STOCKYARD
HORSE DISCUSSION FORUMS

colibanqh · 21-06-2007, 03:06 PM

Hi All!
I would like to share with you the following...

Meet Coliban Three Sox (or Sexy Soxy as we call her at home), she is by Three Solid Bars out of Chips Chocolate Zip by Chips Texas Star (imp)
here she is on the day she was born.

We kept her and her dam in the foaling yard for a week, keeping a close eye on her development, before letting her out in a big paddock.

Have a look how well the mother and the daughter look on the pasture.

enjoying the sunshine

Now please meet Simba, Coliban Solid Gold, by Three Solid Bars out of Delkara Honey Bars by Rumble Cause. This gelding was prebooked from a year before.
on his first day of age

a week after in the big paddock

Foals learn to socialise with other mares and foals before they are weaned at 4-4.5 months of age. We deliberately breed mares in batches, with the view that we'd be weaning their foals in 3 to 4 at the same time. They do cope better at weaning when they have their play mates next to them.
To get foals used to hard/grain feed and hay, we start hard feeding mares in the paddock a fortnight prior to weaning. It makes life much easier when babies have learnt from their dams to eat hay and grain. We walk a mare with a foal to the stables, and leave them in the stalls for a day. The day after mares go out and foals stay locked up in their stalls. We put mares in the paddock right next to the stables, that they can hear the foals but can't see them. It makes mares walk the fence continuosly, they don't stand still , their udders don't get bagged up to the extreme, as a result we've NEVER had any complications with mastitis in mares. We take them back to the big paddock on the third day when they start drying out.
We leave foals be for a week, giving them time to settle in the routine and get over the stress of separation with their mums. Babies require a gradual approach, it works much better. A week later Brian halter breaks, worms them and starts taking them out for a day and bringing them back to their stalls for the night. Foals are taught to lead, tie up, pick up their feet for the farrier, load on the float prior to going to their new homes.

here is Simba getting taught to load and stay on the float

and here is Soxy getting her share of basic handling

We register and DNA all foals prior to selling them. All foals are properly fed and maintained to ensure maximum growth. We put a basic handle on all our babies (they lead, tie up and load). A new owner gets 4 weeks of complimentery free agistment during weaning. A professional horse transport service (Neville Benny's bloodstock transport) is avail. on a fortnightly basis from Newdegate-Perth.

Thanks for looking and have a nice day!

Cheers, Lena.

zoo · 22-06-2007, 12:38 PM

Mare and foal need close monitoring for the first 48 hours post foaling, an IgG (antibody test) can be done after 10hrs. This simple blood test ensures the foal received enough antibodies from the mares colostrum. Even a bright and happy looking foal may not have received adequate quantities of colostrum and within 24 hours or so the foal could start to weaken. In the long term it can save you money and the life of your foal.

The afternoon that followed the foaling of Levi………

I found it necessary to stable the mare and foal today due to the high temperature reached. In the early evening to follow on with my imprinting after the birth Levi is caught by embracing my arms around his chest and bottom holding him gently. This is something I do everyday and only takes a couple of minutes. This helps the foal interact with myself and not be afraid when he sees me.

First 7 days post foaling ……..

Leyla and Levi are doing well, she is very happy with her new baby and has plenty of milk and Levi is suckling well. He is very bright and alert and lucky for me my mare is not over protective and allows me to continue to interact with him. Every mare is different and it is important to respect your mare as to what she will tolerate you to do with her baby, for the safety of yourself and the foal.

The embracing and holding of Levi over the week becomes less as he is accepting of me rubbing and scratching him in all his itchy spots. I then follow on to be able to rub and touch him all over especially his head, mouth and ears with no restraint. He soons learns that humans are great scratching tools. 2006 was particularly hot in December so I decided it would be safer to stable the mare and foal during the day in a walk in walk out stable which received plenty of shade and only let them out into the paddock at night.

2 weeks later ……..

Levi is getting bigger and stronger and is filling out well. He is now sharing food with mum and getting stuck into the hay roll. Our interaction is going well and am now putting a foal halter on and off daily. During the next week after putting the halter on I clip the lead on and off a few times so he gets used to the ‘clicking’ noise. I continue to do this every day for a week.

3 weeks on ……

Levi is now so accepting of the halter being taken on and off and has been taken for his first small walk away from mum. He was quite happy to follow me and I did not need to use a bum rope to encourage him to walk forward. It is important not to go too far away from the mare so there is no anxiety from either. At 3 weeks of age I teach my foals to tie up. The mare is tied up also so she doesn’t decide to wander off or get in the way of Levi. I never tie foals “solid” on the first attempt only wrapping the lead over the rail a few times and holding onto it. On the first go Levi feels the pressure of the lead and steps forward and is quite happy to stand. Every day for the next 3 weeks Levi is tied to the rail “solid” for approx 5 mins at a time. During this time he also learns to lead around the paddock being accepting of leading from both sides. For approx ½ hour every day Levi is handled by , rubbing, scratching, leading and being tied up. For myself I find this makes handling the foals much easier especially if you need to have veterinary assistance at some time, worming or farrier.

7 weeks ………

Levi is gelded. I geld my colts at a young age whilst still on the mare, and in my opinion it is less stressful and such a “little op” at this age. They are gelded at home - a few hours later Levi is running around as if nothing had happened.

I do not have the luxury of large acreage so my mares are hand fed twice a day and have access ad lib hay. Due to smaller paddocks the mare and foal are kept separate from the other horses so there is no cross contamination from the others or risk of the foal being injured’ they stay in the same paddock until weaning. This works for me and when the foal is weaned the paddocks are harrowed, supered and left empty till the next foal is due. Here is a pic of Leyla and Levi’s paddock 2 months after weaning and will be waiting for our next baby to enjoy.

I will follow on with “weaning” next time

colibanqh · 26-06-2007, 01:06 PM

Hi All!
I think some people would be interested in a broodmare management. This is how we do it.

We treat our animals like members of our family, we take animal welfare very seriously. All our broodmares are regulary wormed, we are lucky that we don't have bots here, they do a lot of damage to the gut lining if not treated with a wormer containing boticide. We apply cross grazing method for limiting worms infestations in our stock. Our mares spend nearly all year( when it's a good year feed wise) round sharing the pasture with our sheep, what horses don't eat, sheep clean up after them and vice versa. We worm our mares 1-2 days PRIOR to foaling, it helps a new born foal stay worm free longer. We treat for tape worm once a year too. We rotate the wormers we use, changing the active ingredients to prevent worm resistance. We also get a professional equine dentist coming out to our stud twice a year, so all our mares get their teeth done every second year. Our mares are properly cared for, they are not just numbers of "broodies that don't need attention" and as a result they stay healthy and live longer and are better milkers and better producers.
We run 25 horses on average, it does cost a lot of money and takes a lot of effort and hard work to maintain them all in a good condition, especially during the drought when we have to hand feed them all nearly all year round. Nothing is spared for their well being. We buy and feed minerals and supplements to all our horses.
I've mentioned before that we run our mares in different groups for safety reasons. We don't put a mare with a foal at foot in the paddock with empty mares, it is just asking for trouble. We also don't rebreed now our mares with foals at foot. We used to do it before but changed our breeding management. I wouldn't like myself being pregnant year in and year out and be used as a breeding machine, so I treat them accordingly. All our mares have a year off after foaling, it gives their bodies time to recover and get back to normal.
We don't ride our pregnant mares and don't give a LFG (live foal quarrantee) to the outside mares, in foal to our stallions, that are brought back into work.
We start breeding our maiden mares at 3 years of age. But each mare is taken on the individual basis, if she is not mature enough, we breed her later in the year (Nov-Dec) or give her another year to grow up a bit more.
We don't leave foaling to mother nature , I know too many real people who lost their mares and foals during foaling that went wrong. It would break my heart to find my mare dead during foaling and I'll do anything possible to prevent it from happening. And if it means that we have to get up to the foaling alarm and check on a mare 2-3 times during the night, it 's a small price to pay.
Our oldest mare is 20 this year, she is safely in foal in the USA and coming to Australia in October. She went in foal from the first go, what an old reliable trooper she is! She'll spend the rest of her days around the homestead, hard fed, rugged and looked after like a senior member of our large family.
Thanks for reading!
Cheers, Lena.

colibanqh · 20-07-2007, 10:02 AM

Hi all!!
we are at the end of July and we have 4 mares due to foal in August, One of them is a maiden mare, the other 3 are proven breeders. The first foal should be born on 15/08. So we are starting getting ready for foaling. As I've mentioned before, we run our pregnant mares separately from the rest. We have 7 mares in 400 acre paddock. We are checking on them daily, monitoring their udders, etc. If a mare is starting to bag up, I start checking her colostrum by squeezing a bit on my palm. As soon as I see the change in its color and consistency, we bring the mare closer to the house. I find that preggy mares are happier with their herd and there is no point splitting them up, upsetting her, if she is not ready to foal yet.
I will keep you updated.

Cheers, lena

colibanqh · 29-07-2007, 12:27 PM

Hi All!

Strange thing happening with our mares! Neither of them are bagging up!
The maiden mare is huge in the belly but hasn't drop off in the bum and has no udder at all. And she is due in a fortnight

The same thing with the other 3 proven breeders. They haven't even started bagging up! One of the mares had ALWAYS foaled 2 weeks prior to her due date (she is due on the 20/08) and there is nothing happening under her belly too

and she usually has an udder on her like a jersey cow

I think that we'll have a late foaling season here!
Cheers! Lena

colibanqh · 12-08-2007, 03:58 PM

I was dreading it (we never lost a foal in a decade of breeding), my close friends were hit by bad luck, and I was thinking that one day it'll knock at my door. And it did.

I'll start with the observation of what i experienced and noticed before.
I bought this mare in Vic and shipped her to be bred to a very prominent stallion.
2 weeks ago I called the stallion owner to let him know that the mare might go early, coz she was very very big..
Now, here how it all happened.

Brian and I were fencing right next to the paddock with 3 pregiie mares. Brian had to take front loader to the adjusting paddock when he saw the mare lying down in the sand pit. He yelled out that she was aborting. In the broad daylight, at 1pm. When I got there I saw RED BAG full of blood hanging out of her vagina. I raced to the house to bring my birthing esky to the paddock. The mare was not sweating but was showing visual signs of discomfort, i had a look where she was lying down and saw a big wet patch, very unusual for a normal birth. The sand was SOAKED WET. And the sack was still intact.

When she was down I put my arm in her vagina to try to feel for a foal presentation. I couldn't feel the legs, I couldn't tell what part of the body I was touching, I felt scared when I pushed on something that might have been an eye socket and gave in under pressure. But I couldn't find the legs.

Any vet will tell you (and I am NOT a vet ) that it is of a vital importance to reposition the foal to find a leg or both legs for a grip to pull it out. I had both of my armes up to my shoulders in the birth canal and I couldn't work out how the foal was presented. I knew that the foal was dead, it was no abnormal ordour or anything like that, but when you witness so many NORMAL births, I knew this one was different.

The foal was presented poll first with his head tucked in between his chest and the legs curled undernieth. Anyway we managed to pull it out. The mare is OK. I also discussed it with my friends who had mares aborted as well. All report the same thing, mares look very big in foal too soon. Obviously it has something to do with accumulation of a lot of fluid.
I hope it'll never happen to you, guys!

Cheers, lena

PS Thinking back about what happened, I think that if even we weren't in the next paddock to the mare in trouble, we would've heard Arnold screaming his head off alerting us! He knew something was wrong and was letting everyone know! Usually he is like a gelding, you just don't hear him at all.

colibanqh · 30-08-2007, 11:06 AM

Hi All!
We had the first foal born last night (completely unexpectedly

) We haven't even put the mare in the foaling yard for the night, neither did we put a foaling alarm on her

. We brought her out of 800 acre paddock 2 days before to keep a close eye on her. We were concerned, because she is a big roomy mare and looked massively in foal with a huge baby. She is the only mare I can't milk (for predicting the foaling time), so I was checking on her regulary several times a day. She didn't look ready to foal at all! She hasn't dropped at the bum, her udder was wobbly and empty, her vulva was short and tight, in other words : absolutely NO SIGNS of her intentions to foal on such a short notice

!
In the morning her paddock was empty, she got out and walked all the way to the big paddock where all her preggy mates were, and foaled in the lane way there just in front of them

She had a massive sorrel colt with 4 white socks and a blaze, he would be around 11 hands tall with massive hip, huge hocks and the longest slopiest pasterns I've ever seen on a newborn! And he just lopes around so softly!
The moral of this post is:MILK TEST IS THE MOST RELIABLE WAY OF PREDICTING THE TIME OF FOALING!

It gives you a good idea of timing. NO false alarms 3 times per night to see the mare snoring her head off! No sleepless nights! As soon as colostrum goes from thick yellow to pearly milky white, you should start getting prepared to foal your mare down.
Cheers, Lena

colibanqh · 11-09-2007, 05:49 PM

Hi All!
In this post I'd like to share with you a very rare case of a mare foaling with no udder at all. She is a maiden 4yo mare, her gestation was EXACTLY 12 months on the dot. So she was overdue by at least 3 weeks, and of course she had a colt!

This mare hasn't bagged up in a usual way. She had a little enlargement of a gland on one side far at the back of her udder, her teats remained small and empty. She hasn't dropped at the bum either. So one night she just foaled on us (we had a foaling alarm on her). She still doesn't have an udder as such. in comparisson to our proven milkers she is a very "flat chested" young lady! Lol! But the foal is drinking well and filling out well so obviously she produces enough milk for him. But visually, if you had a look at her, you would never tell that she is a lactating mare. It is the first time I am witnessing this. It never happened to us before. So keep a close eye on your maidens, they are unpredictable!
Cheers, lena

colibanqh · 13-10-2007, 01:28 PM

Hi All!!!
This post is about a maiden mare (it is never a dull moment with maidens!) who foaled on us without visual warnings. She, in the opposite to our other maiden mare, had a decent udder for a first timer. She was due on the 20/10 and every morning and night we were squeezing her teats for a check up on her colostrum changes. She had the substance, thick and dark yellow/brown, like golden syrup or thick honey, coming out of her nipples. No sign of milk whatsoever! No sign of calcium, no white particles in the colostrum, just very thick and clear treackle!
So in our opinion she wasn't ready to foal yet. But she did! We were lucky that she managed OK on her own and had a good size colt for a maiden mare .
Prior to this morning when we found a foal on the ground, I would've sworn that a mare won't foal until her colostrum changes into whitish/pearlish color liquid. I was under impression that it was a rule! Unfortunately, this mare has proven to be different. And there is always an exception to every rule.
From now on we'll be putting a foaling alarm on all our maidens 2-3 weeks prior to the expected dates, regardless of milk changes. Better be safe than sorry.
here she is: DVD O Lena by Hickory CD(imp) with a new born red roan colt at foot by Tru Blu Texan(imp)

Thanks for reading. Cheers, Lena

colibanqh · 29-10-2007, 08:33 PM

Hi All!
Ok, by now, you should've worked out that we really don't like surprises but keep on getting them!!!!

We had 3 mares due to foal ( 2 out of 3 are maidens), the maiden mares were bred approx 4 weeks apart). So.... as we always do, we have separated the preggy mares in 3 diff paddocks and (of course

) have put an alarm on a mare that was supposed to foal first..... Meanwhile, the other mare (who was 3 weeks away) started to look more and more to foal early. The third mare(the maiden), didn't look like she's going to do anything in a hurry. So for some reason, I couldn't sleep well, the mare with a foal alarm on, hasn't caused us any grief, anyway I got up and checked on 3 of them at 2am, they were all in one piece, then at 4.30 am, the maiden that wasn't even close to foaling, had a big foal standing by her side! She foaled 4 weeks early with an awesome dark bay colt. He is soo pretty!
here he is at 2 days old

This season is rather odd. The mares don't cycle in a normal way, neither they do foal like they used to do. It is very different and I can't explain it.
I hope you might have better luck in predicting your mare to foal! So far it is all out of the ordinary for us!
Cheers, Lena

STOCKYARD HORSE DISCUSSION FORUMS

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HORSE DISCUSSION FORUMS