When are mares more likely to foal?!

[EquestrianFairy]

Is it more likely on warm, sunny evenings/mornings or does the weather not matter?

My last mare foaled on a very warm night but shes rather quirky anyway

 

[magic104]

When they want to! My last 2 chose 4.45pm & 8.45pm out in the field. Both mares were comming in at night, but obviously had other ideas!

 

[EquestrianFairy]

Does the weather matter? will they foal in the rain for example?

 

[magic104]

Not if they can help it no. As a young girl I knew a mare that foaled out in a storm, but she was on a chain & had no other option. She had gone over her time & I think she just could not hold on any longer.

 

[Penniless]

Well our mares usually foal down just as we are looking forward to watching a particular programme we've waited weeks to come on, or about to sit down for a pizza!

Weather doesn't matter - ours generally foal down in January and February and it's been snowing as well when they've foaled.

 

[ZAHRA]

hiya my mare foaled on the 25 th may this year-the weather was awful, i left the stables to get some warmer clothes and a munch, left at 12am got back 2.15 am and my filly was up, dry and suckled, got to see her first poo!

My other mare foaled out in the field, in the afternoon when i was catching up on sleep!

i got my maiden mare left to foal now-hope i'm there this time

 

[AndyPandy]

In one study, 65.5% of mares foaled at night between 8pm and 1 am. In another study, 80% of foals were born between midnight and 6am. They try to hold on until no observers are around, which may be one of the reasons why overzealous expectant owners are more likely to have a mare which is substantially "overdue". When the foal is ready, it's ready, and there's only so much the mare can do to stop it getting out

 

[JanetGeorge]

[ QUOTE ]
In one study, 65.5% of mares foaled at night between 8pm and 1 am. In another study, 80% of foals were born between midnight and 6am. They try to hold on until no observers are around, which may be one of the reasons why overzealous expectant owners are more likely to have a mare which is substantially "overdue". When the foal is ready, it's ready, and there's only so much the mare can do to stop it getting out

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep - that sounds about right! They MIGHT choose a time - or they foal when they HAVE to. Of 11 born here so far this year (whoops - make that 12 as I had a surprise this morning!

) 3 have foaled in broad daylight. The rest evenly divided between those who foaled before midnight - and those who foaled 3 - 6 am.

One foaled definitely before she was ready - she didn't let her milk down until 12 hours later and the foal's skin around the face and nose was very crepe-like - but it was big and bruised the hell out of her on the way out. It had just got too big. The mare was about 334 days. But one big roomy mare went to 355 days, and then couldn't get a huge foal past the pelvis without considerable help - and considerable damage to the mare. Obviously there was room for him in the uterus - so she didn't feel compelled to chuck him out earlier - but she hadn't measured him up against the size of her pelvis. And that's what those who claim that a mare 'limits' the size of her foal forget! Yes, a mare will foal early if the foal is getting too big for the uterus - but the size of the birth canal/pelvis is what actually determines whether a foal is TOO big to be born safely!

 

[Marchell]

Science and reality tend to differ I find!

The vets will tell you that the mare dictates the size and that the foal dictates when.

In relality I think the mare has a bit more influence though but its difficult to know if its due to a hormonal stimulation in the mare or a maternal instinct;

e.g a few years ago one of my mares went into labour and subsequently delivered a healthy live foal (but after a long labour). Whilst this was going on, another broodmare, in a totally separate stable area seemed to become aggitated.(she wasn't due for another few days). She calmed down and all was well until the following night when she had a red bag delivery and a dead foal.She is a VERY maternal mare and I suspect that she smelt the hormones from the first mare on my hands and decided to 'hurry things along'.

Last year I had two 'coupled' mares due on the same day. One gave birth in the early evening and so the following morning I turned her and the foal out into a small paddock with the second mare alongside in an adjoining paddock.Within minutes the second mare lay down and produced a foal, as if not to be out done by her mate.

In essence, they come when they want!

 

[KarynK]

I monitored two mares closely this year, all my mares have a choice I have a school sized foaling paddock with a field shelter, my horses live out 24/7 365 in a small herd so are very in tune with the weather.

The first mare is an old hand purebred TB. I used water hardness testing strips to monitor calcium levels as an indication to foaling (They are brilliant and extremely accurate). This mare was due in March, she began to go up the scale and then clearly powered down though a spell of wet then cold weather, she powered up again 24hrs before the weather broke and gave birth in the shelter at 3:20 am to an absolutely perfect sunny day, this weather lasted 3 days whilst the foal found her feet.

The second mare is a Canadian import originally born into a herd running on a ranch in Saskatchewan, which can see temperatures that range between 77 in the summer and -43 in the winter. This was her first foal and she was due in May. This one I monitored using both testing strips and my equine refractometer. The levels of colostrum and calcium both clearly reacted to the weather with her climbing the scales ready to foal then powering down BEFORE the weather forecasters gave the weather warning! Again she gave birth on a break in the weather with levels climbing again before the weather changed she foald at just gone midnight.

So yes mares that live as naturally a life as possible and foal in spring are very in tune with the weather!
However what was really interesting is that the mare across the road, stabled every night throughout the winter gave birth in April when it was very cold weather colder than when my mare powered down in her calcium production! So when a stable is available its possibly a different story.

 

[S_N]

Just from records I kept myself during the 2 seasons I have been a foaling manager working nights on TB farms, I can say that that out of 137 mares foaled in 2002 (in Kentucky), 94 of them foaled between 7pm and midnight (68.6%). Out of 97 foaled in 2007 (UK), 56 foaled between 7pm and midnight (57.7%).

Bearing in mind, 2002 foals were born between January 11th and April 4th. The majority born in February and it was well below freezing day and night!! The 2007 foals were for the whole season, from January 18th to June 18th. The majority born in MArch and April and a very high number born during the day in April - possibly due to the inordinately hot weather last April?

 

[Spot_the_Risk]

A local miniature pony stud (min shetlands I think?) reckons they tend to foal down when the weather is very bad, we are on Dartmoor so it can be foul.

Our mare, who lived out 24/7, had her breakfast and then foaled in front of us at 8.30am on 8th June last year. She is a very 'people' type of horse, and clearly wanted us around!

 

[danni1986]

in all the mares ive seen foal, they usually seem to cross their legs and hold out for nicer weather. Surely in evolutionary terms and survival of the fittest, a mare would want her foal to live, and to do so it has a much better chance of survival if born on a quiet, warm and dry night. obv other variables effect it, esp due to the domestication of horses, but i agree that mares who are exposed to nature the most and much more in tune to the weather!