Hi guys, it’s Krista with SaddleBox and for today’s video I’m going to help you decide whether or not to have your mare foal in a foaling facility or let your mare foal at home.
Okay, so when you are deciding whether or not to have your mare foal at a foaling facility or at home, here are some things to consider. Number one, has your mare had babies before or is this her first time giving birth? Typically, when a mare hasn’t foaled before, they’re called maidens, and they may have a little bit of a hard time or something could be more prone to going wrong.
So if your mare is a maiden mare, it might be best to let her go to a foaling facility or foal at the vet, or have your vet on call. Another thing you want to consider is the age of your mare. Is she older? Is she younger? Again, that’s kind of going to coincide with is she a maiden or has she already had babies before. Another thing you want to consider is do you have the proper facility to let your mare foal in and are you able to be there to help her or to be able to have your vet on standby or possibly there with you.
So all of this is probably something that you’re going to want to discuss with your veterinarian, but if you do want to have your mare foal at your horse or at your barn, you’re going to want to have a mare in full stall, so this is going to be bigger than your standard stall, and then you’re going to want to make sure that it’s very, very clean and sanitary because these foals don’t have a very big immune system built up when they first come into the world, so making sure that you can upkeep with cleanliness and keep everything sanitary is going to be very important as well.
So maybe you know somebody who is experienced who can possibly be there with you and have a foaling kit and help you out, and then of course you’ll have your vet on standby. It’s really just something to discuss with your veterinarian and go off of what they recommend for you. But speaking from personal experience, my mare just foaled at a foaling facility and I loved it. It was the perfect place for her to foal, the experts were right there to help her, the vets were great, and the facility is 100% sanitary, so no worries there. And yeah, it was a really great experience.
They even take care of the baby afterwards to make sure that he or she is 100% and that the mare is 100%, so they’ll run tests and make sure that everything is going smoothly. I highly recommend a foaling facility, especially if you’re a first-time breeder or a first-time foal owner, it’s very, very helpful.
Alright you guys, that’s it for this one, I hope you enjoyed it and I’ll see you in the next video. Bye y’all.