Last summer, my friend and I had set out on an equine adventure. We had found online that my friend’s first horse had come up for sale, she was a little worse for wear, but we bought her. We both train horses part time so we thought that it would be really cool to have her bred. We organized a great stallion and had the deed done.
The dilemma, however, is something we only realized afterward. During the time that my friend hadn’t owned this horse, she had created a horrible hatred of veterinarians. I don’t just mean a little bit of a hatred, I mean a huge one. She knows the veterinarian’s truck sound and lays her ears back at anyone in a scrub suit. We found this information out during the first echography.
Fast forward 11 months, and no foal. The mare is HUGE. She just waddles around the paddock at a slow hobble. A couple weeks later we call the veterinarian to come to check her out. The mare won’t have any of it. The veterinarian doesn’t even enter the paddock. Understandably. It would be too risky to sedate the mare for an echography and too risky for the vet to do one without it. We decide to wait some more.
One month late. Still no foal. There is a possibility that she lost the foal from the chosen stallion and had accidentally fallen pregnant with my friend’s stallion which would explain the lateness. They were together for such a short amount of time, but horses can be so sneaky! Now, with over a month late, we are losing our minds waiting with absolutely no way of finding out what is going on inside.
That is what the trickiest part about large animal veterinary medicine is, you need the animal to be willing. If a thousand pound animal isn’t alright with being examined by a vet then it is not going to happen! That is where my friend and I failed the most–if we had known she would behave this way we would have never done it. She was always so sweet with us and other people, there is just something about veterinarians in her past that seems to have traumatized her. Which is quite unfortunate, because as veterinarians and technicians, we just want to help her out.
In either case, we are kept waiting, without another choice. At some point, she will pop and hopefully it will go smoothly. Until then, I will be impatiently waiting!
Hello, Is there a foal yet?
I want to know if the mare had her foal yet or how it is going. Don’t leave us in limbo like this. It is important.
Hello! yes she finally had it on the 17th of September! She had him overnight with no need for a vet. He’s healthy and HUGE!
I am interested to know, has she had her foal yet???
Did you try getting the vet to come out in a different vehicle and with normal clothes on to try and fool her, different shampoo and spray would make them smell different too