Levels of supervision for near-term mares!

[Ample Prosecco]

Just pondering. I have a few friends who breed and I've been more clued into what they do since starting to breed Amber. And they range from sending mare to foal down at Poole House with foaling alarm on vulva and full vet team onsite, to leaving mare out and finding the foal in the morning! And everything in between. All foals have either been fine or not regardless of how they foal.

Lat year I was on 'foal watch' in my lorry till vet sent me home saying Amber had a few days to go, whereupon she promptly foaled without me a few hours later. She has just come in again overnight as she is pretty near Ithink. (Not quite there though) and I am wondering what to do. What do others do? The only thing I have decided for sure is she is not being sent away but will foal at home, and she is in at night now in a big foaling stable so the foal is not born in a field.

I plan to sleep up there when it appears imminent, but really don't want to be doing that for days on end - but equally if I wait too long I might miss it again! In some ways I wish I was casual/relaxed enough to just find them one day. But I am far too stressed about it for that!!

 

[Highmileagecob]

Could you set up a camera? Even a wildlife camera might work if you got the angle right.

 

[Tiddlypom]

I would have likely lost both mare and foal if I had let my mare foal naturally at home .

I lost my nerve about foaling at home and sent her to Twemlows. Normal healthy pregnancy but she did go over her due date. Foal turned upside down during labour and got stuck, but two highly experienced stud grooms turned her the right way, but still put an emergency call to the resident vet who arrived just after safe delivery of foal.

The trouble is, when things do go wrong when foaling there is very little time to call in help if you at home alone. If the mare foals without supervision then anything can happen. Usually all is fine, of course, but when things go wrong speed in getting skilled help is of the essence.

 

[ihatework]

Given I only breed a few (well two in my entire life) and each has actually had years of thought out into them, I’d never forgive myself if something went horrendously wrong that could have been saved had the horse been in the right set up.

Both mine have been at professional studs and under camera 24/7

 

[eggs]

The first foal I bred she stayed at the livery yard and I slept up there for the last few nights doing two hourly checks - she still managed to drop the foal between checks. I will caveat this with the fact that my vet was only 5 minutes away.

For the other foals I sent the mares to stud. My main reason was that I had moved and my vet was now a good hour away so if anything had gone wrong it would probably be too late by the time she arrived.

Turns out that one of the foals was very big and got stuck. The experienced stud staff called the vet but did manage to get him out before the vet arrived.

 

[julesjoy]

Always under camera. But if she's out in the day she may yet foal in the field! Early on I used a basic baby monitor to watch whilst staying in the car so I wouldn't disturb the mare. Then I upgraded to a WiFi camera that I can watch at home - caveat that I only live 5 minutes from the yard.

 

[Clodagh]

I had a camera installed, too many horror stories not to.

 

[spacefaer]

The only foal I ever bred was unintentional (TB mare bought in foal but we didn't know)
We weren't sure of her due date because the stud had no record of her covering.
So we made an educated guess and made up a stable for her to come into about a fortnight before she was due I had planned to start foal watch duties as soon as she looked imminent. Handy since the stable was outside my bedroom window

So she foaled in the field the night before I had planned to start bringing her in, having barely bagged up and with no wax.

Everything was perfect thank god but I was very annoyed with her that I had missed it all! I swear she knew what I had planned!

 

[Xmasha]

I have cameras set up, from a couple of angles. I start bringing the mares in at night around the 300 day mark. I then watch them to get an idea of their evening routine. I then start taking photos of udders in the morning and night and check vulva/ bottom wobbly etc from around 320 days, or when they start to bag up etc etc.
i then watch them more often as things start to get closer. So will wake every few hours through the night to just check, but usually when they are a few days away i stay up until midnight with the camera on all the time. ( while watching tv/cooking etc etc ) You can usually tell by midnight if somethings happening. If not i go to bed and wake every hour. Prime time for ours to foal seems to 02.30am.

Cameras are key, you can watch them on your phone without disturbing the rest of the house. Havent missed one yet by doing this. Certainly glad i didnt with Pip as we would have lost the foal .

Good luck and hope all goes well

 

[blitznbobs]

Definitely have to be on site and watching -
When things go wrong they go wrong quick… i would never forgive myself if i lost a horse due to what is essentially negligence. Cameras, alarms, the lot here

 

[TheMule]

Camera, and I stay at the field when looking imminent. Only needed 1 night last time!

 

[Caol Ila]

As you know, we had to wing it.

But we set up a solar powered Reolink camera in the field, and said field was next to the YO's house so they had eyes on her.

 

[TigerTail]

Solar powered reolink in field, took the caravan down as soon as she started bagging up but the morning there was milk dripping I didnt leave the field til she had it at 9pm that evening. She did nothing I had read about re signs of labour and the only odd thing was a big cat stretch about an hour before, troughed her dinner, then lay down and shelled out a biiiig filly for a first foal!