Lea my pregnant horse-Update:she foaled

Just go close to her stall and announce in a loud voice "I sure hope she doesn't have that baby tonight, since we'll be gone all night". She'll be sure to have it.
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Having "attended" more than 15 horse births, I'll offer up some unsolicited advice. Set up a baby monitor in the stall and don't visit. Sweating and pacing are the very early signs of labor. If you want to be there to make sure nothing goes wrong during delivery, then you may have to wait until you hear her really groan into the monitor.

She sounds as if she's not interested in being watched or fussed over and is stopping the train whenever a "hooman" shows up.

I've had mares who waited us out on an all-night foal watch. We were bedded down outside her stall in sleeping bags so that we wouldn't miss anything. We went inside to get a thermos of tea and came out to a new baby. I've also had mares who basically crossed their legs until a "hooman" came out to help. One very dramatically broke water all over my shoes as I started wrapping her tail for the night. As soon as I lifted her tail to ease the wrap underneath, she let go. It was like lifting a pump handle.

Is this her first foal? She may go through these false starts a lot -- first-timers don't know what's going on. Is this your first foal?
 
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Of course, many people (with fairly good reason) swear that the way to get a pregnant mare to go ahead and foal is to plan something in your own life, something requiring your extended attention or absence and making it extremely inconvenient for the horse to foal then. It's very likely, or anyhow often seems so, that the one time it's important the mare DOESN'T go into labor, she will Spend all day at a show; plan an expensive night on the town with nonrefundable tickets for a show; acquire an obligation to be gone all night; like that.

We've been doing this for about half a week hoping she'll have it, and that if we're gone being busy we won't drive ourselves crazy thinking about it.
The waiting is the hardest part!

My last homebirth foal was out of a rescue mare. She arrived at our farm extremely emaciated and one month from her due date. Near her due date, we set up the cot in the barn and started spending the night with her.

Two weeks later, we gave that up and did two hour checks every night.

She foaled in between checks a full month past her due date. Apparently she didn't want an audience!

Good luck catching her in the act!

I thought maybe lea didnt want an audience either, so weve left her alone, and we can conviently see her from the house, so every once in awhile we just look out to see what she is doing. Doesnt seem to make any difference that we are leaving her a lone. I keep talking to her and asking her when shes going to have her baby, and she just looks at me with this look like she has absolutely no idea what Im talking about. Other times I swear it looks likes shes grinning at me or taunting me, she must thinks its absoultely hillarious to drive us crazy
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Can't wait for pictures. What was she bred to?

She was bred to our neighbors quarter horse, Red. So its not going to be a full throughbred or anything , but that doesnt matter too much to us. We're keeping the baby anyway.
Is this her first foal? She may go through these false starts a lot -- first-timers don't know what's going on. Is this your first foal?

Nope, this isnt her first foal, but it is our first foal. I think shes had atleast 4 foals before this with someone else. So it shouldn't be all that new to her.​
 
Haha! Yeah, the same thing happened to us...

We have a mare up at our University's Equestrian Center who was due at the beginning of April. Everyone was so excited, an Equine Science class was suppose to be on foal watch and witness the birth...

yeah... that mare decided to foal when the town was having their annual Spring Celebration and all students were out partying for the whole night... they get there in the morning and walla - FOAL!

(foal was born this past Saturday night) - Red Chestnut Colt! He's a real looker too! (pictured at 1 day old!)
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I wish you all the best for a healthy foal! Keep Us updated.
 
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The waiting can be difficult. My black mare Angel would not have any of her foals when I was around watching her. She always waited until we were not around.
 
When my QH mare Maggie went int labor I sat up all night with her until about 4:30 am when I went in the house for a 15 minute break. When I went back to the barn after that short 15 minutes she had already had the baby. Maggie did that to me her next 3 deliveries too. She was a slick one!!
 
If she's done this a number of times before and she's not elderly, then really, I wouldn't worry about being there for the birth. I know people *want* to see the birth, but some horses just aren't going to let you. Yes, things can go terribly wrong in a delivery. Yes, you need to check the placenta carefully to ensure that there are no tears or retained sections, and if shes' walked cross it a few times in the stall, then this is hard to do. Yes, you should have a vet come visit the foal as soon as possible after its birth to check on the foal's immunity and on the mare's health.

But you may not get a chance to see this delivery happen. What's her gestation day as of today? On what gestation day did she deliver on her previous foals? Some mares run long. Make sure she's getting enough fluids as she gets ready to give birth so that the colostrum is plentiful.

Good luck!
 
Equest94-thats a beutiful foal!
Weve all been convinced we are going to come home one day to a foal, since we're gone almost all day every day most days.
By now Im just anxious for her to have the foal, I think it would just be an extra bonus if we got to expierance it , but if not thats ok too.

Oh and this is my other horse Duke hes a belgian gelding that we got last november. THe pics are fuzzy because my camera was dying, but you can see that his one eye is different. It was stepped on when he was born. Theres actually an eye under there, but its coveredup and he cant see out. He has perfect vision on the other side though. It doesn't affect him at all though since hes had it since he was born. He can ride and drive , the previous owner had him in parades sometimes, but we haven't used him for either yet. Dukes other team member passed away so thats why the previous owner sold him.
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Oh, and I was just wondering if anyone has any pictures of their mare pregnant? Id like to compare. Ive got one of Lea uploaded thats from back in Febuary in which she woulda been like 9 months along. Shes bigger than that now though. Does it look like shes bigger than normal or average in that picture? Oh sorry about the horse manure in that picture btw.
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http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f15/Bethany_11/FarmPictures1-6-08winter71.jpg
 
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