You Tube: How not to help a mare giving birth

I know we had to help our mare foal..... she had placed her bum against the second door in her foaling box, we opened it and foal shot out with 4 pushes. Must admit I found the whole process horrible but compared to that video it was a really easy birth. We left the pair of them to get on with it as much as possible.

You will always get people who think they are knowledgable interfering. But nature knows best and should be left to deal with it!
 
I have left my comments - though I edited the language! I also had to leave it in 3 seperate parts to say all that I wanted to!
 
Oh my Ducking God. It takes a lot to make me swear and I apologise.

This clip upset me a great deal and I couldn't watch it to the end, I was so upset - and believe me, it takes a lot to rock me.... Those people should NOT have horses and should NOT be breeding them.

That mare was doing just fine until they interfered. There were so many people in there around her, not to mention the bloody dog. When she got up to move around they wouldn't let her get down again, and then they start to pull the foal out. Those people should be bloody shot, the bloody cruel bar stewards, the bloody septic tanks.

I feel physically sick. That is definitely a video of how NOT to foal your mare. I didn't actually agree with one thing I saw on the vid.
 
I don't think the mare would have stood back up w/o the people being there. It just looked like they were getting in her way to me.

Have only actually been present for one birth but it seemed to me, that my job was up at the front end of the mare -- letting her lean into me on each contraction while she was still standing. Once she went down I still stayed by her head, but things proceeded very rapidly (<30 seconds I'm guessing) even though she was no further along than this mare was when the video began.

This looked painful.
 
I've just watched it with Duncan. First thing he said (after he shut his mouth from being shocked) was "what the hell was that about?"

He can't see why they felt the need to interfer and why when they got the foalie out so fast they didn't even bother to clear it's airways. I never noticed that the first time I saw it as my computer was jerky.

The foal and the mare are clearly going to have been put in shock by the speed of it. How the mare is dragged backwards as they pull, that's so shocking. Not to mention the way one of them pushes the mare while the other tugs the foal. Outrageous. Duncan just can't believe they would grab anywhere on the foal to tug either. I know it's only cows, but he would never pull on anything but their feet and he would usually put a calving aid and ropes on a cow so that the tension is gradual as you pull, not sudden like that.

He agrees with what most of us have said...that mare HAS to have had internal injuries from delivering like that, shock too. Wish she'd had it in her to kick them!

Would like to see her happy with her foalie suckling, would give me a better picture in my mind. If it was such a difficult delivery, as they say, it wouldn't have been over in minutes and they'd have called a vet!
 
where were these people from they sounded american??? looked like they didnt have a clue...and it was all a bit of a circus poor pony i should think it would be mentaly scared for life ..... those people have a lot of appologising to do to that poor pony
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I know very little about foaling(and most of that theory) and am in complete shock.
She looked like she was doing fine untill the ran in behind her, that filly is very lucky the mare diddnt reject her.
Do they really thing they did a good job??????

Even OH (more or less non animal let alone horsey!) is disgusted!
 
One of the main problems going on here is not allowing the mare to lie down again. I think this mare would have foaled no problem without interferance (I'm sure I can spy both front legs in the beginning of the film and then 1 leg is obscured by the water bag for the rest of the film). The main problem with mare foaling standing up is that the placental cord severs as the foal slips to the ground. Mares have a contractile placenta and usually the mare and foal remain connected for a few minutes after birth. During this time the placenta contracts and forces blood into the foal. Usually after this the mare stands up and the cord is broken. In a standing foaling this doesn't occur and so you can get a weak foal because of it.
As for not allowing the mare to clean and nuzzle the foal and having a dog in the stable..............I'm with you guys on that one!
 
you lot do make me cross....

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You are only seeing a very little of what took place. Extremely difficult delivery. Without our help Angel and Brandy would both be gone. After we successfully dislodged the foal Brandy went into shock. She started thrashing with pain so we keept Angel safe. Brandy was shaking so hard she could not stand but she wanted to be with her filly. Banamine and a warm blankie helped. Drying Angel and keeping her warm was also important as it was very cold.

[/ QUOTE ]

Did any of you read the owners commentry?

No.

You decided it was easier to slag them off.

At the end of the day, foal and mare are fine. Who gives a flying monkey what your interpretation of an online video comes up with as 'reality'
 
Perhaps, but a video is a video and not an accurate representation...

Also, as I said, mare and foal are fine - so why slate them for it?
 
because only the birth has been documented; how do we know the mare and foal have properly bonded? how do we know that the mare wouldnt have been perfectly fine on her own? can you honestly say that having three people and a dog in a stable whilst the mare is in labour is condusive to a calm atmosphere?
 
DM, I will takes SimplyNutty's call on this - she is very knowledgeable about this sort of thing & I think her judgement is probably far more experienced than yours.
 
Thing is.... you all know how easy it is to base horrific assumptions on what little you know...

After all... didn't only a fortnight ago myself assume that PG pretty much abused her horse based on a dodgey misinterpretation of a post?

But no one else read it that way.
 
No DM, no-one else interpretted it like that (not that I actually know the PG post you're referring to, but I'm taking an educated guess here...).

Anyway, there's a world of difference been misinterpretting a line of text that someone has typed verses watching video footage. I didn't comment on the video as I didn't feel qualified enough to do it, but I do believe that SimplyNutty IS experienced enough to comment.
 
In response to DM, if people dont want the comments then dont put a video on the Internet for the whole world to see!

All I can say is that they were b****y lucky to get that foal out alive. I would not give them a mare of mine to foal that is for sure!!
 
Never seen a birthing, but even I can see that is not the way to do it!! Mare coping until those two (what? Teenagers??) interfered!
 
Buns, believe me, I watched that 3 times before I posted about it and that mare would have been just fine if she'd been left well alone!! Even if she did need help, the way they went about it was atrocious!! The prat that walked behind her is more to blame than anyone else - I firmly believe (like weezy I'd bet this house on it) that she would not have got to her feet, if they hadn't approached her in such a manner!! HOWEVER, it is not unusual for a mare to get as far as she had, when in labour, and then get up walk around, paw the ground a bit and lie down again - often on the otherside. They did not allow this to happen, instead they used brute force to pull that foal out!! The mare was even being pulled backwards - absolutely barbaric!! The foal then hit the deck, it's nostrils were not cleaned out and nothing was put on the umblical stump!! In my professional opinion these people are nothing short of MORONS!!!
 
just watched it again..did they tie the mare up when they were pulling the foal out? At around 1.30mins.. maybe mistaking something else for it but either that or they were chaining that wonderful gate across..
 
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just watched it again..did they tie the mare up when they were pulling the foal out? At around 1.30mins.. maybe mistaking something else for it but either that or they were chaining that wonderful gate across..

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Had another look...it does look like they're putting a headcollar on her, evertime I see it it makes me more angry!!
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With the sound on it sounds like they've clipped her to the gate.
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I just can't believe how quickly they pulled it out of her.

I read the commentary too, and I've seen a couple of foals being born and I don't think I'm sick in the head for finding that clip worrying.
 
Theres nothing wrong with the second video , The only thing i can say about the first is that they wouldnt have pulled it out that quick if the foal hadnt been so tiny.
You certainly couldnt get a big foal out like that if you really needed to.
 
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