.
plenty of food is the key i think

 

[marmite]

would nobody at yard with a more hardy horse i.e cob winter there horse out for you to let you have mare and foal in?

True very bad weather as rule of thumb dosent come in until after christmas but we will have a handful of bad nights.

 

[Maesfen]

Yes, but yours is already three months old so is that much stronger already; the other little boy is only six weeks; it will make an enormous difference as he is still the age when you don't want him getting cold and wet which is a bit of an impossibility with our English winters! Yours should be fine, as you say, plenty of keep for them both will help to keep her warm and keep the mare in milk too.

 

[lisaward]

no the mare is kept at friends field and their car mad son converted it this year into a lorry garage.
if i have to she can come home but we have two stallions and this make live difficult allround.
the mare is a hardy devil and she will get fed well.

 

[marmite]

oh right that all sounds good then i dont know alot about foals ect breeding but im a puff with mine i am going to winter them out this year BUT if it gets too cold on a few nights i will be bringing them in.

 

[lisaward]

thanks Maesfenhorse i thought for a minute i was going to get shot down in flames for being so cruel
my mare and foal have lived out this way before and get tons of grub so i'm sure they will survive,also they are in 1 acre field with hedges all the way round.

 

[Maesfen]

[ QUOTE ]
thanks Maesfenhorse i thought for a minute i was going to get shot down in flames for being so cruel
my mare and foal have lived out this way before and get tons of grub so i'm sure they will survive,also they are in 1 acre field with hedges all the way round.

[/ QUOTE ]

I hope shooting isn't my style!

and it's definitely not my place to say how someone should look after their own horses anyway, it's not my business, but I must admit to being concerned as the Cleveland Bay foal is so young. It will cope, probably better than anyone can guess, it's just that it will grow better if it is nourished this first winter; continual cold and wet can take so much out of them. I hope RBTRainbow will take it in the spirit it was meant (as a hint based on experience, not as a criticism - and certainly NOT an order!).
Besides which, we all have different ideas and systems sometimes dictated by circumstances, it wouldn't do for us all to be the same!

 

[lisaward]

i wasn't saying you were wrong about the six week old
foal i was just checking that although mine have done fine living out before i was not being bad by doing so.
i love my horses and want to right by them.
i suppose we'd be boring if we were all the same wouldn't we !!

 

[Maesfen]

Yours will be fine, I'm sure of it, not least because you are a caring owner who knows when their horses might need a little extra help. (that does not mean I think any other person leaving their horses out 24/7 is a bad owner either, I don't, of course not, some horses prefer to be out anyway, but there are some that just can't cope with cold and bad weather; they're the ones we have to be vigilant about) Now before I dig myself into a much deeper hole I am going to bed before someone shoots me!

 

[lisaward]

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Saber]

It dosesn't sound harsh, to be honest it's the sort of thing I've been worryong about, do I bring them in, leave them out? rug not rug.. I really don't know. The problem with bringing in is, although I have a stable, the field the three are turned out in isn't very accesable, I would have to lead them through three fields with horses in, every morning and evening. It's bad enough with my tb who I ride daily. But a mare that barely leads and a foal who would have to be loose at first worries me.
I've asked the livery yard owner if I can swap fields but it's always mentioned that someone else has to have that field. And the majority of people on the yard only ride at weekends and do not bring their horses in. It's something that gets me a bit wound up...how is it fair? I would rather the three of them (Fizz, Orion (mare and foal) and Ruby) were out 24/7 but I don't want to compromise. The ground is sand so sticky mud isn't a problem, and there's more than enough grass. I feed the mare and foal a stud balancer and chaff as the mare is really quite overweight. I'm thinking of bringing them in when the weather turns, but i would rather they stayed out. Everything I hear contradicts everything else... arghhh it's just so confusing.
Any advice is apreciated, I want the best for the mare and foal, I'm not going to be offended if you think they should be stabled, or not... I don't know. I think I'm going to have a chat with the vet when the mare has her jabs and see what he thinks the foal would cope with.

Rain

 

[valentine]

hi yes it is very confusing when i spoke to my vet he just said put them out they will cope! i am now obssessed by the weather forcast it is taking over my life

i am going to get a feild shelter built to give them some protection but i think i will eventually turn into a wimp and bring them in

 

[S_N]

For Valentine and RBTR and HN - if it is impossible to stable your foals, for whatever reason, then PLEASE consider rugs for the foals! They needn't be heavy, as foals grow the fluffiest of winter coats, but just to keep the rain off their backs and to act a wind buffer. Though rugging ANY other horse that is out with them, could be a disaster, as foals like to leap and play on ALL their friends!

 

[Maesfen]

Poor you, that is a problem and a half isn't it?

If that's the case then I think from the safety aspect alone you are going to have to leave them out; it is far too dangerous to be leading mare and foal through fileds of other horses IMO. Also, in my opinion, your YO deserves shooting - don't you deserve as much consideration as their other customers? If I had any options, I would be out of there but I know it isn't always that easy!

As long as mare and foal are fed well ( you can add stud nuts to the stud balancer once the foal is really eating and as much hay/haylage as they need, as the extra food will help keep him warm and she will need extra to cope with all he is taking out of her, it doesn't really matter that she might be a bit porky at the moment, it will soon go when the cold weather comes and she will need it to feed him) and as you say, the land is not likely to get waterlogged (lucky thing, ours does which is why I'm used to having them in!) then they will be fine. I certainly would NOT rug either of them; it really isn't worth it from a safety point of view and as long as you leave them, don't go grooming them, then they will already have started building up the grease and the coats will be thickening up. Even if it rains it will run off and the foal will naturally shelter under or beneath Mum anyway so should take no harm; just don't let him get so saturated that he becomes miserable as that is when the weight will drop off him.

The only thing I would suggest you do before the weather gets too cold, would be to have them stabled for a couple of days so that you can give them a crash course in leading and handling; it will pay dividends by the bucketload - you need to be able to catch and handle him before he gets much bigger, much easier now than in a couple of months; after all, he will need the blacksmith and worming which you can't get done if you can't catch him at all!! Also, do you know if he had any tetenus jabs after he was born as that would be well worth doing when your mare is done IMO as it's one less thing to worry about if you know he's covered.

I'm sure it will be fine but shout on here if you have any further problems; there's always somebody to help. Whereabouts are you btw?

 

[lennysmith]

[ QUOTE ]
hi yes it is very confusing when i spoke to my vet he just said put them out they will cope! i am now obssessed by the weather forcast it is taking over my life

i am going to get a feild shelter built to give them some protection but i think i will eventually turn into a wimp and bring them in

[/ QUOTE ]

I echo this. My 2 have lived out since D was born 6 ish months ago. We ahd a VERY cold and wet night in August, I didn't think anything of it. I went down to him in the morning and poor baby D was shivering. The cold he could cope with the rain fine, but together with the wind, his fluff had got soaked through and he was sooo cold. I know he didn't have his winter coat, although was very fluffy still, but I really would advise a little rug just to keep the wind and rain out.

It's so ahrd, I too have become obsessed with the weather. goodluck with whatever you decide xxxx

 

[valentine]

thanks for all the advice i will let you know how we get on and goodluck to josiejo too. we could soon qualify as weather readers !!!!!!