Questions for breeders

[sammy]

Do you let your mares foal outside? If so do you put them in a seperate paddock, or leave them with the others?
If inside what size is your foaling box.
Planning ahead so any advice welcome!
Barbara

[princessmisty]

Hi Barbara,
Ours foal outside to keep it as natural as possible. We leave them in the herd situation so it does not unsettle any of them as ours like being together. They have plenty of natural shelter were they are anyway example: walls etc.
Hope that helps

Evie xx

[felldale]

My mares foal outside too. They remain with the herd until the birth looks imminent (ie waxing up, looking restless etc) and then they go into the patch which is a small fenced off area in the back field. I can see the patch from my landing window and the mare is still with her friends as they are the other side of the fence. When Star had Amber the birth was watched on one side of the fence by my neighbour's horse, Rosie, and on the other side by all Star's field mates. I like the patch as it gives the mare some privacy especially if she is a maiden but she still has the company too.

[sammy]

So from the two replies, can't believe that there are only 2 breeders on here! That the natural way is the road to follow.
Any one else do it differently?

[mabel]

I've only bred one foal, so not much experience I'm afraid. Jazz lived out with another mare in foal during the day and came into her foaling box at night. I think next time I'd like to keep her out. I've got lots of natural shelter, but my only worry is fencing as we only have barbed wire with electric tape in front of it.

[Daftmare]

So far we have only bred one foal but hopefully 2 next year. I would always let a mare foal outside so she can move around and do what is natural to her. If the weather was awful once the foal was up and about I would then bring them in. I dont have stables big enough for a mare to foal in comfortably but if I had huge foaling barns then I might think differently.

[angie]

We have bred one foal and let our mare foal outside with plenty of shelter. We left her in the herd but I think it is a good idea to have a well fenced section for her to be seperate for the birth and while she bonds with the foal. Our mare is an experienced mother and bonded with her foal straight away. But one of our other mares kept being abit overprotective of the foal and tried to steal the foal. I would introduce the mare and foal slowly back into the herd next time - when the foal is a week or so old and strong.

[acorn]

Our mares foal outside in May or June. Have had no problems with the births (touch wood). I prefer the mares to be with other mares (with or without foals) but yearlings and two year olds can sometimes get too curious and excited when a new foal arrives. We have sometimes separated a new mother and foal from the herd for a few days if they seem to need more time to bond closely.

Fell and Dales stallions, by and large, are brilliant with foals. Sometimes a boss mare who has not yet foaled will decide to "adopt/steal a new foal and this can occasionally cause problems. We had one potential problem with a mare who foaled unexpectedly and had to protect her newly born foal while the stallion was trying to breed a slighly reluctant maiden mare close by. Thank goodness it turned out all right in the end.

[maggie]

Depends on the time of year and the mare for us. We prefer to foal outside, but if the weather is very bad, would foal in a big (25' x 50') shed. Would do the same for a mare we were unsure about to make certain we could be with her, if needed. It's lucky that Dales mares usually manage very well on their own and wouldn't thank you for fussing round them!

[bruce]

We've always foaled outside and with other broodmares. Any yearling/two year olds or maidens are removed from the scene a couple of months before hand, they prove too curious and can interupt natural bonding of infant and dam.

We've had one mare foal inside some years back and by mistake, and as this mare was semi ferrel, things proved a little testy we had to get to the foals naval as quickly as possible to cleanse. All worked out fine in the end though.

[Debbie]

Now there's a question...if the foals are born outside, do you still cleanse the navel? Or is that from possible contamination with them being inside?

[bruce]

Debbie, a good question actually We do not navel when outside, however, as you know our paddocks/fields are huge and clean and they get moved off winter quarters and put into foaling paddocks/fields [these fields will have been rested for some 6mths or more.

If I had tiny wee paddocks and it was a share basis, I would definately navel them. I knew of one ID breeder that foaled outside on a small paddock which she had grazed month in month out, not a days rest, the foal ended up with Joint Ill. The foal was PTS at 3 months.

Regardless on how clean you think your stable/foaling boxes are, straw/shavings/peat or other forms of bedding can still cause contamination.

[Debbie]

What is Joint Ill?

[bruce]

It's an umbilical infection and effects joints.

I've copied this link over Debbie so you can read it thoroughly, admittedly it refers to lambs, but it is the same for horses/cattle, well any species really.

www.qmscotland.co.uk/analysis/downloads/Joint%20ill%20and%20navel%20ill-nadis.pdf

The only thing this article doesn't state, is joint ill through navel access.

We lambed over 2,000 ewes this year, we had one lamb go down with joint ill and it was because I wasn't on the ball late one night, she lambed in the exact same place another had lambed, I'd not cleaned that area and the lambing ewe rooted and dug to get her bed sorted out and then lambed, I was dealing with another at the time [which was a difficult presentation] and by the time I got to the other ewe, she'd already bitten off and 'cleaned' the umbilical cord, I still dipped the navel and gave a shot of penacillin but it was too late in this instance.

[Debbie]

That sounds positively awful! Thank you for the link, though, it was very clear on explaining everything

Sometimes I think its a miracle anything survives!