Here are a few snap shots this evening of my mare that is expecting her foal. She should have at least a month to five weeks still to go but I am not sure she is going to hold out that long. She would be safe having it up to three weeks early, but any earlier than that and it could cause problems with the baby not having fully developed. This mare is 17 years old now and has had at least 10 babies so she is an old pro. Do you see what I mean about that HUGE belly!! I didnt get a chance to brush her off and she is standing in the mud eating her hay from the feeder. Her stable has a door into the one field (it is normally the shelter for whoever is out in the field but I have converted it into a big stable for her) so she comes and goes as she pleases. You can see that she enjoyed her new sawdust, she has it all over her and must have rolled in it because it is right up on the centre of her hind quarters LOL. Poor thing.
I have only seen two foals born out of the 20 odd that we have bred. They will normally have their babies very early in the morning and you can stay with them for days waiting and watching and the minute you go out to get a cup of coffee when you come back there is the baby!!!! Cat for instance has had three foals since coming to us, the first one she had two and a half months early and I found it dead in her stall in the morning which was very upsetting. No chance that it would have survived it was just too early. Her other two BB and Eb were both born at 10 in the evening BB had already been born when I went out for the last check at 10 and I saw Eb born because she showed signs that I now recognise that she is about to give birth. I had to help her with Eb because when the baby is born the two front legs and head come out first stretched out together but his one leg was bent at the knee and she was having trouble so I had to help her straighten it out and whooosh out he came LOL. The other foal I have seen born was my bottle baby Wiggle which is another reason I am so attached to her. Her mother had no problems though. The mares in general really just want to be left alone and a lot of breeders now use a foalcam to watch what is happening rather than being present in the stall, that way if they see problems they can get there to help. There are a lot of foalcams on the web that you can watch different breeders' mares who are about to give birth. The site is called http://www.marestare.com, there are stacks of cams there. http://www.marestare.com/twins.htm is the cam for one of my fellow bloggers whose mare had twins last year. If you love horses her blog is a definite must to visit and the story of the twins is amazing. I have just visited her foalcam and see that her mare has had her baby!!! Must have happened today or last night and I missed it. You will see her comments on my blog to link to her blog, her name is MiKaels Mania and she raises Arabians.As far as the mud on the horses coats go, you can help them shed with a shedding blade and when there is a lot of mud to scrape through it helps to pull out the hair, just like if they roll with the dried mud on them.
Okay that is my babble for the day. Cant wait to get back to normality. Sorry for the snapshots today, will do something more creative tomorrow I promise. Thanks to everyone who visits and for the great comments. John you are right horses are a lot of work LOL.
Stay well and have a great Tuesday.
Lori
6 comments:
I told my daughter about your blog. She loves horses. She goes out to a barn every Saturday morning to clean out stalls and just be with them.
Your horse looks so heavy. She is an old pro, isn't she, to have had 10 babies.
Whoa, wide load! Great shots to show her as she works toward delivery date.
Wow--now that is a belly! I bet all she is thinking at this point is "Get out!!!" Looking forward to the baby pictures:-)
These aren't snaps! They show something wonderful, it's amazing how 'babies' are carried in different animals, I hadn't realised they got so wide! :o)
Hope the rest of your week goes well :o) {{{HUGS}}}
I'm laughing! I have you talking more and more about horses. You better be careful this will turn into a horse info blog like mine LOL
Your mare is HUGE! She's bigger than my mare that just foaled. I posted the first installment on the birth. You know me.....I'm
windy.... so it ended up in parts. It makes better therapy that way....
That's a HUGE mare!! I love the shots from all angles as well as all the info on equine deliveries and obstetrics!! I will check out the foalcams.
Can't be too much horse in your blog; for me anyway :)
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