Lucky taking his bottle from Charlie in the back yard.
It’s February, foaling season. My phone rings late one night. Natural Class, a full sister to Raise A Secret, foaled today, a colt, she prolapsed but we took care of it here at the farm. We’ll see how she’s doing tomorrow.
Two days later the phone rings again Natural Class had to go to the vet clinic and the vet should be calling shortly.
Lucky Like A Lark, Moon Lark out of Natural Class, playing with Charlie and Roderick.
When he does call he has the dreaded news. At two days old I have an orphan. Natural Class, who had survived colic surgery two years earlier, has died due to the prolapse.
The colt is 450 miles away so we put a topper on a pickup with bedding in the back and head south.
How Do We Care for This Orphan
Charlie’s Kindergarten class came to feed Lucky.
Where I live people don’t normally foal this early and there are no nurse mares available. The vet has instructed us to feed the foal every two hours. This is not like having a baby in the next room that wakes me up when it’s hungry. I just have to get up, on my own, with the only the help of an alarm clock with a snooze button and feed him. Yes I’m a night owl but when I get to sleep I don’t like it to be interrupted.
We live in town and the barn is about half a mile away, not too bad, but my loving husband suggested we clear an area in the heated shed in the back yard so I don’t have to drive out to feed him every two hours. What a grand plan. Now all I have to do is put on a robe and slippers and take the bottle to the heated shed every two hours.
On warm days the colt roams the back yard that is surrounded by a privacy fence and everyone is happy. Especially Lucky, the colt, who is becoming rather spoiled.
A Runaway Sue, Runaway Winner out of Ala Secret Sue, shortly after foaling.
The Prized Mare – Ala Secret Sue
The same foaling season I have Ala Secret Sue, Natural Class’s dam, her front feed have abscesses and the vet is not sure she will live until she foals. She is in foal to Runaway Winner and the breeding was challenging to get. I desperately want this foal.
When she did go into labor we had to have the vet out to help, the foal was very small and he wasn’t sure she would survive. Ala Secret Sue would lie down to rest a lot but that didn’t bother A Runaway Sue she would nurse while her dam was resting. Then when she was three weeks old my husband had gone out to feed and come back to tell me that Ala Secret Sue had died. A second orphan.
A Runaway Sue and her nurse mare.
A Nurse Mare
We already had the bottles and powdered milk, no problem, right? Wrong! Unlike Lucky who had lost his dam at two days and had been trained by the clinic staff in Oklahoma to take a bottle. A Runaway Sue wanted nothing to do with the bottle. She wanted the real thing.
Now what do we do?
A good friend and neighbor of ours had come to us the day before because he had a young Percheron mare whose foal was not doing well and he wanted to use one of our horse nipples. His foal had not lived so we asked if we could borrow his mare as a nurse mare.
Of course, so we went to move her. For the first two days we had to make sure that the mare would let A Runaway Sue nurse but after that they were bonded and we could leave them alone together.
A Runaway Sue and Roderick being introduced.
It was a funny sight to see that Percheron mare out with my Quarter Horse mares after adopting that small baby. A Runaway Sue could walk right under her flank and did often.
Our neighbor would like his mare to be bred back to his stallion so we load them up, take them back to the pasture and turn the mare and stallion out in a small pen. But the mare comes back into heat, it was unsuccessful.
Now A Runaway Sue is three months old and Lucky Like A Lark is weaned from the bottle and eating milk pellets. So it’s time to wean Sue and take her nurse mare back to her pasture home.
We know that Lucky needs to be introduced into the herd so we put the two orphans together so he can get acquainted to his first equine friend easily. Then when we feel they are ready we put them in with the other weanlings. A fairly painless process.
Overall I think we had a smooth experience with our two orphans. I know I’ve heard stories about ones that were much more problematic. Please share your stories with orphans in the comments below.
That’s my quarter’s worth. Let me hear yours by leaving a comment below.
About Susan
Speak Your Mind