What do you do when a horse is giving birth?

Answer 1

You'll know that a mare is having trouble foaling if she lies down and strains hard for more than half an hour with no sign of her labour progressing. If your mare is having difficulty the most likely reason is that the foal is not presenting the right way. A vet is trained to deal with malpresentations, and it is very difficult for a layperson to fix them.

If you can't afford to call a vet, I hate to be blunt but you shouldn't be keeping horses, let alone breeding them. If the vet can't come or is a long way away, you need to try to help the mare because you may lose mare and foal if you don't intervene. Tip some disinfectant in a bucket and disinfect your arm. Tie the mare's hind feet together so that she can't kick you and feel inside her vagina.

If the cervix is open, try to find the foal. If you can feel a head, it's facing the wrong way. The head should be lying on the front legs, which normally stretch out along the vagina. If the front legs are folded back, the chances of the mare being able to foal are very limited. You will need to disinfect some string. Slide your hand back along the foal's leg and tie the cloth around the pastern. Leave the end of the string hanging out of the vagina, and ask somebody to pull firmly on it while you push the head back into the uterus. This pulls the legs around and after that the mare may be able to foal normally.

If you can feel a tail, the foal is presenting breech. Most mares can deliver a breech foal unless it has its legs back - use the string around the pastern again, and this time push back on the hock to pull the leg around. If the foal's head is back, this is a virtually impossible presentation. You can try to pull it around, but often this won't work.

The only thing you could try would be to shove the foal as far back as you can because there is more room to try to move the head in the uterus than past the cervix. If the foal is jammed or presenting sideways, shove it back as far as you can and then try to realign it so that it can come out normally. In a small mare where the foal is stuck or too large to fit through her pelvis, there is nothing you can do except a caesarean operation, which is obviously a job for the vet.

If nothing has any effect and the vet is several hours away and the mare is obviously suffering, it might be a case to make the very difficult decision to put the mare down. Equine obstetrics involving head-back, stuck foal, sideways presentation or coiled breech usually require either expert handling or a caesarean operation. If you have to shoot the mare, there is a chance that you may be able to save the foal. Cut through the skin of the flank. The uterus should be the largest organ and will bulge into the cut. It would probably be possible to remove the foal.

When a mare has trouble foaling, it means that something is wrong. It's a job for the vet. All of these above methods are LAST RESORT ONLY. If there is a choice between shooting the mare and trying to foal her, that's when you try something like this without expert assistance.

Answer 2

Having been raised on many horse ranches, I recommend that you do absolutely nothing. Stay away from the mare and her baby. Make sure there are no pets around to disturb her. Make sure there are no loud and distracting noises. Stay out of her line of vision. Keep the lighting low if she is in a barn. Let her do her job. If she is a high dollar thoroughbred, then

I would recommend hiring a horse doctor or a veterinarian.