Rural Heritage August/September 2025

is 340 days, but nothing is absolute. The baby will come when it is ready. There are signs that help, but this is a fretful time for mare owners as we play every worst-case scenario out in our minds. This year, for whatever reason, our mares so far have all gone past their due dates of 350 days and beyond. As her delivery time gets close, the mare will look huge. The baby grows a lot in the last few weeks before foaling. Mom will look uncomfortable. We put ours on maternity leave two weeks before their due date. Exercise is important for the mare. Daily turnout is good, even pasture rest is recommended, as long as you can keep a watchful eye on her. Many mares foal on pasture without a problem year after year. I am not confident enough to just turn them out and wait. Foals roll under fences; foals get stuck halfway out of the mare. Some moms walk off without so much as even a nod towards the newborn. Much of this can be prevented and corrected by an attentive husbandry man or woman. Back to mare signs, you will see a softening of the area around the tailhead. The foal will “drop,” hanging lower in mom’s belly. She will even look a little “ribby” at this point as her skin stretches over her rib cage. Her appetite for hay or grass seems to be limitless. She is restless at times and almost sedate at other times. This is all part of the process. We keep a close eye in the days leading up to “foal watch.” Once we hit the 330-day number, the mare goes into a large foaling stall at night. She will stay in this stall during daytime, too, once “wax” appears on her teats. The “wax” signals a baby coming very soon 24 to 48 hours usually. The wax is sweet colostrum milk leaking out that seals over the opening, waiting for the baby to nurse. This is a sign that foaling is imminent. We have observed, (we have our mares’ box stall on camera) that the mares will switch their tails a lot during the last stages of labor. They sometimes resemble a helicopter action. Others simply walk around with their tails raised. It any case, at some point you will see a shiny white bag appear. The foal is coming. If possible, I check to see that two front feet and a nose are coming at this point. I don’t interfere, but I check, even touching, to be sure, then back out of the stall and leave the mare alone. Do not

The foal is out, the bag encircling the foal has been taken off its head, and everyone is taking a breath.

Within an hour, the foal rises on shaky legs.

Rural Heritage

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