Mounted search and rescue

["Jorene Downs" <Jorene@CEOates.com>]

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