Mare due to foal soon, Should I.....Please help?

Question

She is due very soon and showing signs of foaling. She has 2 pasture buddies and that she is very attached to, but I am concerned that if I leave her to foal in the pasture with them that they will try and hurt that foal. Her buddies are a hackney pony, whom I'm not worried about messing with the foal. But there is a huge 5yr old mare that is the BOSS and BULLY of the group, and I'm just worried that she will try and kick the baby or worse.

I don't want to cause the Mare any stress so close to foaling by pulling her away, she has also been known to run thru fences to get to her buddies.

What should I do? The pregnant mare doesn't like to be away from her buddies and we sure don't want to loose this foal!

Answer 1

  I would remove the five year old, unbred mare from that field, and put her in a field by herself, where she can see and hear her friend, but cannot get to her. As for the hackney, is he an older gelding? If so, I'd leave him where he is for now, because chances are good your mare will tolerate his being around her new baby, when she never would do so with the other mare. Meanwhile, you need to get your foaling area ready, and have a means of keeping the gelding out of it as your mare gets closer to her time. Most mares foal at night, or very early in the morning- this is a carryover from the time when all horses were wild and lived in herds. There was less danger from predators like wolves and mountain lions at night, because most were not as active.

If your mare is already showing signs of getting close, then you need to separate the 5 year old from her as soon as possible- and it might be advisable to put her in a stall in the barn for a while, if you don't want to leave her in another paddock. You can let her back out in a different field once the baby comes- for the first 10 days of the foal's life, he/she and his mom need to be turned out ALONE, for everyone's safety. That means even the gelding needs to be moved out of there eventually.  I agree that your mare should foal outside, if that is where she has been living and is the most comfortable. Being out in the open air means less chance of infections in both mom and baby, and it makes it easy for you to monitor her condition and pay attention to what's happening. Just be sure that whatever area you choose to use for the birth is really clean and deeply bedded with fresh straw- shavings and dirt will cling to the foal's wet coat, and they can cause a nasty infection if they get into his or her body through the navel stump, which is an open wound right after birth. You'll also want to make sure you have plenty of supplies on hand, such as old towels to dry the baby off, for example. I would put a cot or a chair down by the paddock too, and a muted light source, because you need a place to sit or rest while you are doing foal watch on the mare.

Good luck- I hope this helps- and congratulations on your new foal !!  

Answer 2

ok you need to put the mare in a different pin if you can put her in a pin that is close to her friends that would be better or in a barn

but if there is a bully then it's not good to have them together

the mare need time with the foal and she needs not to have to worry about others around

oh and get a foal kit ready

good luck

and enjoy your new little one

Answer 3

If you don't want to lose this foal, don't take chances.  Give the mare her own stall.

It does happen that mares foal in the middle of the day (and in thunderstorms!) but if she's not imminently about to foal, you might be able to leave her out days.  Are you at home to keep an eye on her?

Good for you having the foaling kit ready.

Answer 4

My advice is try to put her up in a stall. (In the barn.) Mares usually foal at night time also. Put her where her other buddies may see her and smell her. Also, the stable should have a good thick bed of wheat straw piled up the walls, if the mare is going to have to foal in a field, the field should be safe, no steep slopes, clean pasture, safe fencing, no barbed wire. When the foal is due, hay nets should be removed and water buckets at the last minute. **When she starts to foal she more than likely want feel like the other horses being around her. They usually run them off. At least mine did.** Horses have a strange personality.** You can also call you local VET and get their advice. Good Luck!    

Answer 5

Do not let that big bully mare in with your pregnant mare.  It's a recipe for disaster.  

If you choose to have your mare foal outside (which would not be my preference simply because most mares foal between 10pm and 6am and its hard to see out there.  Better you see every detail (such as a red bag) than miss something and have a dead foal) you might want to keep her with the pony but the big bully mare can be a problem.  We do not let our mares foal outside but will let them hang out with a good buddy in a supervised paddock (meaning a video camera on and someone keeping an eye on it) during the day.  Only a truly trusted buddy is allowed in with the mare and only one buddy.  I would honestly prefer to keep the mare alone and her friends in a neighboring pasture.  Otherwise the mare is in at night and the buddy in a neighboring stall.  In the wild, mares go off by themselves to foal and rejoin the herd the following day.  There is no reason to put the mare in a position of defending herself while foaling against a bully mare who may injure the newborn foal.  Our foals are simply too valuable to take that risk... isn't yours?

Glad the foaling kit is ready... hopefully you won't need the vet until the following day.  :)

Answer 6

As most mares foal at night i would start bringing her in every night just to be on the safe side. Also if at all possible bring her friends in too and stable them near her so she can see them. Have a big straw bed down with big banks round the sides, the bigger the stable the better.

If you cant do this then it would be wise to put her in a seperate paddock next to her friends or even with her pony friend, if you think this pony will be no threat. She really needs her own space to bond with her new foal. We have had mares foal early and out in the field, mostly the other horses are just curious and want to meet the new foal, they dont usually want to hurt it.

Good luck, its an exciting time x

Answer 7

Move her to another pen where she can still see and hopefully touch the other horses, but so that she has some privacy and also a barn or some kind of cover. Good luck.

Answer 8

If you have stall to put her in go ahead and do it.  She should be fine.  But if you can't, most mares can foal outside just fine without any problem.  If she's a good mama she won't let any other horse try to hurt her baby.  The only thing I would watch for is the boss mare trying to steal the foal.  Not many good moms will let this happen, but there are a few who won't care if another mare raises their baby.

One of the places I used to work had 100 broodmares and several were allowed to foal out in the pasture.  We never had a problem with it and we always made sure to get the mare and baby checked out right away to make sure nothing was wrong.