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msar-riders - Re: [MSAR] Foal Watch

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  • From: "Jorene Downs" <Jorene@CEOates.com>
  • To: "Mounted search and rescue" <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [MSAR] Foal Watch
  • Date: Sun, 1 Jan 2006 17:13:41 -0800

From: "philip easley" <easleyranch@foothill.net>
Our foal watch starts this week. 18 brood mares carrying mules and paint
horses. Ours do not necessarily foal in the night, instead they act like
they are going to and have them after first light so you do not get any
sleep at all before going to work.

Been there. ;)
For those not aware ... some broodmares are rather sensitive to human presence / any nearby potential threat during foaling, and wait until they think nobody is watching. (Yes, to some degree mares can control when they foal.) On the flip side there are mares who particularly trust their human herd boss and appear to be very comfortable with human presence during foaling.

Installing cameras in the foaling stalls years ago means I monitor from the house and there are no more hikes to the barn in the middle of the night to check on mares. Best investment I ever made to support our breeding program. ;)

I've found through observation that in the days prior to foaling the mare will establish a pattern of particularly restless behavior when the unborn foal is presumably restless. That will normally establish a "window" of about 4 hours, and the mare commonly foals in that window. That restless period tends to repeat on a 12 hour cycle, so the restless 7-11 might be 7-11AM or 7-11PM for foaling.

The barncams are now running online for anyone interested in visiting my barn. ;)
www.CEOates.com/webcam.html to choose streaming video or whatever option works best with your browser.

Happy New Year!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Jorene Downs
Tulare Co SAR - Hasty Team ICP Team
www.ceoates.com/sar
Tulare-Kings CERT
www.tk-cert.org






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