Foaling Time Is A Sunset Away

As spring approaches, so comes foaling season. The reward for waiting 340 excruciating days is the safe, smooth delivery of a happy, healthy foal. When something goes wrong it can be devastating, and seemingly small problems can quickly become life threatening to both the mare and foal. Careful preparation and planning can go a long way to ensuring the safest possible foaling event, and can prevent potentially fatal complications.


Know Your Foaling Date

This seems simple, but unlike most other species, the gestation for a foal can vary quite a bit. The average gestation of a mare is 340 days, or roughly 11 months and 11 days. Unfortunately, in practice, healthy, normal gestation can be as little as 320 days, and as much as 370 days (longer than a year!). Foals born earlier than 320 days are considered premature and require special care, and often hospitalization. Foals born less than 300 days are extremely premature, and have almost no chance for survival.



Foaling, or parturition, is an explosive and rapid event, and in perfect situations requires no human involvement. However, when complications occur, immediate human intervention is necessary to avoid potentially fatal complications. In most cases, foaling should be an event closely monitored, with attendants ready to step in and offer assistance to the mare at the first sign of trouble.



Unfortunately, most horses foal at night, necessitating at least one, and usually quite a few all-night vigils to catch the blessed event. Knowing your foaling date will help you to plan your stable sleep-overs.



While it is hard to predict when in the due-date range your mare may foal, careful attention to detail may help to narrow the time down. Mares tend to foal around the same time of gestation yearly, so if you have a mare that has tended to foal at a certain amount of days in the past, chances are that she will follow that trend again. Maiden mares are the exception to this rule, and often maiden mares will follow a completely different schedule from their first foaling than any during any subsequent pregnancies.


Have a Foaling Kit Ready

A well-stocked foaling kit should be prepared at least a month before your mares due date. This kit includes items that you will use during foaling (disinfectants, etc) to items that you hope not to use, but stock anyway “just in case”. Make sure to keep your kit in a clean, waterproof box near your mare’s stall, readily accessible when the time is right.



The basic foaling kit should include:



* A flashlight with extra batteries
* Scissors
* Sterile string (such as umbilical tape) to tie off umbilical cord, and tie up placenta as it is being expelled from the mare
* Iodine (for the umbilical cord)
* Mild soap and a bucket (for washing the mares vulva and teats)
* Vetwrap and bandaging material (for tieing up the mares tail)
* Extra towels and gloves
* Enemas (for the foal after birth)



Other items that should be readily available for foaling include a halter and lead rope, twitch, a watch, paper and pen, surgical lube and a charged phone with good connectivity.


Plan Your Exit Strategy



The best preparation you can make for foaling is to be intimately familiar with the process, so that you are quickly able to determine when parturition isn’t proceeding normally, and can summon help. As foaling nears, talk to your veterinarian about possible scenarios, and make sure he or she will be available and on call for you if problems do occur during foaling. If necessary, talk to other vets in the area in advance of the foaling date, and ensure sure you have a support network in place when the time arrives.



If you have a truck and trailer, have them hooked up and fill the gas tank. If an emergency trip to the hospital becomes a necessity, having the trailer ready to go can save valuable minutes. If you do not own a trailer, talk to friends and try to come up with a plan so that if the worst scenario occurs, you are prepared. In some situations, it may be necessary to talk to commercial hauling companies to ensure that your mare and foal will have an emergency ride to the equine hospital if it becomes a necessity.



The old adage about getting things ready so you won’t need them never applied so well as it does to foaling. We hope and pray for the best case scenario, and a trouble-free foaling, but planning for the worst can to provide the best possible outcome if it actually happens. Your careful preparations can make the difference between life and death of both the mare and foal during parturition.


Interested in horses? Stop by our award winning horse forum at EquestrianHorseForum and lets talk some more about foaling and horse related topics.


We will leave the lights on!

WOW! Way to much on my Plate- Equine News

Okay really sorry for the delay in posting but we have been working really hard on the equinenetwork system and my wife picked up a couple news horses in her training arsenal so to say the least we have been really busy.

Lets see what we have to rant about.

Last week I started getting into the "full wheel barrel" as I call it. I started working on being less selfish. Lets face it sometimes we have so much to do we really don't think about helping others with their stuff, so I started on that project.

I also started looking for other equine bloggers to help promote their blogs and behold their are lot of people just like me out there (most have a lot better grammar).

But "hay" I am here just to express my love for the animals not to try and impress the socks off of anyone. And that is what I found, like minded people and I made a few friends.

It is hard in this day and age to get anyone to scratch your back without scratching theirs also. And like I said earlier I am going to try and set out and do this one project this month and see how well I do...

For me this is going to be hard, surely I will get sidetracked but I have already social bookmarked at least 20 other equine blogs and taken the time to comment.

Since you are all taking the time to work hard to keep your blogs up to date. I am going to try and commit to at least once a week. Along with my other blog on my equinenetwork.

So with that said.. here is an article that has been edited and should be close to correct..

Enjoy.. I hope :)

Basic Riding - Before Mounting

Riding Basics - Before You Get On

Most people view riding as cutting cattle, galloping over an open range or serious competition in jumping or other events. Before any of that can happen one must master the basics.

You're facing a large animal with power, big teeth and an instinct of self preservation above all else. The fear of sitting on this should be tempered with the confidence that most horses do not want to hurt people. Communicating with the animal is not the same as with another human or with a dog or other creature. The horse is "wired" uniquely. Respect him for his ability to take pieces out of an opponent, for the power that can crush a threat to his life and the speed to flee a dangerous situation - respect, don't fear. Remember that with a little understanding we can temper those tendencies for our benefit. Being fearful instead of a leader he needs means he's the leader - and many horses don't want to be! So they misbehave, someone gets hurt and the horse is blamed.

Instead approach him with the knowledge that in the wild world he was created to be food, and an appreciation that despite that he allows us to drape equipment on him and ride him! Watch your actions to keep him comfortable. So often a rider gets in the horse's way...and creates a problem where there was none.

Get on safely. Wear shoes or boots with enough of a heel that your foot doesn't slide through. Prepare yourself. These exercises will seem silly - but they will help you!

Stretch your legs out. Use a solid fence board - raise each leg individually as if you are going to step up on the fence. Brace your body and gently lean forward...don't "bounce" or lean all the way to the fence at once...this stretches the muscles in your upper leg. A few of these on each side can make a big difference.

Take a 2X4 or 4X4 board and place it on the ground in a level area. Place your toes and ball of the foot on the board, with your heels on the ground. In sets of 10 to start, then build up to 25 over a few weeks, raise yourself up, then ease back down - this stretches and strengthens the leg and, further, "teaches" the leg automatic heels down. When you get on the horse your leg is then automatically in the position to cue him with your leg, and is less likely to bounce against him when you don't intend to kick him.

On your board stand on it solidly...arms at riding position, and work up to 10 squats. Slowly lean to each side, front and back, and back up. This positions the body for automatic balance. If the horse does spook your body can more easily adapt, absorb the spook and stay in the saddle rather than on the ground. The fall from a 4X4 isn't nearly as hurtful!

Use a few solid blocks, the back of a trailer or truck or another higher area for the last exercise - ideally next to a post with a hay twine. The object is to, with your left leg, raise yourself up to the surface in one step, with minimal pull on the hay twine. While this may seem silly - that higher surface is your "stirrup" and the line is the reins - you don't want to pull on the reins (or the horse's mouth) but can grab the post (or saddle horn or mane). An old manual said a real horseman can mount a horse without the girth being on the saddle, and while that is a challenge that can be a goal with today's tall horses that sometimes isn't so easy! For those of us who are "vertically challenged" getting on a 16.2 hand horse means a patient horse, practice and sometimes a step or hill!

These exercises can be done, quickly, as a warm up before getting on each ride. They'll help you physically do the task at hand, and further help the horse to do his job.


Having a healthy horse to ride is important, but you can work on riding long before mounting up! Exercises to increase balance and leg will make it easier on both you and the horse.

Have a great ride!

Ron
EquineInternet.com

AQHA Helps Us Out Once Again

AQHA is helping us out again by providing us with a free service that we can all use. If you are an owner or breeder this will be of even more value to you. Equine Viral Arteriritis is a devastating infectious viral disease that mainly causes abortions in mares. It rarely kills mature horses, but it can destro your breeding season if mares and stallions have not been vaccinated. Horses that have also been diagnosed with the disease can also be banned from entering foreign countries. For many breeders this is important as even horse semen from from horses with EVA antibodies can be kept from being shipped to breeders over seas. This is an excellent service that is being offered to horse owners and breeders. Breeders need to know if a horse has been tested or if they are positive or negative as this disease can have a dramatic impact on a breeding farm. Breeders can instantly find this information out by making one phone call.The AQHA is offering to keep documentation in your horse's file as to whether or not they have been vaccinated for EVA. A horse may have many different owners over the course of his life and it only makes sense that AQHA keeps the vaccination certificate with the horse's records. The process is simple. All you have to do as a horse owner is have your horse vaccinated and complete the official AQHA EVA Report Form. The form will become a part of your horse's permanent records at AQHA. The form does not serve as an import and export documentation but does allow for owners and breeders to call and confirm that a horse has been vaccinated.

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