Late autumn 2023.
How it looked.
1. 04/09 average foaling date – Black Eden White 3 mare bred with Homozygous Roan (Red) stallion for a 100% guaranteed blue roan foal (mare homozygous black)
2. 04/12 average foaling date - Silver Dapple Tobiano mare bred with Buckskin Tobiano stallion
3. 04/27 average foaling date – Piebald mare bred with Buckskin Tobiano stallion
4. 05/02 average foaling date – Gray mare bred with Chestnut Sabino Pearl stallion
5. 06/11 average foaling date – Chestnut Dun Eden White 2 mare bred with Chestnut Sabino Pearl stallion
6. 07/14 average foaling date – Bay Dun mare bred with Buckskin Tobiano stallion
7. 07/29 average foaling date – Silver Dapple Sabino mare bred with Buckskin Tobiano stallion
How it went.
December of 2023 – sold #2 mare above (Silver Dapple Tobiano). She foaled a beautiful colt for her new owners on 04/13 (likely Silver Bay Tobiano). We were down to 6 foals.
January of 2024 – suspicions confirmed that our Buckskin Tobiano Splash White mare had indeed been bred by our Buckskin Tobiano stallion over the fence days before we put the hotwire at the top of that fence-line. Up to 7 foals again. Expected average foaling date of 05/12 putting her in the #3 position in the foaling order.
Talk about giving 110% !!! Our Buckskin Tobiano stallion gave 125% this year.
April of 2023 – sold Chestnut Dun Eden White 2 mare. Down to 6 foalings.
Also April of 2023 – sold Bay Dun mare to same buyer as above horse. Down to 5 foalings, but…
Also April of 2023 – purchased in foal Bay Leopard Appaloosa mare bred to Bay Dun stallion. Estimated average foaling date of 05/25. Up to 6 foals.
So, at this point it looked like this going into the foaling season.
1. 04/09 average foaling date – Black Eden White 3 mare bred with Homozygous Roan (Red) stallion for a 100% guaranteed blue roan foal (mare homozygous black)
2. 04/27 average foaling date – Piebald mare bred with Buckskin Tobiano stallion
3. 05/12 average foaling date – Buckskin Tobiano Splash White mare bred to Buckskin Tobiano stallion.
4. 05/02 average foaling date – Gray mare bred with Chestnut Sabino Pearl stallion
5. 05/25 average foaling date – Bay Leopard Appaloosa mare bred to Bay Dun stallion
6. 07/29 average foaling date – Silver Dapple Sabino mare bred with Buckskin Tobiano stallion
So, mares 1, 3, 5, and 6 above were all maiden mares. We’re gluts for punishment.
As the foaling season moved along, we also confirmed yet another set of suspicions. Mare number 6 above was not bred to our Buckskin Tobiano stallion when she came to our farm in August. She was, in fact, bred two months prior to that by a Smoky Black stallion on the farm that she had come from who was a 2-year-old that was running the pastures with her there. I’m not certain if her prior owner even knew that she was pregnant.
Updated expected foaling date for #6.
05/28 average foaling date – Silver Dapple Sabino mare bred with Smoky Black stallion. Still the latest expected foaling date for the year.
I was happy with moving my sleepless nights down from 4 months to 2 months.
So, here’s how it went.
04/10 - #3 jumped out in front of all the rest. She came down with an acute case of placentitis in her early Day 300’s. She foaled at the university hospital on Day 309, and she had a beautiful and super sweet homozygous black, homozygous agouti, homozygous cream colt with one W20 KIT gene and one Tobiano KIT gene. This makes him rare and in demand for folks that like buckskins if he turned out to be a good breeding stallion specimen. He was a Perlino Tobiano colt. Steep vet bill, but he’s worth it. 1 of 1 to the equine hospital for our maiden mares.
04/12 – Day 344, #1 foaled a blue roan filly. She has a very nice, curious personality and is human-friendly. Unfortunately, after foaling, momma had a little bit of a uterine infection (metritis) after taking 6 hours to expel her placenta. 2 of 2 to the equine hospital for our maiden mares.
04/17 – Day 320 – just like two of her three prior foalings, mare #2 gave birth on Day 320. We knew this about her ahead of time and had put her in the foal watch stall days earlier (also why we moved up her expected due date 10 days from normal). A Bay Tobiano filly. Quite possibly the sweetest and most human friendly foal we’ve ever put on the ground on our farm.
05/12 – Day 331 – like mare #2 above, our Gray mare also tends to foal early. She gave birth to a gorgeous chestnut sabino filly that can only be described as having grace, elegance, and presence. Three fillies in a row.
05/18 – Our little Perlino Tobiano colt had somehow managed to hairline fracture his tibia on the growth plate area (rear left leg). He was moved back to the university hospital with his momma. The fracture ended up being something they believed will heal on its own with prolonged stall rest, and follow-up X-rays showed that it is indeed healing up on its own. The fracture is also something he did to himself since the doctors said that external tissues were not involved in the trauma at all. He will be off the market for buyers for a long time (if he will ever even leave our farm now…time will tell if we ever have confidence of his long-term readiness to be completely sound for someone else). Repeat visit for our first maiden mare to the hospital with a much longer stay this time and likely a small stall for the pair of them once they get home until about the time that the colt is weaned.
05/26 – Day 339 – mare #6 moved herself ahead of mare #5 when she gave birth to a clone of herself, a Silver Dapple Sabino filly. The filly had good suckling instincts but couldn’t seem to find the right place on momma to feed, and momma, as a maiden mare, was very, very bagged up and sensitive on her udders, so every time the filly got close, she sidestepped. Three and a half hours in, up to the university hospital with the pair of them. They milked momma and worked on the pair of them until three days later before the filly and momma got the hang of feeding. 3 of 3 to the equine hospital for our maiden mares.
05/31 – Day 347 – mare #5 went a little bit long, but not bad. She foaled a wonderful and heathy little Bay LP colt, but… she retained her placenta. She was moved to the university hospital where they were able to extract her placenta which was slightly cemented in both horns. A few days there for monitoring, and she should be able to come home. 4 of 4 to the equine hospital for our maiden mares.
It’s a four-hour round-trip for us up to the university hospital. Our vet bills are totaling about $20,000 this year.
So, what did we learn? You always must learn something every year, and we’re constantly learning. Self-reflection allows you to make improvements.
For mare #3. She was a maiden. I know that due to angle, depth, and flaccidity, older mares are prone to placentitis due to having issues keeping their vaginal area clean from excrement, which is why caslicks (suturing of upper part of vulva) are often used in older broodmares. That’s not her case, though, because she was a maiden. I do know this mare’s habits, though, and she has a very, very thick and luxurious tail. I also know that she doesn’t bother to lift it when she excrements. She likely did this to herself. There are no tail bags that I know of that will solve this problem. They either won’t stay in place for long or they cut off tail circulation…both bad scenarios. I believe her solution is going to have to be shaving the underside of her tail hair when she’s pregnant to aid with cleanliness. I will not separate her from her colt during their long stall rest period and I also don’t wean until 4.5 months old. My only shot with her this year if a vet says she is clear for breeding would be a late August breeding when her colt is being weaned from her for a late July foal next year. I won’t breed horses after August, because I need those foals weaned before Christmas every year when it starts getting cold where we live.
For our Perlino Tobiano colt. My only lesson here is that our strategy of daily interaction is reinforced. There are no preventing acts of God, but it is our duty to be vigilant for and aware of these sorts of incidents and to act quickly and decisively when they occur. The rest is in God’s hands.
For mare #1 the lesson is very similar to the one for our colt. Just because it looks like a smooth and seamless foaling doesn’t mean that you don’t have to monitor and perform post-partum care sometimes. The lesson is to continue to monitor. The only signs for her metritis were a slightly longer than average expelling of her placenta and additional laying down the day after foaling. If you watch, monitor, and get to know your horses, you’ll know what is and is not normal for each of them. Act decisively. Trust your gut instinct.
For mare #5. Follow the guidelines provided by the wisdom of those that have gone before us. One hour to stand post-birth. Two hours to attempt to suckle at the teats. Three hours to successfully latch and feed. Within those three hours, the foal should poop. Within those three hours, the mare should expel her placenta. Her retained placenta needed to be dealt with by veterinarians.
For mare #6. Not all mommas are always good mommas. Not all babies have tuned-up instincts to immediately do the things they are supposed to do without expert help. We’ve had a mare reject a foal and had to raise a bucket baby. We’ve had dummy foals. We’ve had some maladjusted foal syndrome. When they don’t hit their marks, move quickly to resolve with professional help.
We’re blessed by God. We have the means to deal with these situations when they arise. I would make sure that you have access to money (or at the minimum emergency credit funds) to deal with these situations. It’s always a good idea to have some funds available for regular mishaps, but when you are breeding, and especially with maiden mares, you need to be able to step up to the plate financially otherwise you really shouldn’t be breeding. It’s not a situation where you should just be “hoping for the best.”
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