Foaling - Hand On or Hands Off

As you all know, it's foaling season and I've been watching mare foaling on Mare Stare again. It's a regular occurrence for me and I'm pretty used to the routine. I tend to watch in the chat room where there's active conversation about what's going on with the foalings. However, I also follow what's happening on the threads. There's a lot of information to be learned there. I actually have a couple of new things I've learned I'm still researching before I'm ready to post.

Last week on Q & A What Was That? a new thread was started that I thought might be worth discussing here. Excessive interference during and after foaling? might be a can of worms. Everyone has their own ideas about how horses should be dealt with and the right way for a mare to foal. There are certainly lots of things to be said for leaving a mare to herself or for doing whatever you can to make it easier on the mare.

I'm not one of those people who could just let nature take its course. I've seen the statistics on mares foaling in nature and they're not impressive. I'd like my mares and foals to have better chances than that so I monitor my mares closely. I'm really grateful for the webcam that has made that a much easier process.

Once labor is underway, I like to be close at hand. I only go in the stall if I need to to check the position of the foal. Then as long as the foal is in the correct position, I try to stall out of the mare's way. However, that can change depending on the circumstances.

If the mare lays too close to a wall, I will go in and get her to move. If the foaling seems to be taking longer than normal, I'll get a closer look to decide what to do. If the mare seems to be concerned, I'll stay with her to reassure her. I really try to take my cues from the mare and her condition.

Once the mare is born, there's the question about imprinting. If you are going to imprint a foal in any way it has to be done immediately after the birth. Lessons left for later are not nearly as effective. I know that from first hand experience.

I read all about imprinting before I ever had my first foal. I thought I knew enough to pick and choose what would work for me. Part of the choosing for me was not necessarily doing things right after birth and I pretty much thought I didn't need to be sitting on my foals.

I breed for horses with big attitudes. I've said this before and I'll say it again that big attitudes translate to presence in the ring. You can't teach a horse presence, they either have it or they don't. If you want to be breeding top quality show horses, presence must be one of the attributes you're breeding. For me, if I want to get the kind of prices I need to keep this Arabian breeding farm going, I need to be breeding top quality show horses and that means that big attitude.

I've been fortunate in my quest and been pretty successful achieving my goals. But the result of that is I had a couple of pretty opinionated colts that changed my ideas about sitting on foals as instructed in Imprinting by Robert Miller DVM. The first that comes to mind would be Scandalous Rhythm. He was the first colt that I knew early on that I should have gotten into his head right from day one.

By the time I knew I was in trouble, the colt was too big and his attitude was growing daily. I had already had a couple of colts with attitudes that were big, but I didn't have problems with those colts at all. However, both of those colts had been sat on by the vet the day they were born because they had to have medical intervention.

By the time I realized that I should have sat on Rhythm, it was too late. Te horse was too big for me to manage alone and my husband wouldn't help.My husband isn't a horse person and he couldn't get his mind around the need to be sitting on baby horses. I had to settle for getting help with Rhythm from Harvey Jacobs when he was two. Granted Harvey taught me how to manage Rhythm, but I still firmly believe had I sat on the horse at birth, I would never have needed Harvey's help and Rhythm wouldn't be as pushy as he is.

The same year that Rhythm was born, I had another colt with a huge attitude, Scandalous Change. Another big attitude but another horse that required medical intervention. The vet sat on him a half dozen times, holding him down trying to get a tube down his throat. The resulting colt was very sweet and easy to handle, just like Image had been. I did end up gelding Chance but not because he was difficult to handle. I gelded him because he was loud and he had a shrill voice. In hand he was a dream, in his stall he was a screamer anytime a horse even moved. I probably could have fixed the screaming if I'd taken the time but it was easier to geld him so I did.

The point is it was clear to me, just like it had been clear to Robert Miller DVM, that those foals that had medical interventions shortly after birth were much more malleable than other foals.The difference between the two colts that were sat on and Rhythm was like a chasm, yet all horses had huge attitudes. They all loved people and wanted to please but Rhythm also wanted to be the leader. Image and Chance wanted to be my best friend.

Because of these experiences, I now try to sit on all of my colts. I prefer to sit on the fillies as well but have to admit that I'm not as anal about it as I am those colts. I can get distracted and not sit on a filly and be totally comfortable that it'll be fine, but those colts, I try to keep them on the ground until they are comfortable waiting for me to let them up.

In addition, I like to dry my foals off and blanket them but I always make sure the mare has access to the foal first. If the mare is still down (which most of mine are) I pull the foal over to the mare's face so she can sniff the foal and like it if she wants. Then while the mare visits with the foal, I dry it off at the same time.

The reason I blanket foals is our stalls are pretty open. They can be cold not to mention our goofy weather is never conducive to foaling. Usually after foaling I have a shivering mare and a shivering foal, so I blanket the foal and fix the mare a nice hot bran mash to warm her up and keep her plumping working well.

But note, I never blanket a foal of a maiden mare without "scenting" the blanket by using the placenta. That's right, I rub the placenta on the foal blanket back at the top by the tail. It doesn't have to be a disgusting wet slimy patch, just brush it across lightly. Also be weary of keeping foal blankets too clean. Some mares will get confused and attack their own foals because they can't smell their own scent of them. (After a couple of days nursing the foal gets that scent from the mare's milk.)

I tend to assist my foals in standing. The reason for that is twofold. First, we tend to have pretty long legged foals which makes it harder for them to figure out how to use their legs and find their center of balance. Second, my stalls are 12 by 12 and that's not all that big for a long legged foal trying to figure out how to use those mile long legs. After experiencing foals bounding off walls, it's much easier to assist them. I stimulate the foal to rise by running my fingers down both sides of the spine. Then I grab that foal by the blanket right in the middle of the back, using it to stabilize the foal while it finds its center of gravity. Once they find that center, they're usually good to go on their own. Occasionally I have a foal that I have to help out two or three times before they finally get it down, but those instances have been dummy foals.

The last intervention for me is usually assisting a foal to nurse. Usually I just point them in the right direction. Sometimes it takes more intervention than that. I have had foals that I have had to get milk from the mare onto my finger to draw the foal to the right location. Sometimes I even have to let that foal suck on my thumb to even get it to follow at all. With a little practice I've actually become pretty good at pulling my thumb out right next to the mare's nipple so as the foal roots to find it again, it actually latches onto the mare.

So what do you think? Are you for hands on or do you think they should figure it out on their own?

The update on Dandy is has improved even more today. I had a nice ride where he started off just like the horse I know instead of pushy and uncomfortable. But he still has visible bloating. It's obviously much better but not gone. I'll keep you posted.

BTW, my cam is up but needs a bit of adjusting (not a simple task) I will begin posting status on the mare soon.

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