From: Heather
Hello again Jessica;
Yet another question for the people who are boarding my fillies. What do you prefer to have mares foal on and why? I have always liked hay or straw, but what do you think? Pros & Cons of each? They are having their mares foal in the arena on sawdust, which I think is extremely unhealty for the foals, but can't come up with reasons why. They are also planning on letting more than one mare in the arena to foal at a time. I was under the impression that mares needed more privacy than that to foal. I think that probably two or three seasoned broodmares that got along well could handle that, but really doubt a mare lower in the herd heirarchy, a maiden mare or a mare that had trouble accepting her foal last year could handle it. What do you think? Thanks again!
Heather, Lady & Kali
Hi Heather -- I hope you can talk these people out of their plans, because this is NOT a good idea. Mares do well when they are allowed to foal alone, outdoors, in a clean dry pasture. Since most of us don't have access to such a place, we substitute a clean, dry foaling stall.
Foaling stalls should be large -- often they are made by removing a partition between two normal (12 x 12 or 12 x 14) stalls. The stall should be stripped and washed down with disinfectant before the mare is put in there, and all equipment used (buckets, towels, etc.) by foaling attendants should be CLEAN and used only on THAT mare.
Clean straw in a disinfected stall is safe bedding, and that's what you want for a foaling mare. Even clean sawdust is dangerous for a foaling mare, and for the newborn foal. Foals lie flat when they sleep, and many lie flat just after birth, when they are still wet. Straw will not coat a foal or block its breathing, but sawdust can.
Even perfectly clean sawdust is dangerous -- sawdust that has been used for arena footing is going to be a hundred times as dangerous, because you have more than breathing to worry about. Arena footing is NOT clean, and certainly not antiseptic. It has dirt from many shoes, boots, and horse feet, it is usually full of ground-up manure and manure dust, from horses defecating in the arena while they are being turned out or ridden there, and it has whatever substances (oil? calcium chloride? polymers?) have been added to keep the dust down. Asking a mare to foal in an arena is asking to have a foal that begins life with an infection that can weaken it forever.
See whether your local tack shop has a copy of the video "Foaling Fundamentals" that you can rent or buy. It may help to convince the barn owners that they shouldn't take such risks with mares, foals, and foaling.
Good luck!
- Jessica
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