Foal Delivery – An Introduction

I love the birth of a foal more than anything else concerning horses.  For the most part it is an exciting and explosive event few horse owners get to see as they usually occur in the quiet early morning hours.  90 out of 100 births go without problems and of the remaining 10 births, about 9 have small and easily resolved problems.  It is the remaining 1%, the 1 in 100, that are what we all live in fear of happening to our mares.  

This subject shows a normal birthing (of a donkey but it’s the same as a horse both small and large). It also shows you how to handle the most common cause of a difficult birth (elbow lock) as well as the one event you will not have time to wait for help (red sack delivery). 

I’ll also look at some of the permpartum (right after the birth) things that are normal (nursing) and that are not normal (orphan). I will tell stories of helping a mare in shock after foaling and her life ending injuries, mares successfully birthing and suddenly dying and of mares retaining their afterbirth (placenta) and what was done.

There’re many more subtle things that happen that are unique to every birth and that take hundreds of birth observations for you to start to become comfortable with.  There are degrees of pain and pushing that only experience can teach.  There are folks that take hours to find the milk while others take only a few attempts. You just need to attend and hopefully attend with an experienced mentor to become good at this.  

I will never forget my first foaling and my first difficult birth.  I also spent a year calving during my first year out of vet school where I saw things I couldn’t believe happen (amorphous globosus, hydrocephalus, Schistosomus reflexus and other fetal monsters). I have seen foals born without front limbs and a few born with an extra digit (secondary cannon, pastern and hoof).

Delivering foals is exhilarating but is not for the faint of heart nor is it for those who lose their composure quickly or those who freeze when action needs to be taken.  If you want to become good at helping the delivery of foals then observe as many as you possibly can.  Experience with mentorship is the best teacher.