"Alifra hfd (Obelisk x Jazz), our five year old KWPN Prok mare foaled a striking black/bay filly by Ampere. Being Alifra hfd's first foal, we had no usual pre foaling signs to look out for which could be deemed individual to her. Plus a first foal can be quite a shock to a first time mum and rejection of the foal born from inexperience and fear can cause serious problems.

There is a basic set of pre foaling symptoms to watch for which include restlessness, waxing, yawning, stamping the back feet, pawing the bedding, loss of appetite, or coming up to the gate to come in much earlier than usual. All these changes in behaviour may be observed several hours before a mare actually starts to foal - however there is no guarantee a mare will present any of these so don't drop your guard!

A back up to observation and experience are the foaling alarms we fit the mares with. These work on either sweat or the mare lying down in foaling position for more than six to seven seconds, but again there is no guarantee a mare will sweat and could actually foal standing up, so a foaling alarm is an important piece of stud equipment but again not 100% reliable, so we still watch them on the CCTV intently.

The muscles and ligaments under the tail become very slack with hind quarters loosening around dock area. Alifra did not particularly show much slackening but we know this is also not set in stone. Although slackening has to occur to facilitate the birth, we have a seasoned brood mare who will not show any changes in her behaviour and can slacken her quarters for foaling within the hour; this may be 4 o’clock in the morning so the 10pm checks Brian makes in these cases are not 100% reliable either.

Alifra had waxed up some three days previously and we noticed on the CCTV that she was starting to paw at her bed. This behaviour was unusual to her so we paid attention. She was wearing the posture sensitive foaling alarm but on the monitor we could see that she was sweating heavily, so Brian got up and dressed. He removed her foaling alarm, bandaged her tail, put a little extra straw in her bed and got the terymycin and towels ready. All was set and Alifra lay down and foaling began. As the foal bag appears, Brian waves at me in on the monitor and I too head down to the foaling bay.

The foetal bag started to show, followed by both front legs one in front of the other, then the nose closely behind. Care must be taken that the nose (airway) is clearly out of danger from contracting back into the mare before the foaling sac is broken or he/she could be in danger of suffocation, Alifra punctured her foaling sac a little to close for comfort for us, so I cleared the foal's nostrils to ensure she was breathing while Brian and I held onto the front legs and gave her a little help during contractions .

Once the front legs, head, neck and shoulders were out, we all had a little rest. The hind quarters soon followed; the foal wriggled free from the foetal sac, a little terrymycin was applied when the umbilical cord severed, and we gave her a good rub with a towel while the new mum worked out what had actually happened.

The next few hours are important; we have to ensure the foal takes its first drink - a foal will normally stand within 20 minutes and take their first drink within an hour. The first suck is all important as this contains the valuable colostrum needed to help fight infection at this vulnerable stage of the newborn’s life. The placenta should be expelled within four to six hours after birth and certainly after colostrum has been ingested, as this does have a slight laxative effect, so Brian stayed until she was drinking independently and the placenta was passed. I returned to bed and kept watch in comfort!

While Brian observes, he checks the foetal sac for the hippomane and puts a knot in the foetal sac while still attached to the mare, to prevent her standing on it and ripping it. Cleansing completed, it's 1am and the pair are left to get to know each other and we watch for a few hours on the CCTV as the birds begin to sing and the alarm goes off at 6am.

Another sucessful birth!"