My foal was born last night... hmmm... who's the daddy?!?

Bowen4Horses

Bowen4Horses

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Hi all

As some of you know, i rescued a mare a few weeks ago that was in foal. She was poor and moth eaten. And not very friendly (hubby has lovely hoofprint shaped bruises on his testicle area...).

Anyway, she's brightened up, she has fattened up and whilst it would be a downright lie to say she's friendly, she's not so scared/nervous and back-leg-kicky and we are actually able to handle her...

And then last night, at 4am she popped.

BEJEEEEEZUS.

The foal is rather large... is this a normal sized foal for a little shetland? or has she been covered by a shire horse?!? :p

An hour old:
foal.jpg
 
Oh wot a lovely story and photo!! That looks too big to be a shetland foal to me but heyho, it looks healthy & well, well done for helping them both:D
 
Completely missed the original post saying you had rescued her but what a lovely story!

That is one big :eek: but very cute foal :D

Might be worth posting this in breeding also to see if they can shed any light on his breed.
 
No wonder she kicked your poor husband in the nether regions! if i knew that was due to come out I dont think i would let anything with any dangly bits within a hundred miles of my rear. Poor poor girl - my eyes are watering at the thought.

Well done you for taking her and "amazon" on !
 
Echo Bravo said:
no wonder she was grumpy.
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that's exactly what we have been saying! and strangely she's positively chilled out today - mind you, we did have to help her get him feeding and she was getting very stressed so i think she realised we were helping. she's suddenly got a much softer look in her eye.

i dread to think what covered her. it's heartbreaking, especially as she's only about 8hh herself. and SO tiny and fine. not like a nice stocky shetland. :( i wish people would think a little bit. we really are very lucky she did so well. :)
 
Gingerwitch said:
No wonder she kicked your poor husband in the nether regions! if i knew that was due to come out I dont think i would let anything with any dangly bits within a hundred miles of my rear. Poor poor girl - my eyes are watering at the thought.

Well done you for taking her and "amazon" on !
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lol!!!! so funny!

not a shetland person, but unless they come out fully grown then I'd say daddy was something bigger, possibly something like an irish cob???!!!! But you won't know for sure until it matures!! Well done with rescuing her! Will be interesting to see it try to feed from mum at 5-6 months old!! may have to get down on it's knees lamb style!!!!
 
I know someone who had a very very stupid vet who said her 16.2hh 2yr old colt wasn't old enough to be fertile!!! He covered successfully a very aged 16 hand mare and a standard shetland. The larger offspring is very nice and aged mare coped suprisingly well, the smaller has some parts of its body horse sized, some shetland sized!! Its super odd looking!! But amazingly the sheltand mare was fine!
 
competitiondiva said:
Will be interesting to see it try to feed from mum at 5-6 months old!! may have to get down on it's knees lamb style!!!!
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i think this may have been part of the problem last night/this morning. he was struggling to get to her teats as he was only snuffling around for things at head height. he has a good suckle on the walls, on her head, on her tummy, on my leg, on my hubby's hand... but we got there eventually after much coaxing and teat squeezing... bless him. :)
 
I'm sorry, but as she is called Mary, and the father is a mystery, I don't see how you can call him anything but Jesus.
 
I was so taken aback by the foal's size I decided to show my boyfriend... he has declared that the foal 'just has to be part stallion" to explain how it's so big. :D :D :D :D
I haven't bothered to explain :p


Anyway, lovely looking foaly and well done to mum, as others have said, no wonder she was grumpy!! :)
 
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We have a shetland on our yard who was covered by a welsh A, foal came out roughly the same size as yours and now 9 months on towers over her mum.

Well done you for taking them both on and giving them a loving home xx
 
Wow big foal! Very sweet though!

Our little shetland x came about the same way (from a black shetland mare too!). The owners bought the little black shetland mare and then one day the daughter came running into the house saying there was a baby. They didn't believe her until they saw little Teddy (who is now 11.2hh)

We think Teddy is shetland x fell but can't be certain. Do you have any history in the mare?
 
Poor little mare. Glad you've got her now though. That is one huge *and cute* little foalie in comparison to her! As someone else said, i think the sire may be a welsh of some sort or maybe a small nf? She must of been huge while pregnant, he's massive!
 
Big foal, but he looks very healthy, so well done to you all. As for his daddy, who knows, but something bigger than mum!!
Keep the photos coming. (I think the name Jesus is kinda apt too!! lol)
 
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