My first Foal

[DollyDoo]

Hey Guys,

My mare is having her 2nd foal but first time for me.
Her last foal was a surprise/accident, and this time its an accident again! she broke out of our yard and escaped to the friesian stud. up the road.
I need some major advice as im freaking out!!
I am 13 so dumb it down slightly Mum is Obvs. helping but it's more my responsibility.
Help!!!

Love DollyDoo

 

[Thistle]

Do you know her due date? It wil be 340 days after she went visiting.

 

[DollyDoo]

We're not 100 % Sure. We think its roughly the end of october, which is very late i know, but my mare is a bit of a ... girl
She is already producing milk, but its more watery, she is roughly 7-8 months in and is due bout 3 days before my birthday - what gift!! I can post some pics if that would help?? xxx

 

[Alexart]

Sorry I didn't realise you were so young when you PM'd me, sorry I overloaded you with info!!! But I would definitely get the From Foal To Full Grown book and the Foaling Simplified books - they are good books to read!!
You say she is producing milk already? - is that just when you try and milk her or is it running down her legs?
As this foal will be a very late baby you will have to take extra care over winter to make sure she gets all the right food and vitamins to help her produce enough milk for the foal and keep the weight on herself - it will be expensive! - so she will need some very good haylage as much as she can eat - you can tell they are getting enough if there is plenty left in the stable in the morning. Foals start to eat hard feed and haylage at around 7 days old so you will have to make sure the foal gets enough to eat.
You will definitely need to be stabling her at night at that time of year and keep her in if the weather is awful as you don't want baby being born in a storm!!
What breed is your mare?
Does your Mum have experience with mares and foals?
Also did the stallion owner know what happened as they may want to make sure their stallion has not caught any diseases from your mare which he could pass on to other mares when they visit him!!

 

[DollyDoo]

Thanks about the book, i'll look it up

Mum hasn't got ANY experience - I have more than her! We had the vet over and she said the milk maybe an infection or i have an extremly hormonal mare (i say the 2nd one!) She's a fell pony, and EXTREMLY hardy, we did stable and rug(out door) her for 2 months when we first got her but she hates being stabled and she gets far too hot being rugged. Mum want's to keep the birth natural and not coop her up - so would it be ok to (bareing inmind when we get our new shelter our yard will be fairly small) Keep her in the yard away from the shetland, but so she can co in and out of the shelter when she likes? I will have to persuade mum that the foal will need a winter rug! We know Dolly wouldn't have given the stallion any illness as she has had a foal before (by accident - she loves being a mum!) i was mainly concerned about weaning and such as we don't have a lot of land.
We aren't keen on the idea of telling the friesian stud as they might charge us for a covering, but i will try and persuade mum to talk to them as they could be a great help thank you soooooo much xxx!!!

 

[Alexart]

I'd cover her with antibiotics for a while to make sure she has not got placentitis, which it sounds like is a very strong possibility - it is a uterine infection which can cause scarring on the placenta - basically you end up with a dead prematurely born foal as the placenta can only reach a certain size and the foal will die - a mare running milk this early is NOT normal and is usually caused by a foal in distress - normally a mare will only run milk for a week or 2 before she is due not months before!!!
Have you had her scanned in foal? - as fells can be prone to twins - also would rule out a phantom pregnancy.

I would also urge your mother to tell the stud as I am amazed a stallion can cover a mare with no-one noticing - how on earth did your mare get in with him? - and yes she can transmit diseases to him even if she has had a foal before! I doubt very much they would charge a stud fee at this stage as it is hard to prove but I think they might look at getting more secure fencing/padlocks on gates to prevent anything happening again!!
I know if a mare got in with my stallion it would be very hard to get her out without him following or climbing fencing!!!

Get your mother to read some books ASAP as the mare is legally her responsibility, no offense but a 13yr old should NOT be in charge of an in foal mare!!! If I were you I would send her to a nearby stud to foal, the stud that owns the stallion maybe more than willing to help or know someone who can - that way you know you have people on hand who know what they are doing and can check on her every half an hour for weeks on end day AND night if needs be until she foals and the stud will have the facilities - I assume your mother will be doing the checking otherwise as you will be at school? - mares/foals can and do die having foals and it all happens very quickly so you can't mess about!!!!

The foal will need a waterproof rug, or rather several as they grow so fast over winter, as they are not designed to be born at that time of year especially if you are not planning on stabling at night.
A field shelter is fine but you still need her stabled at night until she foals when the weather is bad - horses have a brain the size of a peanut and will more often than not not use a shelter, young foals can die from getting cold and wet!!!!

How much land do you have? Weaning doesn't need to be done until the foal is at least 6 months old, you need ideally to have enough space to either separate them totally with VERY secure high fencing as they will climb OR a nice big stable that you can shut the top door for a week or so until they calm down, AND a buddy that the foal knows well to keep it company. You will also need to keep it separate from it's mum/other mares if it is a colt as they can get even their mothers in foal from 6 months old onwards! You would also need a stable to have a colt gelded in. Mares once the foal has been weaned need to go on poor pasture to prevent mastitis or they can get very sick.
Does your mother read what you are posting on here? - if not get her to do so - she can PM me if she likes as I have had a mare foal in October, cost me a fortune in feed over winter!!, many years ago as she lost her foal early on and we didn't realise and as she was with the stallion took later in the year! - so I have had some experience of a winter baby, other stud owners on here can also give you plenty of advice or email me - alex@mealrigg-stud.co.uk, well done though for seeking advice and not waiting until the last minute!!

 

[magic104]

Thanks about the book, i'll look it up

Mum hasn't got ANY experience - I have more than her! We had the vet over and she said the milk maybe an infection or i have an extremly hormonal mare (i say the 2nd one!) She's a fell pony, and EXTREMLY hardy, we did stable and rug(out door) her for 2 months when we first got her but she hates being stabled and she gets far too hot being rugged. Mum want's to keep the birth natural and not coop her up - so would it be ok to (bareing inmind when we get our new shelter our yard will be fairly small) Keep her in the yard away from the shetland, but so she can co in and out of the shelter when she likes? I will have to persuade mum that the foal will need a winter rug! We know Dolly wouldn't have given the stallion any illness as she has had a foal before (by accident - she loves being a mum!) i was mainly concerned about weaning and such as we don't have a lot of land.
We aren't keen on the idea of telling the friesian stud as they might charge us for a covering, but i will try and persuade mum to talk to them as they could be a great help thank you soooooo much xxx!!!

So who owned her when she had the 1st foal? Is there a reason why she was not injected to remove the foal when it was realised she had been covered? What happened with the weaning of the 1st foal. Sorry for the questions just seems a bit odd that she is now have her 2nd accident. If mum is a native & has access to a field shelter then that should be fine. Depends on the weather conditions as to whether foal needs a rug to start with, but if we have a repeat of last winter then I dont see how you will get away without. Natives dont normally foal in October, so their foals are a lot older & stronger going into winter.

 

[Alexart]

My thoughts exactly Magic104 it does sound awfully suspicious!! - but if this is genuinely a 13yr old kid then this is just a disaster in the making and I feel sorry for the poor mare - the mother has some serious questions to answer!!!!!!

 

[DollyDoo]

My thoughts exactly Magic104 it does sound awfully suspicious!! - but if this is genuinely a 13yr old kid then this is just a disaster in the making and I feel sorry for the poor mare - the mother has some serious questions to answer!!!!!!

Well, Mum is looking after her, And her last foal she had on her 18months before it was weaned, I don't know a heck of alot about it as my grandma bought dolly for me (she is very experienced and was going to train her, we are seeing her in half term to seek her advice)

My mum is very keen on natural horseman ship - which is why we don't have stabling, but we are working on getting a gate fitted onto the shelter for tempory stabling, I am 13 i just want a few questions answered and my mum is looking after dolly, I just feel i should know as much as i can to pass on to her.

We are calling the vet today to ask how much a scan will cost, we didn't think she had been covered, as there were 2 stallions in the pen (she jumped the fence, no ones fault, these are very trained stallions so they didn't misbehave when the people took dolly out, it wasn't until dolly started to get fat without eating a lot we realised she could be. we thought as there were 2 stallions they would have fought instead of covering.
I just wanted to ask a few questions on here, we are getting prepared, I just wanted to know if it was safe to leave her out with a field shelter as she's a native, will i have to take the shetland out of the field a week before she's due? it's just the shetty is 19 and suffers from seperation anxiety.