Agree with Chanda on that one. Some of ours have days when they don't finish their feed and others when they keep their heads in the feed buckets.
Isn't foal watch fun???
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In 2001, we had one mare come out of the pasture to her eating area to eat her feed, leave & find a thicket and drop her foal, then come back and work on finishing eating her feed while we dealt w/ the thicket and getting the foal out. That was our Arab mare's 3rd foal. I will have to re-scan a photo (print out on paper) showing him in the thicket... before we moved him. The actual foaling didn't take long - I was in the barn setting up individual feed buckets for the evening feed and of course missed the actual foaling (I had just delivered 2 foals up at the boarding barn that weren't ours, but missed our own while I was literally "right there". Also goes to show just how fast a foaling can go). Chaunter's feed pan was right outside the door of the barn and I missed her leaving - knew something was "up" when I saw her trot back up to her feed pan and went looking. She did follow our daughters and I back to her baby - the ponies on the other side of the fence that were done eating & already turned back out, were standing right there looking over at the baby. Compared to our Shetlands, he was HUGE (he wasn't actually all that big for a purebred Arab) & all legs. Getting him up and out was a very painful experience - I ripped my flannel shirt and skin, too, in several places. I don't think I've told this story on this forum before...
In 2011, I had Koalah up in the "stalls" under our carport. We knew we were close. I also badly needed to clean out those stalls (dog kennel separated into two stalls) - they were very wet from water that had flowed into the carport while getting too much heavy rain for several days before. She didn't appear to be going to foal RIGHT then, so I lead her up to the barn and tied her in her "old" (previously normal) spot while I was portioning out feed. I fed the barn ponies first (they were all tied at their buckets) and I believe I stood and watched Koalah for a while. Didn't seem like anything going on. Her vulva was big and loose, she had milk (didn't have milk tester yet, sooo...) but not waxing or dripping. She had started to "drop off" around her tail head but thinking back - she doesn't ever get real loose there until "after" foaling (probably loosens as she's foaling - like some women don't have fully open cervix until baby is pressed right up against it). She was still wide. So I set up the next group of pony's feeds and took them outside to feed. Came back in, checked - still OK. Went down to the kennel/stalls and started cleaning, took first load out to the bonfire/burn pile, back to finish cleaning - then heard water running and wondered if I'd left the spigot in the barn on, then a loud-ish plop and I took off running. It didn't even look like she'd taken her head out of her bucket - she foaled standing up. I did not finish cleaning out the stall - got towels, tied up the placenta, unhooked Koalah's tie, gathered up the still wet filly & Koalah followed me down to the stall. Then she and I helped dry the filly together and she was colicy and kept laying down while working on passing the placenta... We dumped shredded paper and wood shavings down on top of the dirty stall - I'd clean it more later.
Yes, I've told this story before. But it's such a surprise and such a cool story.
This is a pic of Koalah tied in the barn (different spot) in 2014. She IS in foal here, but just barely. She was bred in July (accidental exposure - one cover) and foaled on 5 June 2015.
