[Fourth in a series, based on our own personal experiences raising two babies.]
-DO NOT EVER administer phenylbutazone (”bute”) to a foal, it is poisonous to their systems. Our vet said even a trace could be deadly. Bute is a common pain reliever given to grown horses.
3 days old, Gilford being guarded by mom while he sleeps like a baby.
-The foal needs a tetanus shot right after birth, and certain other shots and boosters in the early weeks, whatever the vet recommends. The foal needs worming monthly up to a year old (a foal-safe wormer), because parasites can do fatal damage quickly to a foal.
Gil at 3 days, napping again.
-He will receive other immunities from his mother, whatever she has been vaccinated for. In fact, you want to try to give her vaccinations or boosters right before the foal is born. There are other necessary shots during her pregnancy as well.
-Watch for meconium, a tarry-like substance, to pass right after birth, indicating his bowels have started to function.
-Look for the foal to have a healthy appetite, to be active and alert while awake, and to sleep a LOT.
Like I said, the foal sleeps a LOT!
-Have a horse thermometer on hand and know how to use it.
-Monitor the mare’s udder to be sure the foal’s appetite is normal. It should usually be loose and empty; if the udder gets full (swollen, hot, or dripping), the foal isn’t eating normally– call your vet IMMEDIATELY.
Nursing is a pure bonding time… 2 week old Gil, Emmie’s lovely mare.
-Watch the foal carefully the first few days for any unusual behavior or changes in behavior patterns. When he wakes up from a nap, he should first be hungry, and secondly bright and alert while he is awake, exploring and running and playing.
Life is VERY good!
-The foal’s body must learn to digest its mother’s milk; the early bowel movements are typically very runny, and usually cause an irritation under the tail called “scours,” which he will outgrow in a week or two. Meanwhile, a lot of butt-rinsing and vaseline is helpful. I’d say it’s the equine equivalent of diaper rash!
Month 3, Gilford scratching his back.
-Foals quickly become interested in everything the mare eats. At a very young age they start nibbling on grass and hay and mouthing grain in between nursings. They try to eat grain even before their teeth come in! It is pretty funny to watch one gumming soggy grain!
-Foals eating their mother’s manure is pretty common; it is thought to actually aid the foal’s digestive process by introducing beneficial bacteria into his intestines.
-The foal is fed special fortified grain for controlled growth; do NOT overfeed grain to the foal however. The mare needs a great deal of special high-fat grain for milk production, plus all the hay she can eat. You must carefully monitor the mare’s weight as the foal grows, because her first nutrition will go to the foal and she can easily lose weight and condition as he demands more and more milk.
-We had to give our foals their grain separately from mom, because she would finish hers then go eat the foal’s too; at first we tied her so she couldn’t do that. You can purchase or build special “creep feeders” that only the foal can get his face into, so he can nibble grain whenever he wants. Some mares I’ve heard will share their grain. At two or three months we separated them into adjoining stalls to feed grain. This also served the purpose of getting them used to short separations.
-Make sure both mare and foal always have plenty of clean water to drink. The foal will play with water at first, then he will learn to drink it eventually.
Glen playing keep-away with Peaches. By the time Glen was 4 months old, snow had fallen– he was a late (August) baby.
-We weaned our first foal at 6 months of age, and the second at 5 months. I have read that foals in breeding barns would be weaned at 3 or 4 months.
-I wondered if the mare would ever just wean the foal all by herself and reject him; the vet didn’t seem to think so!
-Weaning on-farm was accomplished through separating them by a fence; we soon found we had to add more electric wire to the middle fence rail, because Gilford figured out how to reach through it to nurse, and the mare was more than willing!
Gilford loved Abby because she let him pester her! Here he’s 3 months old, looking more like her foal than momma Willy’s.
-Our vet advised us that going cold turkey would speed the mare’s drying-up process. I had to keep watch on her udder for excess hardness or heat (signs of mastitis/infection), potentially to cold soak her with a sponge only if absolutely necessary. I was advised not to try to manually milk her (thank goodness!)
-As soon as weaning was started, we had to cut the mare’s grain way down and change the product (gradually) to get rid of the high fat content. If I remember correctly, we took her completely off grain for a while, then began small amounts of the “normal” grain.
At 5 months, Gil plays copycat to Abby…
-Our mare had no problems drying up; by 5 or 6 months of age, the nursing thing is more psychological than it is physically necessary, and the foal is not getting very much of his nutrition from the milk anyway by then. It’s hard on the mare to nurse a foal that long.
-We felt weaning was not terribly hard on either of them because they could still see each other and be close, and we had one other companion horse around for each baby.
-It was nice to give extra attention to each of them during the weaning, they needed it!
-We could not put the mare and foal back together until the mare’s milk had dried up completely so she would refuse to let him try to nurse. This took a good 3-4 weeks of separation.
These World Championship Games are held every 4 years, occurring in between the Olympic years, and competitors participate in the same equestrian sports as in the Olympics.
Disciplines included in the competitions are: dressage: Grand Prix, GP Special, and Freestyle driving (four-in-hands only): CDE or Combined Driving Event = driven dressage, marathon, and obstacles/cones endurance: 100 mile timed ride, 5 vet-check stops eventing: CCI 3-day– dressage, cross-country, and stadium jumping jumping: tests stadium/show-jumping skills
para dressage: for physically challenged riders, first time ever held reining: tests western pattern riding skills vaulting: gymnastics on a cantering horse– individuals, pairs, and teams
Emmie and I with friends attended the first 4-star Rolex event held in the U.S., which was in 1998 at the Ky. Horse Park– a fabulous facility! These Games would be worthwhile to put on any horseperson’s calendar!
AS REPORTED IN: theHorse.com, by Pat Raia
A New Hampshire lawmaker scrapped mandatory horse licensing legislation after angry horse owners protested the measure on grounds that it would be financially burdensome.
The bill, HB 427, [WOULD HAVE] required owners to obtain licenses for each of their horses age 4 months and older at a cost of $25 per horse. Proof of rabies vaccination by a licensed veterinarian was a requirement for getting such a license. Municipal animal control departments, the state’s general fund, and the state veterinarian’s fund would share in revenues.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Carla Skinder rescinded the legislation on Tuesday after more than 100 horse owners attended a state House of Representatives hearing on bill. She was unavailable for comment. Opponents claimed that the combined cost of license, veterinarian’s fees, and vaccines, would total $75 per horse, pinching owners and putting horses at risk.
“It was originally intended to address the unwanted horse issue, but it would probably make matters worse,” said New Hampshire Horse Council President Laurie Weir. Others worried the bill would encourage future legislation to reclassify horses as domestic animals.
“That can affect all sorts of farm and agricultural issues,” said farm operator Kimberly Carlton. “It’s a very slippery slope.” New Hampshire law prohibits Skinder from reintroducing the bill until 2011.
Working through the winter… yup, I am not patient enough to wait until spring to start working with the new training tack (surcingles, cavessons and long lines).
What a spiffy outfit! Surcingle, cavesson, long lines…
Hoof cleaning:
Kirsty has regressed a bit with doing her hooves, and when I took her for a walk the other day she was quite skittish, which she hadn’t been before. At first I thought it was because we have been focusing on Bjorn using the new tack and haven’t spent as much time with her, but then we discovered a tree had broken during one of the storms, and seems to have fallen on the back roof of the stalls. I’m thinking now she got scared when that happened, and just needs some confidence building again. Mark is working with her first on giving her hooves - she is acting like she is going to fall over and constantly tries to pull her hoof away. I’m hoping after a few intensive weeks we can get her over that. [SEE Comment after post...]
Lungeing:
Bjorn has made significant progress in the last few weeks. He has no problems with the surcingle or the cavesson, and I began by lungeing him at a walk and trot for a few sessions.
Bjorn learning to lunge
He did beautifully with that, so I moved on to using the long lines and ground driving. Bjorn responds so well to positive attention. I think it is because he is low man in the herd and Kirsti and Sive let him know it, so when he gets hugs, pets, and ‘good boy’ from Mark and I, he sucks it right up!
Ground Driving:
That was another story! He had no issue with going left or right, in fact he is already doing ‘figure eights’ in the paddock. But he insisted on turning around to face me whenever we halted. I had read that this can happen, but he had never done it when I was in the center of the circle during lungeing, so I really didn’t think it was going to be an issue. Jeez -what a pain that is to get him untangled from the two long lines!
Practicing ground driving
Luckily, once he turned around, he halted, so at least he wasn’t tripping over anything. I had to start taking preemptive action - when I would ask him to halt, I would run around to stay with his rear as he turned - I always stayed behind him. One time I think we did a 720 because he kept turning around and turning around! He was turning because he wanted to look at me, so he soon realized that turning around wasn’t going to give him what he wanted.
Instead, whenever he would halt facing forward, I would drop the long lines, walk up to him, and give him a hug. He soon discovered what I wanted was for him to stay facing forward. He has mostly stopped doing it, I would say in a 20 minute session he only tries it once, so we are making progress - but that needs to be extinct if we ever hope to have him drive!
OK Bjorn, stop and STAND!
Now his main issue is halting in general. He halts fine on the lead, he halts fine when lungeing, but he is not understanding whoa when I am behind him. I find this odd since he would always stop when I said whoa before (although he would turn around and face me), but now, since I am not letting him turn around, it is as if he has forgotten what whoa means. If there is one thing horse training requires, it is persistence! So we will continue walking around the paddock practicing halting before moving on. [SEE Comment after post...]
Riding:
I couldn’t take it anymore! I had to get on him! Bjorn was such a good boy. I have been putting his bridle on him for 10-20 minutes at a time for a few weeks now - he’s all set with the bit, although every once in a while he still manages to get his tongue above it. Mark held on to Bjorn’s lead and I pulled up a chair next to him (yes, he’s already short, but I am only 5′3″, so I still needed a chair - good grief).
First riding! GOOD boy!
As we have no saddles yet, I rode him bareback, but with his surcingle on to get him used to the feel of a cinch. He stood still, I eased myself across his back and rested there for a bit before swinging my leg over. Once I was up, Mark walked with us, holding on to the lead (Bjorn had his halter on over his bridle). Eventually Mark unhooked the lead and I walked Bjorn around solo. The next session, I didn’t even use the halter/lead, and Mark just held him when I mounted. We’ve just been sticking to a walk, since the paddock is snow covered and I’m a little nervous about his balance (and mine)! Trotting will have to wait until the spring thaw.
Rider’s-eye view… not too far to fall!
Foaling news:
Sive is becoming very cranky! She used to let me touch her udder, but now when I get near it, she’s like, I don’t think so. She barely even lets me touch the area right in front of the udder to feel the foal kicking. Hoping she’s not going to turn into psycho-mare when she delivers and is just feeling bloated!
General Health and Welfare:
We have cut down to two bales of hay a day for the three of them. They are also getting one feeding a day of grain with alfalfa squares. They are all filling out and I can’t wait until their winter hair is gone to see what they really look like! Haven’t pulled out the weight tape lately, but you can’t feel their ribs anymore and even their vertebrae are disappearing Yay!
[ED.NOTE: I expect the Fjord breed is very thrifty; you better be careful they don't gain TOO much weight, even in the winter that could happen!]
Speaking of hay, since we were late in the year before we even knew we were getting the horses, we missed the whole hay season. Our neighbor volunteered to store the hay he was selling us until we were ready for it. He is running out of hay himself, so the quest has been on to find more hay. I have become a hay stalker! Luckily I met a fellow hay stalker through Craigslist, and we were able to find a place that has round bales. A bit dusty, but no mold. We’re still looking for more, so if anyone knows of a place to get good hay, please leave a comment!
Connie asked me what we do for water. Well, we’re roughin’ it! We have a 150 gallon tub with a heating element that Mark installed in the bottom. We placed the tub near the exterior electrical outlet. To fill up the tub, we have a hose attached to the pipes in our laundry room in the house. We keep that hose indoors until we are ready to use it and then drag it outside. We take another hose that we keep in the garage and attach it to the laundry room hose and place the other end in the water tub. About 125 feet of hose total.
Horses’ heated water trough behind the fjord
When we are done filling the tub, Mark walks the hose, draining all the water out of it so it doesn’t freeze in the garage. Thankfully, we only have to do this every three days or so. Sometimes when we get a good snow, I’ll cheat a little and shovel some fresh snow into the tub and the heating element melts it The hose situation is far from ideal, we’d love to have water in the garage, but for our budget now, it is a lot better than carrying 30 five gallon buckets from the house to the garage every 3 days!
The horses have run-in access to the stalls, and we only force them to be in there if I’m doing training with one of them and don’t want distraction in the paddock from the other two. During every snow storm so far, they spent most of their time outside.
Out in the snow and luvin’ it! (They ARE Norwegian, after all!
We’ll feed them their hay in the stalls to encourage them to be in at least for part of the time, but it seems they prefer to be out. If we’re getting freezing rain or extremely cold wind chill (like that -17 from a few weeks ago), we’ll shut them in and put 5 gallon water buckets in the stall.
Coming up in February: Vet visit for shots and foal check
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[More of FjordNewbies discoveries in horsekeeping!]
We have seen orange and reddish-colored urine spots in the snow and in the sawdust of our horses’ stalls during wintertime and sometimes in the fall. We have always associated this with their eating bark off trees and firewood logs, which they don’t bother with in the summer unless they completely run out of grass. We have seen and heard of it with many other horses too… there have never been any health issues.
See discussion and pictures at Horse Pee Trivia on Red Pony Farm’s blog.
For you researchers and those who just can’t get enough horse knowledge… I hope you have checked out my HORSE TOPICS INDEX found to the right under the Up Close and Personal heading, where it always lives. I made this as an attempt to organize blog topics here, to provide a reference index to Peaches’ blog, and as a preview of possible upcoming topics I wish/plan to blog about in the future.
I just updated this Index and also added a couple of new categories: HORSE TRAINERS and PROFESSIONALS, also HORSE BREEDS. I hope it helps you find what you’re looking for!
BTW, please feel free to comment any suggestions for subjects you are particularly interested in! Thanks for reading!
Found this on Pony and Carriage Ltd in UK… Slow Motion Action from The National Carriage Driving Championships, Windsor, England 2008; included some Marathon driving clips.
Epic Victory HD from Tim Maloy on Vimeo. Vimeo is a posting site for videos. Go there and watch the HD channel, some pretty nice cinematography there if your computer can handle it!
Yay!
