Doonaveeragh Emma: Caring for a mare in the third trimester of pregnancy.

Doonaveeragh Emma is a thirteen year old mare who jumped to a high level and she is in foal to Colmar. She is due to foal at the beginning of April and so her last four months of pregnancy, her third trimester, started at the beginning of December.

She has been happily living out in the field with a companion all year, and while we were away in Vilamoura in October, she and her friend were having supplementary hay and being fed once a day, both of them having Saracen Releve and Stamm 30 feed balancer, and this was stepped up to twice a day once the weather got wetter and a little colder, and therefore the nutrition levels in the grass gradually dropped.

As the weather got even wetter I felt that the mares would benefit from being in at night. Bigger breeding operations have lovely big barns where the mares can continue a herd-like existence, but we are a small yard, and so they broadly fit in with everyone else. Emma has a big corner stable, and a big, thick bed of shavings, and from the amount of shavings she has in her mane and forelock every morning, she is obviously taking the opportunity to have a proper, stretched-out lie down to rest at night. Like all heavily pregnant ladies she is loving a little bit of daily pampering. She’s lived like a princess since she arrived here as a three year old, and she is enjoying being in the centre of things in the yard. She goes out in the morning with her friend, and comes in at about 2.30, she has her feet and legs washed off, and a quick brush so that she is comfortable for the night. Because her last visit from the vet was at 60 days pregnant, Dan Carroll from Cinder Hill Equine Vets has visited her recently, just to check that she was in foal and not an extremely pear shaped horse.

From the beginning of the third trimester she has had her feed changed to a diet specifically for the stage she is at now, and this feed regime will continue while she is lactating. Whilst it is important that mares are not overweight during the first two trimesters of pregnancy, the foal gains about 60% of its weight in the third trimester. At the moment the foal is about the size of a Jack Russell Terrier. Emma has a big scoop of Saracen Horse Feeds Mare Care, 250g of Stamm 30, some Saracen Molassed Chaff and some sugar beet twice a day. I think she must be loving this as the mare care is full of delicious oats - she has never been allowed an oat in her life before!

Mares need careful monitoring in their last trimester. Emma is getting quite big now, and whilst she is very happy and looks very well, she is definitely slowing down, and looks a bit more like Mrs Tiggywinkle than a superb athlete as she trots off into the field every morning. As the foal takes up more space she is going to have uncomfortable days, and we did have a worrying day yesterday when she seemed to have slipped over in the mud in the field, and then was quite distressed when she came in. Luckily she was back to normal within a few hours, but the vet did come and check her, we would always rather be safe than sorry.

For the last month of her pregnancy Emma will go to a specialist foaling unit, it is important that she goes early, not only to relax into her surroundings, but also so that she acquires any specific local antibodies that she will need to pass on to her foal. She will go to Bea Fuller, who looked after her last year, and who is a foaling expert. Much as I would love to be there at the birth, with such a very important mother and baby, I will leave it to the experts, Bea and the vets from Cinder Hill or Sussex Equine Hospital. Mares also need to be vaccinated against Equine Herpes Virus at five, seven and nine months of pregnancy as EHV can cause abortion in mares, and it is very important that all the mares at a breeding facility are vaccinated.

We are loving having Emma at home, she’s been a part of our lives for ten years now, and this is a great new chapter in her life, and hopefully we’ll have a happy healthy foal here from April. She has always been a charming mare to handle, and Colmar also has a wonderful temperament, so hopefully very exciting times ahead.