Mare about to foal Help.. Weird behavior!!!!

I am soooo sorry the filly died. Too bad the mama couldn't have been put up safely somewhere. I know these things happen, but still. Very sad.

Friends of mine bought a cabin in the mountains. Since there was already some barbed wire there, the husband opted to finish the fencing with barbed. Their horses got torn up quite a bit the first year. I know my friend was not happy that her husband chose barbed wire.

My sympathies for the loss of your foal.

While it is nice to have the conviction that you will NEVER have your horses in a fence that is barbed wire I have found that life takes these remarks as a challenge to see that at some point in your life you do ( thats how it has always works for me , so I will NEVER be a skinny, beautiful, glamorous female and stay that way - gotta hedge your bets here .........come on life sock it to me !! ) . All our properties have barbed wire on the exterior fencing. It is not to keep our equines in but rather to keep the neighbors cattle out.  I would love to have something different but with almost 5 miles of exterior fencing and cattle that can't seem to stay where they belong, barbed wire is what we have to work with at the moment. That is, until I win the lottery to the tune of over a million or someone wants to adopt me and refence my property with cattleproof fencing . []

I'm so sorry for the loss of the foal. How sad.
 
Like Fancy, I live in ranching country where barbed wire is the only thing that will keep the cattle in...or out, as the case may be. It's the only type of fencing that's practical and affordable when you have thousands of acres to fence. My perimeter fencing is barbed wire, and it hasn't caused any problems. (It wasn't the barbed wire fence that killed my stallion.)
 
However, I do bring my broodmares into the safety of the corrals when it's time for them to foal.

[quote=Fancymules]

My sympathies for the loss of your foal.

While it is nice to have the conviction that you will NEVER have your horses in a fence that is barbed wire I have found that life takes these remarks as a challenge to see that at some point in your life you do ( thats how it has always works for me , so I will NEVER be a skinny, beautiful, glamorous female and stay that way - gotta hedge your bets here .........come on life sock it to me !! ) . All our properties have barbed wire on the exterior fencing. It is not to keep our equines in but rather to keep the neighbors cattle out.  I would love to have something different but with almost 5 miles of exterior fencing and cattle that can't seem to stay where they belong, barbed wire is what we have to work with at the moment. That is, until I win the lottery to the tune of over a million or someone wants to adopt me and refence my property with cattleproof fencing . []


Exactly. I know the dangers of barbed wire fencing, just as I know the dangers of dealing with horses in general, the possibility that any horse could colic, that you might get kicked in the head when you least expect it...
 
Also...referring to the post about nobody being around when the baby was born, lol. I think I've had about six foals...maybe more....and we always miss the moment. Always. It's idiotic. Even when I had my mare in a wonderful sheltered pen I could see from my kitchen window, and I was checking her every 20 minutes. I STILL missed it. My father-in-law knocked on the door and told me "you have a baby out there"....I was like, what? I was JUST OUT THERE and nothing was close to happening.
 
Some, and I'm one, think that it's actually better if you're equipped, for a mare to give birth in a more natural setting..unconfined and relatively undisturbed.
 
Accidents happen, though. It's one of the first  things I tell girls who are all giddy about horses and their parents think they might like to get one. Prepare yourself for heartache because it will come, and it will be traumatic, and are you up for it?

Er..I hope everyone realizes that I, personally, did not give birth to foals.
 
I have litters.

I think I've had about six foals...maybe more....

 
ROFL!!!

LOL ! You may not be having them personally, but all the worry and stress of expecting them, preparing for them and then caring for them when they arrive you almost feel as though you did. All my babies are called my babies.  ( See I just did it ) The mares and jennies always trick me too. The closest I've ever been to "being there" during is when Jack was born and he still has the sack on his head over his ears  ( nose was already out and he was up on his chest. )  I've seen websites that have monitors on their expectant mothers with notes below them saying "If you see her in labor and I'm not there CALL ME ! My number is XXX-XXX-XXXX ) []  I try to bring my expectant mothers up into the yard, but they do get sneaky on me.

Ok, guys... that's enough. She is boarded at a barn and the fence that is barbed wire isn't ours so yeah, there's not alot i could have done. we don't have any stalls that were big enough for her to foal in and the one that is foods and is a swamp all the time. So yeah, stop being mean and hateful.. it's really not called for. and if it wasn't ment to be then it wasn't ment to be...

Spots,
 
You are okay - its always easy to do the woulda, coulda, shoulda after an event.  I don't know you well, yet, but I feel you care for your horses and do what you can to learn more.  Just like everybody else has had to do!
 
My grandparents always had barbed wire fence around the horse pastures.  The only problem it ever caused is when one of the yearling arabs couldn't judge the amount of slide needed to stop after running full out directly toward the fence.  So, every few years the vet would come out to stitch one up.  They never ran into again.  The appys, QHs, welsh ponies, or burro never had a problem with it - ever!
 
There is a topic on another board where we are questioning/discussing if we are not dumbing down horses as a species when we pad everything, keep some stalled all their lives, or breed inferior/dumb stock.  Does removing some natural selection cause harm?  There are many ranches that kick a stallion out with a broodmare herd, collect the stud, and let the mares take care of business.  The mares foal, the foals are weaned, broke to lead, and then kicked back out to learn to be a horse, until they are two or three when they are brought up for training.  They walk around rocks/boulders, avoid thorns, cliffs, too deep water, etc.
 
I don't know what happened to your foal and catching a mare delivering is hit or miss at best.  In my opinion, its always possible that the foal was dead or died from other complications that you may or may not have been able to do anything about.  Sometimes foals die, despite super safe stalls, vets and the best care.
 
I am sorry you lost your foal and more sorry you are being subjected to second guessing by others.

[font="tahoma"]Thank you for that. It's always hit or miss when a mare is about to foal. We were lucky to foal out our fresian/rocky filly last may. She's AMAZING. At 5 months old, she stands 12.2 hands and can already clear a 4ft fence with ease. she was foaled out around the barb wire and didn't have any problems, and 2 colts prior to her were foaled out around the barb wire, again, no problems.

We do have something creeping around our barn. The vet said it was a Very Large Bobcat or a Mountian Lion. My foal was the last animal attacked last month. A dog was attacked, she lived, one of the barn cats was killed ( we only found the back half of him), and one of the mini's was attacked. We didn't think she's make it threw it, but she never went into shock. She's gaining her weight back slowly and re growing her hair. Her and another mini were in a pin with horse fencing.. So whatever is creeping around, can jump that.

5 people within a 10 mi radius of the barn have seen a mountain lion. We've called conservation twice and they haven't done anything about it. They keep making up excuses that it's too muddy to drive through the pasture, the pasture is solid and dry... I don't know what else to do, i'm at my whits end with this one.
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My neighbor leases her barn to a friend who keeps an older horse, mini horse and mini burro that are being attacked/wounded occasionally.  An ancient goat was injured and put down last year and thought it was the work of coyotes that are here in abundance.  I haven't seen the wounds, but they are described as scratches or missing hair/hide patches that heal up on their own.  I am on call for the next injury as I would like to see what type of wounds are being inflicted.
 
As far as what it might be, IL has had three confirmed "wild" mountain lion sightings since 2000, one to the north of Chicago and the others in rural areas NW and SW counties.  All three had been killed and were DNA tested to prove they were from native N.Am. wild populations.   From what I could find, "authorities" say it is more likely that  "sighting" mountain lions are escaped/released pets that are from S.Am. populations.  A male can have a range of 22 square miles, and will travel outside its mother's range to find an area to live without another male.  So, lone males  like what we have had are normal events even with the nearest breeding populations of a couple of hundred cats in N.Dakota and Arkansas.  If they have to come this far, its because there are already other lone males living in between here and there.
 
I tend to be more concerned with a past pet as they see humans as providing food, however, both would be dangerous if cornerd.  And, the fact that it is not doing more damage.  A healthy adult would be able to take down the horse and yet it is only causing injury the horse and mini's can survive without a vet.  That's questionable to me.  The unknown animal that is near me has been heard by several neighgors and one does not think it sounds like a mountain lion.  We really don't know, but "it" has been very vocal lately around the barn where they are now shutting the horses/burro in at night.  I am very curious and have asked to be called if its heard or sighted again.
 
Of course, this speculation does not help the fact that you lost your foal, but if you do some research it may help other horse owners in your area in preventing other losses to their pets/livestock.

The following are PM's between Romeos Dad & myself. Nice guy.
His first contact;
 
Miss,

I would like to inform you of just a few things.

1. We were told the mare would foal in 2 weeks to 2 months, Do the math that's a lot of foal watch and she never showed signs of foaling.

2. We board our horses there we can not tear down the fence just cause we don't like it.

3. I think you are very wrong to say it was a senseless death we prepared as best we could and not only that we have foaled out 3 other mares with no problems.

4. Yea there are barbed wire marks all over the filly, WE WERE NOT THERE, UNDER OR THROUGH THE FENCE IS THE SAME THING!!!!!!

5. Down here in missouri we handle life as it comes so thanks I might wanna come visit up there in LA LA LAND wisconsin where apparently things are perfect and nothing ever dies!!!

6. Attack me or my friends on this post again and it will not be a private message I will post this in a thread. I do not take kindly to being talk down to which you openly did in a thread and made us look like idiots when you are the one who can not rationalize that S@*t Happens, it's life.

Have a good day,

Thanks,

John
 
Uh John, that would be "talked" down to, not " talk down to", y'all
 

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I thought everyone was pretty civil.
 
Oh well.