RE: Mares in Foal

["Lone Pine Ranch" <lonepineranch@velocitus.net>]

I have birthed about 25 foals in the last 15 years. I am no expert but
experience has taught me alot. One is that the following is true: "You can
put a foal in a safe padded stall and they can/will still eat the padding,
colick & die".

I provide the safest environment possible for foaling (after doing all the
right immunizations/vitamins in combination with turnout for the mare) that
I can. I have a 12X24 foaling stall. The doors are solid to the ground (no
room for little legs to get caught), I have three cameras that connect to my
computer indoors to monitor the mare by without distressing her with too
much human intervention.

I still have had a mare get into trouble by getting her foot wedged between
a plastic corner feeder and the wall. It had very rounded corners, she just
was wedged with a baby half delivered, hanging out of her. Fortunately with
the help of a strong rope we were able to get the rope around the front
foot, get it unwedged and move on to deliver a weak but viable baby. The
mare collicked within the hour and with the help of a good vet, lots of
drugs and TLC the mare/baby are fine a year later.
	I really like the book you are referring to but temper it with reason. Most
of us cannot afford to hire outside help and we have to sleep sometime (let
alone work for a living). Do the best you can and work towards the best
outcome possible. I do not put any horse in pens fenced with barb wire, let
alone a foal so that is way beyond what I can accept as inherent risk.
Marilyn

-----Original Message-----
From: RhndLev@cs.com [mailto:RhndLev@cs.com]
Sent: Monday, February 11, 2002 9:42 AM
To: ridecamp@endurance.net
Subject: RC: Mares in Foal


In a message dated 2/11/02 3:22:49 AM Central Standard Time,
guest@endurance.net writes:

<< Are there any pasture birth folks out there or do we all wait and wait
and
 wait to have the baby dropped as soon as you decide to take a pee break? >>

That's exactly how most of my previous babies have been born.  And they
lived!  I had a high dollar mare that I foaled out in a stall, but then
turned her and the baby out in a barbed wire pasture within a day.  They
lived and didn't have a mark on them.  I kept the filly on pasture for seven
or eight months and then moved her to a show barn and within 24 hours had
scraped her face all up.  Blessed are the Broodmares is FREAKING ME OUT.  If
anything happens it's all my fault for not being observant enough or being
too lazy to make the environment completely safe or . . .   ARGH

Rhonda


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