calculating due date Mare in foal

[rja]

Can anyone help. Mare in foal, covered 24th-30th May, how is due date calculated? Would be nice to have approx idea when foalie is due!!. Know its 11 months, but can a more acurate date be found?? Thanks

[glenisla]

Go forward one year from first day of covering then work back 25 days. Makes your foal due from about 30th April 2010 onwards. Make sure you start looking for signs of foaling a bit earlier than this as date is obviously just a guide. Hope all goes well.

[victoria (highhill)]

Jan 13, 2010 20:49:05 GMT glenisla said:

Go forward one year from first day of covering then work back 25 days. Makes your foal due from about 30th April 2010 onwards. Make sure you start looking for signs of foaling a bit earlier than this as date is obviously just a guide. Hope all goes well.

I was going to say I always work on 340 days - I think thats the same!!!

[kayjayem]

Ive been told 333 days but no-one told the mares that! Had them born from 10 months 2 weeks to 12 months 2 weeks so just keep watching!

Also calculate from last covering as they ovulate when going off.

[victoria (highhill)]

Jan 13, 2010 21:02:52 GMT kayjayem said:

Ive been told 333 days but no-one told the mares that! Had them born from 10 months 2 weeks to 12 months 2 weeks so just keep watching!

Also calculate from last covering as they ovulate when going off.

yeah have to say - have never had one born at 340 days - always late! I suppose when someone works out those sorts of things it can only be an average cant it? So we probably havent been much help!!

[rja]

No, great help! Thanks, at least I have had it confirmed, it will arrive when its ready!!!!!!

[kayjayem]

Exactly rja! I'm afraid with mares you just have to bide your time - I don't even bother with exact dates now they can be so variable, I just think "last covered 10th May due about 10th April" and keep watching! It makes me laugh, with sheep they lamb pretty much to the day and my boss(sheep owner and vet!) ribs me no end as I can't say the exact day they will foal until a couple of days before. I'm usually right though lol!!

[glenisla]

Don't know if it depends on breed of pony (we have welsh A's) but apart from one mare which is always about a fortnight early according to her calculated date, I don't think we have ever had a foal born more than ten days late and most are usually not as late as that.

[kayjayem]

I don't think breed comes into it(we are sec b's)it's the ladies doing the producing who write the rules!!

[sarahp]

I work on eleven months and a week as a rough guide.

[heathers]

i have one mare who always foals 11 months and 2 weeks but the others are all over the place

[sarah00000]

OMG - you are all making me excited LOL

[Milliesmum]

Jan 14, 2010 11:34:34 GMT @sarah00000 said:

OMG - you are all making me excited LOL

Funny how thinking about due dates has the opposite effect on AMWAP!!!!

[mister]

From the last day of covering add 11 months and 5 days . I've always gone by that - I've got a book called From Foal To Full Grown and it has a chart in the back to work out the expected due date. If the last day of covering was may 30th your due date is may 4th.

[sarahp]

I have the same chart in a much older book - but mares aren't that accurate anyway, so 11 months and a week does OK for me, otherwise you have to start thinking how many days in each month! I still seem to have more going over than early.

[kayjayem]

I also find thif they are due early on they are more likely to be a bit late and the ones due later often come a bit early(does that make sense?)

[sarah00000]

oooohhhhhhhhhhh - even more exciting! Nearly peeing my pants! xx

[Deleted]

I work on 11 months and 3 days

[deejay]

I have a gestation table which has always been pretty acurate with my mares. For covering 24th-30th May she should foal 28th April-4th May. However all mares have their own ideas so keep watching for signs around those dates.

[jebeth]

When I first started breeding I used to record the number of days each animal went to get a gauge of how long her gestation was. Sheep tend to be pretty accurate and it works for them!
However I now just work out 340 days and put dates due back to 325 in my diary as I have never had one earlier than that. Apart from that it is just wait and see. I find a blood test is useful, then you are not waiting for the imaginary foal - apart from that they always arrive eventually!
J

[sarahp]

Yes I agree sheep are pretty accurate - but I had two different pure breeds with different gestation lengths!

And did you know that on average colt foals are carried for slightly longer than fillies - scientificially proven!

[Auntycath]

The average gestation period for a pony/horse foal is 342 days, so going by that, your foal is due between May 1st and May 7th. You can use these link to guesstimate, but as everyone else has said, it's entirely up to mare and foal as to when the time actually comes.

www.steinbeckequine.com/calculator.shtml

duncity.net/horses/foalingcalc.htm

Standard advice is that anything more than 3 weeks earlier than the due date has a poor (but not nil) chance of survival, simply due to the foetus being immature - for example, as with humans, the lungs are just about the last thing to be ready for birth. I've known a 300-day foal survive, but with a lot of vet intervention and support - and the longest overdue I've had one of my mares go is 5 weeks (5 very loooooong weeks). Personally, I start the closest inspections from 4 weeks before the due date. You may find with the recent extremely cold weather conditions that she is a little late - it's not uncommon for mares to set their dates back a little as a result, just as they sometimes foal early if there's a spell of really good warm weather!

You might like the link to the attached which shows you at regular growth stages throughout the pregnancy roughly what your unborn foal should look like/be developing. Yours is about 230 days old:

www.forest-view-arabians.com/FetusDevelopmentTimeLine-Forest-View-Arabians.htm

If this is your first foal, then be really careful to learn all the signs of your mare becoming close to foaling, and make sure you're familiar with what is involved during foaling and care straight after. Observation of how your mare changes physically and in her temperament are key to making sure everything goes as well as it can. The book mentioned above "From Foal to Full Grown" is excellent and answers a lot of those questions you might feel a numpty to ask out loud

Sorry, didn't that mean to sound like a lecture! ;D

[angel77]

Does anyone think early foals "run in the family"? A mare of mine always foals at least two weeks early and one even being born 4 weeks early with no health problems at all - this one had her first foal last year who was also born 4 weeks early, the first mare I mention has another daughter who is due with her first foal in 8 weeks but started bagging up a couple of weeks ago

[drenrowstud]

please note that some studies have also said that small native type mares that are stabled and well fed can have shorter gestations of down to 320 days and the foals still appear fully grown and normal

we have found this very useful when planning ,all our foals seemed to be 3,4, or 5 weeks early when calculated on 340 days

one mare for us had her foals 3-4 weeks early every year however when sold to north wales she foaled just about on time to the 340 days , maybee us having the lights on till 12 at night to get the show animals coats shifting may have an effect .

[smokeycott]

one of my mares has gone to 12 months everytime shes foaled. but the day she foals you know the foals on the way by the end of the day and have been born in the evening.
my others far more sneaky !!

[toby09]

I've always used a year less 25 days from first day of covering which hopefully gives me leeway, the same way I calculate third jabs to 210 days instead of 215! I'd rather be on full alert earlier than surprised!

[Guestless]

I've been really lucky with the 3 foals I've bred so far and always only had one night up for each - mares have been very obliging about letting me know "it's time". Different mare in foal for this year, but hoping she will not give me endless sleepless nights

[sarahp]

Mine foal out anyway, and I don't sit up but do usually know the night before that they will foal that night although maidens can be more tricky. If I think one is going to foal I normally wake naturally at first light which is about 4am or so and go to see, sometimes even earlier in the dark too.

[Guestless]

Jan 15, 2010 12:34:10 GMT sarahp said:

Mine foal out anyway, and I don't sit up but do usually know the night before that they will foal that night although maidens can be more tricky. If I think one is going to foal I normally wake naturally at first light which is about 4am or so and go to see, sometimes even earlier in the dark too.

That's exactly what I do too, but my ponies are at livery so it involved me trying to get a few hours sleep in my lorry....which excitement usually curtails!

Haven't yet seen any births, but foals have still been wet each time and two of them were just trying to get on their feet. (I bet thinking about that will make Lovepink all excited again, lol)

[sarahp]

My favourite D mare chose to have her first foal at teatime, and I had her in a small paddock on her own anyway so myself, daughter and daughter's friend all watched. Fascinating to watch as she had no idea what was going on, kept coming back to me saying she felt odd and eventually lay down, heaved a bit and the foal was born. Phew, glad that's over she said, whatever happened there. Then the foal whinnied, and she turned round to look with such a look of amazement on her face that we all burst out laughing. What's that and how did it get there? We have a series of photos of it all. Glad to report she was a great mother, and now after a ridden career is expecting her second foal in 2010, eagerly awaited as it will be a 3/4 sibling to my stallion. (Are you excited lovepink?)