Facts on Foals

Because India is still a baby, there is so much to know about foals! For example, did you know that newborn horses can stand within just 1 hour of being born? Or what about the fact that foals can't eat grass because their legs are too long to reach? This is all stuff to know when owning a foal!

A newborn foal and it's mother

Horses are pregnant for 11 months. Just like humans, horses grow in the mother almost the exact same way, the only difference is that horses aren't actually noticeably pregnant until around 9 months! In the last 2 months of the pregnancy, the foal grows like crazy! Over night results are usually noticeable, and the mare (the pregnant mother) will start to show definite signs of her expecting. Signs include nipping at her stomach, eating and drinking a lot and other little oddities that may not seem normal in comparison to a non-pregnant mare. When the mare is going into labor, she will generally roll around on the ground. Why? Because she is trying to reposition the baby into the proper position for being born! When in labor, she will make noises and demonstrate that she is in labor to the other horses in the herd. Most foals are born at night and away from their herd. The reason is that they are very private and like to be alone. Giving birth is a very quick process for horses, and can usually be done in 10 minutes or less!

Up and walking within an hour!

After the foal is born, it will be up and standing almost instantly. The mothers teats will
be ready to be drank from, and they will be very swollen and filled with milk. The first drop of milk is the most important to the foal. It contains a lot of needed nutrients for the foal that have been being saved throughout the pregnancy. The foals instincts are just to drink, so finding the teats is usually no problem for the foal. Sometimes, the mare will not let the foal drink. If she is a first time mom, not knowing what to expect is a very difficult situation for her and she may even shun the foal, not on purpose, but because she doesn't know. If this happens, you can rent or lease 'surrogate mares' that have available milk, usually because they lost their foal in or after child birth and have no way to re leave the teats of the milk.

After the foal is born, be sure to call the vet to make sure it is healthy and on track to grow!


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Nailed It!

The most important part of a horse is it's feet! The amount of work and type of work a horse can do, is all about how their hooves are made. Just like human nails, hooves grow, and when they do, the person to call to fix it is called a farrier. A farrier is a person specialized in the anatomy and care of hooves on livestock. Generally used on horses, farriers are very useful to horse owners, and horses as well. If a horse's hooves become overgrown, the horse may become lame or sore, or even unbalanced due to over growth. The farrier is called out to barns usually every 8-10 weeks to keep things running smoothly.

When the farrier comes to your barn, there are some basic tools and equipment they will bring, in order to work on your horse's feet. First, there is a rasp. It is essentially just a giant nail file, strong enough to file hoof. Along with the rasp is a nipper. A nipper is like nail cutters. They're shaped almost the same but are super industrial. Different farriers may choose to use additional tools as well, depending on the person, and the horse. The nippers cut the hoof wall, and the rasp files any rough edges or surfaces that may cause the horse any pain if it gets caught on anything. After the nippers and rasping is done, the farrier moves to the 'frog' and uses a hoof knife to cut it back. The frog is an almost spongy part of the horse's hoof, which absorbs shock. If the frog is too big or too small, the horse may obtain injuries easier than if it were healthy.

Just like cutting your own nails, the horses feel no pain when having their hooves trimmed. the only time it can become painful is if the farrier ever cuts too far back and hits the white line. If the white line is hit, the horse may bleed, but not too much; it is usually very minor. Horses that have horse shoes are horses with 'soft feet', which means their hooves are sensitive to things like gravel, pavement, or other materials they may be subject to walk on. For most horses, walking anything is fairly simple however, and the farrier will tell you if you need shoes or not.




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Check Up Time!

Shots are usually administered in the neck

What most people don't know, is that horses are a lot like dogs. As a matter of fact, the largest dog in the world is actually bigger than an average sized pony! Just like dogs, horses need proper shots, dewormer, and other health and safety care from a vet. But what kind of shots and how often? It's sometimes confusing and is good to keep a notebook to keep track! For genera
l booster shots, you usually vaccinate twice a year. One in spring, and one in fall. This is just done this way to spread it out and give the body enough time for the vaccine to do all it's supposed to do. For deworming, it's usually done every 3 months, more in summer. Over the winter, the chances of a horse getting worms is very slim because there is little to

Horse dewormer is in paste form, and is taken orally

no grass for them to eat (that's how worms are contracted, they come from eating bad grass or particles from in the dirt). Over winter, once is usually enough unless your horse starts to show signs of worms (signs are usually excessive eating and a bloated belly). The vaccines twice a year are booster, westnile, rhino flu, and tetanus. if your horse needs other shots for its medical reasons, the vet will tell you what ones, and how often to get them. Because India is just over a year old, she only NOW started getting her shots. When horses are young, you don't want to give them vaccines (unless necessary) so that their bodies have a chance to build up some immunity towards illness.

With proper care, your horse should stay healthy and happy all year round!


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Leaving the Nest.... or Stall

Just like humans, horses sometimes need to leave the nest and learn things for themselves! India is now a almost a year and a half old and has become very herd bound (this means that she is very dependent on her herd for safety and doesn't like to stray too far away from them) and that is sometimes a negative thing. Being herd bound, for some horses, is good. It gives them a sense of protection, especially if they are young, old, or lame (this means injured or weak, sort of like when a human has a limp). Because India is young, if she becomes too herd bound too early on in her life, she will forever be dependent of others, and independence is a very good thing, especially when growing up. She needs to learn things for herself!

We moved India to a new barn to help her become less herd bound. How do you move a horse across town without riding it you ask? Well, a horse trailer is the answer. Horse trailers are made to carry from 5000-15 000 pounds of livestock on the back of a pickup truck. To get the horse on the trailer though, is another story. Because the space on the trailer is so confined and not very big (so they can't walk around or hurt themselves while driving), getting onto the trailer is sometimes scary, especially for young horses that have only been on once or twice.

After an hour of coaxing her onto the trailer (with food and treats), India finally got on, and she is now happy and making friends in her new herd all by herself. She's growing up!

Neigh Way!

As we all know, being little is sometimes tough. When you're a little kid, rules are the worst thing in the world, no one wants to follow them and it's not until we're older that we realize that sometimes, rules are a good thing. This is the same with horses. For India, breaking rules is what she does best. Being in a field all day eating and doing almost nothing, can sometimes get boring for a young horse, just like it would for a little kid. Trouble making is all in a days work. Any way she can try to make herself entertained, India is sure to do it. "What kind of trouble can a horse get into anyways?!" is usually a question asked by many people, but the possibilities are endless!

A big problem for India, is her love of food. She will do almost anything to get the best hay or grass, even if that means putting herself in dangerous situations. Imagine being called at 6am one morning, barely awake, and someone telling you that your horse is on their back porch looking into their kitchen window?! Well, for me, this has happened.... 4 times.... in 2 weeks. "What about the fences?!" you ask? They're there, she just ignores them. Don't be fooled now, electric fences are VERY electric, usually one shock to a horse will stop them from ever going near it again. But not India. India is probably the smartest horse I have ever come across in all my life. She knows that the shock will only hurt for a second, and then be over. By swatting her tail at the fence, she realizes that the shock will go off, which is very smart of her, because a shock to her tail is barely noticeable to her. She then barrels through the fence and goes where she wants to. Who needs rules?! Not India.

This may seem cute now, but there are a lot of safety issues regarding her rebellious streak! If she ever walked onto the road and got hit by a car, there would be no choice but to put her down if she was injured enough. As well as getting hit by a car, farmers are sometimes not so nice to unwanted visitors no matter how cute they are. It is law that if your horse ends up on property they are not legally allowed to be on, they can be 1) taken by the livestock humane society 2) kept by the landowners, or even 3) some farmers will shoot animals that don't belong there.

From owning a 'little kid', it is finally clear to me just how important rules really are!

Barn Yard Dress Up

As Halloween soon approaches, we can't forget about our four legged friends! Dressing up and painting horses has been a tradition practiced for many years. Natives first started this trend, not for fun, but for tribal reasons. Before battle, horses would be painted and dressed up in beads and cloths to represent a certain tribe's beliefs and values. As time progressed, people discovered that painting horses is actually a talent. Horse painting became popular in circus' and at fairs, where prizes would be awarded for the most creative and outlandish horse painting. Nowadays, horses are painted, mostly for fun! Tempera paint is non-toxic and washable and a great way to show your Halloween-y spirit!

Not only are horses painted for Halloween or just for fun, they are also painted for special events. Parades and celebrations use painted horses as a way of decoration and advertisement. For example, in the London Olympics, horses were painted to represent each country participating in the games. Because horses are so big and attention-grabbing, they really make their colour noticeable! Equine first aid training also sometimes use painted horses to demonstrate skeletal, muscular and intestinal movement, right on the horse.



 Horse painting is a real talent, and there are legitimate qualified trained painters!


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Safety 101

Bagbalm

Because she is so young, India, as well as other foals, are very prone to injury. Usually being the smallest horses in the field, foals are more likely to be picked on or singled out by other horses in the herd. So what are some common injuries and how are they treated? Well, to start small, bites are the most common injury among horses. To secure their dominance in a herd, a horse will bite another to show that they are in control. A minor bite can just be left to heal on its own, but depending on the size of the bite mark, sometimes an antiseptic lotion is applied to the wound called Bagbalm, which is essentially just Polysporin for animals.
As the injuries get bigger, other precautions have to be made. For example, if a horse gets its leg caught in a barb wire and tears a large gauge in its leg, more intense treatments have to be arranged. Little do many people know, horse first aid kits can be made using common household items.

Step 1: Rinse the cut with cold water, to help relieve any swelling the injury may have caused.
Step 2: With a syringe, squirt an adequate amount of Iodine wash on the wound to kill any bacteria that may have been transferred to the wound from the fence. Iodine wash can be found almost anywhere, as humans use it too.

Vet wrap

Step 3: After the Iodine wash dries on the wound, take a female sanitary pad (yes, a pad), take off the wrapper and cut it in half. Pads work fantastic on horse injuries because they are: a) large b) are able to hold a lot of blood, an
d c) they don't stick to the wound when the blood dries and you have to remove it. You then put any type of horse wound treatment medication on the pad (there are hundreds of different types and brands, it's really the horse owner's choice) and place it on the wound.
Step 4: Take some vet wrap (a whole roll is only about 80 cents to buy) and wrap the wound. Change the bandages once or twice everyday, depending on the severity of the gauge.
And there you go! Quick and easy!

All in all, injury is hard to avoid, especially on young rambunctious horses, but with the right care are equipment, healing is quick and easy. Obviously, with bigger wounds and issues, a vet needs to be contacted, but with the small stuff, almost anyone can do it!


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