First 2009 Foal Arrives

On Sunday, May 17, 2009, I received a call from the breeding manager, Lauri that my mare, Starbound, had come in from the pasture dripping milk. This mare usually delivers a foal the day she waxes and starts dripping, so I drove out to the farm to begin the foal watch.

She quickly went from a slow drip to spraying with every step. It looked like we were going to have a big foal, but she is a big mare and typically delivers large foals with minimal assistance. The biggest problem we have with her is that she wants to lay with her hind end against the wall and we have to try to control where she goes down so that she isn’t pushing the foal into the wall. When her water broke and the amnion bulged out, I was a little concerned that there were no feet showing. After 20 minutes of this, Lauri went in to check and found that one of the legs was folded back under the other and she was able to straighten it so that the birth could proceed. Both feet and head quickly appeared and the mare proceeded to push in earnest. After a few minutes we decided to help get the shoulders out because both feet were even and this meant that the shoulders were locked and needed to be shifted to make them narrower so that they could pass easier. After that she was able to deliver quickly.

He is a big, handsome, chestnut colt with a star and crocked narrow blaze that goes down one side of his nose, and three white socks. He has grey around his eyes, on his front legs, and his hips, so he will probably grey out quickly. He had to be bottle fed for the first 24 hours because his dam produces antibodies in her colostrum that will kill the red blood cells of the foal. For more information see my blog post from last year - Mare-foal Incompatibility.We fed him 8 – 10 oz. every hour, milked the mare, and put a muzzle on him between feedings. When the muzzle came off and he was allowed to nurse he was on the mare in 3 seconds and drains her dry every time! At 24 hours his IgG was around 600, but we wanted it over 800, so we gave him plasma and the IgG went up to over 800 the next day. At 10 days old, he is a strong healthy colt with lots of curiosity and a sweet, friendly nature.

Soon his recently born brother and sister will join him in the pasture and I will have trouble tearing myself away from their antics to ride my horse and work. He is Pluto out of Starbound by Patrick.