It is also a good idea to visit the mare mid day. It has been my experience that the majority of mares foal during quiet times, those times can depend upon farm routine. If the quietest time is mid day...she'll probably foal then. Usually quiet time is after feeding in the evening and before breakfast is served in the morning...a little inconvenient for humans but comforting to the mare. Two years ago a friend of mine had a mare coming due and she was still out in a community pasture. I suggested perhaps it was time to bring her into the foaling stall whereupon the owner and her vet assured me they had things under control and the mare had several weeks yet to go. My observations of this mare told me otherwise, however, so I once more asked if it wouldn't be safer to bring her in just in case. After half an hour of debating the issue the woman insisted she was not going to bring the mare in for several weeks yet. I would not have been concerned except the area the mare was in was very small and overcrowded with a mixed batch of horses from yearlings to mature, mares and geldings. Not a place available for the mare to isolate herself, and no clean area for foaling. Finally I had exhausted my arguments and turned to leave when the owner yelled "OH my GAWD we have a baby!" While she had been telling me she had things under control the mare TOOK control and foaled. Needless to say we had our hands full trying to separate the mare and uncooperative foal from the inquisitive pasture mates and the mare was stressed unnecessarily. In checking back the vet found she had entered an incorrect date in her book as the breeding date...she was off by a month. The mare knew she was due!! She had been sunken around the tail head for several weeks, dripping milk for days, and was hollowed out in front of the hip bone, full in the flank and dropped in the belly, all classic signs of impending delivery, yet her human caretakers refused to SEE those signs because their book had said she wasn't due.
It is important that you take note of any changes in the mare even though you feel she is still weeks from the expected foaling date. Watch for behavioral changes as well as changes in shape, condition, motion, etc. Being alert at this time can sometimes save you a lot of extra work and worry later on. For instance if a mare suddenly goes off her feed, starts bleeding, isolates herself ..any strange pattern or condition change can be a precursor to impending delivery or abortion. It is wise to be alert and should you notice signs like this contact your vet. A premature foal has little chance of survival at this stage. The earliest I have ever saved one was 5 weeks early but it was a rarity for it to have survived. It was a purebred Arabian colt and he had barely any hair and weighed in at a whopping 48 pounds!
At 3-4 weeks you should begin checking the mare every couple of hours. If you work it is wise to either schedule time off for foaling or see if a reliable friend can spell you when you have to be away. If you use a friend, be certain to show him/her where all supplies are, where the vet's phone number is, YOUR phone number where you can be reached in an emergency, and also make certain that person has read up on foaling and will not panic as things begin to happen.
Keep in mind that the newborn foal is born with no immune system of
it's own. Therefore it is vital that the mare be in excellent
health so that she will pass the life preserving antibodies along to the
foal through her first milk (colostrum) It is therefore highly suggested
that at this stage you give a booster round of vaccinations
& maintain your worming program. It is important NOT to use boticides
at this stage unless it is Ivermectin. Foals can inherit worm infestations
from the dam in utero, therefore careful attention to worming should be
taken during pregnancy. Antibodies, however are too large to pass
through the umbilical cord, therefore the foal's life depends on the mare
having a good quantity of these life saving antibodies available in her
milk. Equally important is to remember that a foal's gut will only
absorb these antibodies for approximately 12 hours after birth. Therefore
you cannot hurriedly give the mare a vaccination hours before and expect
it to do any good for the foal. It takes days for the mare to assimilate
the vaccine, weeks to develop the desired antibodies.
At 2-3 weeks hourly checks become warranted. Now you will
be looking for small nuances of change within the mare and her routine.
I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to spend TIME observing your
mare before this time approaches so you will be familiar with her individual
patterns. If you have not done this, you may completely miss subtle
changes that give warning of impending delivery. Sometimes
the only indication you may get is the fact the mare is standing in a different
place in her stall than usual...of course other mares may have every symptom
in the book and run with them for weeks before getting down to business,
but the moment you get complacent...that will be the time you should have
been on guard!
Anything from 330 -365 days in gestation is considered normal and anything past 310 days can produce a viable foal. Because your handy gauge tells you the due date is such in such does not mean the mare read the chart! Average gestation is considered 340-345 days. The longest I've personally had without complications such as fescue poisoning , was 366 days and a normal delivery. The earliest was the 5 week premie mentioned before. You need to be prepared and because a mare went the expected 345 days last time in no way means she will follow the same pattern this time.
It is thought that foals born in cold months go long and those born in warm months go short, however I have not witnessed this to be so in the several hundred foalings I've attended. I have seen connection with weather patterns, however. If weather has been beastly for a few days and then suddenly breaks out, it seems many mares will relax and get the job done. One particular year we had several mares due over a period of 3 weeks. The weather had been very stormy, windy and wet. We got a break in the weather and within 2 days ALL of the mares foaled!! The mare does have some control over the timing, just how much is not known for certain.
Some mares are very secretive and will actually hold off labor if they think anyone is watching, so make your observations from a place inconspicuous to her. Standing outside the stall to the side of the door perhaps. I have drilled a hole in the wall of the stall so I can observe without her seeing me...she'll know you are there, but will accept that so long as she is not disturbed. Other mares enjoy the company and encouragement of having you there...your observations of her patterns and attitudes will tell you which type you have. Do not let your feelings and desires influence your choice of observation positions. For the most part mares want to be ALONE. That is what nature intended and at these times most horses revert back to instinctive behavior.
As the due date draws near there are certain physical changes that occur some of which are indications that you should now not leave this mare unattended. Many sleepless nights have come my way during foal watch...some mares will have every symptom of first stage labor and carry those symptoms for days or even a period of weeks. But those symptoms should not be ignored so stay with her. Others show relatively no symptoms and will foal without warning. It is up to you to be prudent and observant.
Most generally, just a day or so before foaling a mare will change shapes. Her belly will drop and get quite pendulous, her flank will become full to bulging while in front of the hip bone will hollow out. She more than likely will have already displayed the sinking in around the tail head and lengthening of the vulva as well as bagging up and perhaps waxing or dripping milk. Strangely enough, however, since becoming involved with the Fox Trotter breed of horses, I have noticed that many mares of this breed show signs of mammary development much sooner than some other breeds, yet seem to wait longer to let down their milk. Also, many of them seem to show signs of first stage labor; switching her tail, yawning, rolling, kicking at their belly, stomping their feet, rubbing their face on their legs, chewing their feet, nipping or looking at their sides, etc, for as much as 3 weeks prior to foaling. This seems to be rather breed specific and can get your guard down because you simply get tired of waiting. However, even if a mare slips into such a pattern of behavior, she will generally deviate from this just prior to foaling....stop yawning, or switching her tail, etc. You do need to spend time in observation or these small changes go undetected and you miss the foaling.
In Theresa's book it gives a list of symptoms of physical changes and another for behavioral changes. If a mare expresses 3 or more symptoms from each list, it is likely foaling will occur within 72 hours.
Now you are up to the time of delivery. You have been witnessing some or perhaps all of the symptoms mentioned above. You should not leave the mare now. What you are watching for is the breaking of water. Most vets will tell you that when a mare's water breaks it will come out in a voluminous rush shortly followed by the membrane encased front feet of the foal. In most instances this is very true....HOWEVER...be alert to the fact that not always is this true. If you see fluid leaking from the mare and she is not squatting as she would to urinate, KEEP WATCHING. This dribbling or spurting of fluid could be an indicator of a malpresentation and should not be discounted!! In the last 2 years alone I have had mares vet checked and told they had days or weeks to go, all of these mares foaled within a few hours. One foaled within the hour and the vet had just examined her declaring she was way off yet. No one knows your mare as you do, follow your gut feelings.
If as you watch ,the mare's labor progresses by presenting a "bubble" (fluid filled membrane with the feet of the foal visible) leave her alone to get on with the job. Now you should begin to time events from the first sign of water breaking. From that time until delivery is accomplished there should be no longer than an hour elapse. Second stage labor, the part where the foal is actually expelled, is extremely explosive in horses. If each contraction or push of the mare does not produce visible results be on your toes and ready for action. Normal delivery presents the foal with one foot slightly behind the second and the foal's nose laying down between. If this is not what you see, you have a problem, sometimes minor, sometimes major...but a problem no doubt. If the foal's hoof is not facing soul down toward the mare's hocks, the foal is being presented upside down and can cause death or damage to the mare. If you suspect a malpresention, call the vet then get the mare to her feet and walk her. Often this will cause the foal to slip back inside and will allow for repositioning. If not, at least the mare is not laying there exhausting herself with fruitless labor. In equines, labor is so intense it does not take long to exhaust the mare, therefore you need to help her conserve that energy until it can be used more productively.
Keep in mind that most mares do NOT run into problems like this, however you need to be ready just in case yours DOES.
For the best reading on malpresentations and other complications of delivery the book mentioned above is a very good and detailed source. Theresa Jones works as an equine midwife in the Midwest working with 5 different vets on breeding farms of Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses. She wrote the book in simple, easy to understand language from first hand experience. In the next segment of this article I will detail a few of the complications and also the proper way to "help" the mare and foal in delivery.
While this information is assuming you are foaling a mare out in a stall, paddock or other enclosed and private area, you should be following the same sort of diligence even though the mare may be out at pasture. While pastures are generally a fine foaling place they can make it very inconvenient to get to the mare and confine her if she needs assistance. Of course in larger opperations it is impractical to bring in each mare and therefore they are allowed to foal naturally and for the most part unassisted much as their wild counterparts would. The success rate for foaling this way is somewhat less encouraging than attended births, however, the rate of foal mortality is not usually as high as in the wild. This is generally summed up to the fact domestic horses usually are in better general health.
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Copyright © 1999 Dyan Westvang for the Missouri Foxtrotter News. All rights reseved.