At our farm, the mares give birth at home, directly on the paddock paradise, with the herd. We made this choice mainly to reduce stress as much as possible for the mare, the foal and also the herd. This way of doing things, as “natural” as possible, allows the mare to choose her moment and the herd to understand what is happening, therefore welcoming the foal more easily. There is not this moment of tension that there can sometimes be, when we put everyone back together a few days or a few weeks after foaling. However, “natural” does not mean without monitoring and supervision on our part. So many things can happen, a birth that goes wrong, a foal that rolls under the wires, a dominant mare that steals the foal, a placenta that doesn't come out, a foal that doesn't drink its colostrum... , that we do everything we can to be present (as discreetly as possible) during the wonderful moment. For this, we use the Birth Alarm Lite 2.0 system which detects the mare's contractions (lying down-upright sequence). This system is fixed to the halter and is therefore minimally invasive, in addition to reducing the risk of the mare getting stuck in the multiple trees and branches accessible on the paddock paradise. As we do not use this system all year round, it is available for rental here. Once the foal is out, we monitor from afar, opening a grass meadow so that the herd is occupied while baby and mother get to know each other. This also makes it easier to meet the rest of the herd since the space is larger than the 5m corridors of the paddock paradise. During the first days, the foal being stuck to its mother, he discovers the layout of the corridors and integrates these “complicated” fences from an early age. There are often one or two electric wires in the interior fences broken per foal, but after that it's learn for life!

On average, the gestation period of a mare is 340, but it varies between 320 and 370 days! In addition to the Birth Alarm system, we therefore try to anticipate as best as possible the approach of D-day by observing the mare (udders, vulvas) and especially by analyzing mammary secretions. Indeed, by collecting pre-colostrum every day (a very small quantity is enough), it is possible to determine with fairly good precision (72 hours maximum) whether or not we are approaching parturition. The best predictions are obtained by combining the pH test and the calcium concentration test.

pH test

Equipment: strips that test pH between 6 and 8 with an accuracy of 0.2 to 0.3.

Procedure: dip the strip (or place drops if very few secretions are available) on the paper then read the result directly

Analysis of the result: immediately read the result. If the pH is greater than or equal to 6.4, 99% of mares will not foal within 24 hours, 81% will not foal within 72 hours. If below this threshold, 54% of mares foal within 24 hours and 97% of mares foal within 72 hours.

Calcium concentration test

Equipment: Merckoquant 10025 strips (in pharmacies in boxes of 100), with a CaC03 reading scale between 30 and 210 mg/l + a single-use tube or a very clean container rinsed with distilled water + a syringe + distilled water.

Procedure: collect the secretions (what remains after carrying out the pH test) in the syringe. Depending on what we managed to collect (sometimes the mares hit so we take what we can...), suck up 6 times the dose of milk in distilled water into the same syringe. For example, if we were able to collect 0.6ml of milk, we then suck up 0.6*6 = 3.6ml of water. In total in the syringe we will therefore have 0.6+3.6=4.2ml. Empty this syringe into the clean, dry tube/container. To mix, you can re-aspirate/empty the syringe. When it is mixed, take a little of the mixture with the syringe and place a few drops on each square of the strips.

Analysis of the result: we immediately read the result. If 2 pink squares, 90% of mares do not foal before 4 days. If 4 pink squares, 80% of mares foal within 2 days.

To make it easier, we therefore often carry out the pH test and if we are still far from the threshold of 6.4, we do not carry out the calcium test, which is more tedious to carry out (and requires a greater quantity of secretions). Rinse the syringe and container well with distilled water after use.

The figures presented for secretion tests come from the IFCE (available on the internet). So far this has always worked well for our mares, especially combined with observing the mare's body. As a reminder, 60% of mares foal at night.