Surprise foal

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Rolo--Chilli

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Hello
I am new to the forum but was hoping for some advice please.
First of all i will tell you a bit about me, I have 2 ponies for my daughter Rolo a 11,3 Bay roan and Chilli a 12 h Ba. I keep these at my brothers yard which is also a riding school and a livery yard.

Yesterday my sister in law got the shock of her life when she went into the field to do the afternoon check of the ponies, she found a foal stood in the middle of the field. After much shock she worked out who the mother was and brought them both into the stable.

The mother is a 13,2 pony who was brought to the yard a year ago next month. The owners of the pony didnt know she was in foal when they bought her and to be honest neither of us could tell either.

Anyway enough of my rambling now for the advice please, this pony has been worked up untill 3 days before she gave birth and when i mean worked i mean all pony club activities show jumping shows and very long hacks. Do you think this will have caused any harm to the foal. Also this is the first foal we have had at the yard and would like some advice on how to care for him.

Many many thanks if you got this far.

Rolo--Chilli
 
First off the vet should of been to check the mare & foal, therefore you would know if there was anything wrong. Plenty of mares go through being worked while in foal as the new owner has no idea. While the vet is there advice can be sought as to future care of both animals. I know this is unhelpful, but I dont always think a forum is the best place as people can not see what is being discussed. We have no idea because there are no photos of the condition of either animal, so how can anyone comment. I honestly do not want to come across as unhelpful, but a vet really ought to have been called out. Again plenty of owners dont & no harm done, but if you are inexperienced then all the more to have a vet check done on them both.

Sorry for the unhelpful comments, but wish you all the best & I am sure all will be well. There are some really good books out there & I am sure there will be plenty of advice offered on here as well.
 
Many thanks for your comments.

the vet was called immediately yesterday once the foal was found, and also later when we thought she hadnt delivered the placenta.

The vet said they were both healthy although the mother was underweight, he gave us advice on what to feed her etc.
 
Hi... When you found the foal, was it suckling? I ask because it
is important that the foal suckled within the first 6 or so hours
of birth. The colostrum from the mare is only able to be
absorbed by the foal within that period of time. If you are
unsure about the timeline, it would be wise to have the vet run
an IgG test on the foal to determine the baby's antibody cover. If the results show a low reading, the vet can administer antibody-rich plasma to the foal by IV. Actually, even if the foal had been suckling, based on your assessment of the mare's condition, it is possible that the antibody reading could still be low. Has the mare passed the placenta?

I hope all goes well with the mare and foal. Good luck with
them...you should have a ball with the little one this summer!
 
Congratulations on the surprise! Oiccies are a must you know so get the camera out.

Follow the vets advice and make sure baby is not to harrased by all the riding school admirers - they sleep a lot and need that rest as they grow so fast.

Our 'Surprise' foal turned into a stunning 16hh Hunter - this is him at a local show at 2yrs old
619eae8a.jpg
 
Hi

Yes the foal was suckling well when we brought him into the stable with the mare.
So hopefully he will have got what he needed, the vet wasnt concerned about the foal at all just the weight of the mother which we are trying to resolve.

Just worked out how to put a pic on so here goes.

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Awww that's very cute, looks like he may go grey like his mum, he looks paler round his eyes.

It looks like you have things under control. Follow the vets advice o feeding and try to keep the foal in a quiet box when the riding school is open. There will be plenty of time for admirers when it's bigger and stronger. Mum doesn't need to use her energy protecting the foal. Chances are if you didn't realise the mare was in foal, then she probably didn't run milk and lose her colostrum. She looks like a great mum.
 
What a lovely foal, congratulations!

I can't imagine working the mare will have caused any harm at all to the foal - he looks very healthy to me, and your vet would have flagged up any potential problems. These surprise foals are more common than you might imagine!

Best of luck, and enjoy.
 
Fear not, the mare looks very capable and the foal is suckling, I had one just the same, a 14.1 Section D, the foal was a bit skinny but turned in to a beauty and she was a great delight to me and to her mum.
The foal got a serum jab as the mare was not up to date on her own innoculations, vet checked her over and she never had a moments sickness.
I phoned Dodson and Horrel and got mare up to nearly 2kg or Mare and Youngstock, yours is smaller so would need less, mine was in at night for a few weeks due to weather but otherwise all was easy peasy, oh except I could not get hold of Baby for five months [lol]
They need regular worming with special worm stuff, Panacur I think.
 
Try and get hold of a copy of Janet Lorch's book, From Foal to Full-Grown. It's an excellent book. Try Amazon! Good luck - the foal looks lovely and will be an awful time-waster for months to come..

Enjoy!
 
Congratulations and good luck :D

Foals are awesome creatures and total timewasters - many a happy day has been spent simply watching them play :)

A note of caution - Please make sure there are no haynets or rug racks/strings in the stable! They are an accident waiting to happen with little foal legs. (Just in case you use them - sorry if you don't but I just thought it was worth mentioning if you haven't had foals before)

B x
 
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