Most of our show experience with foals is at open shows with both our Shetlands and our Shetland Xs (plus 1 arab and 1 arab/hackney pony). Sometimes the mare & foal were right at our trailer and sometimes I had stalls at the facility the show was held at. In all cases, the mare was shown in riding classes and the foals were either held outside the ring, left at the trailer with another foal or paired up in the stall.
Right from day one our foals were handled and both led away from and back to the mare. When the foal was held, the mare was often led away from and back to the foal. I often had not just our 3 daughters right there with me, but also the children of clients who visited the vet clinic. I leased the 5 acres behind the vet clinic for 7 years and didn't take long for children to realize there were PONIES behind the screen of trees
. So, the babies were touched, brushed, led about and "played with". There were 2 years in a row when I'd have as many as 8 kids out there and they'd each have a baby as young as 1.5 weeks old following them at a walk & trot on a lead line. They played games such as Green Light/Red Light and who could get into the trailer the fastest (those were the best darn loading ponies I've ever owned - anyone know how I can get kids out here now to play with our babies???).
OR the babies were following mama as they were ridden. That was the exercise. Foals were hauled w/ mama and shown as early as 12 days of age (in one case) and then 2 to 2.5 months old and then a couple were a bit older than that. One of our first purebred Shetland fillies was doing very well when a horse foal was orphaned at just a couple of weeks of age. So at 2 months of age, Pixie was weaned from her dam and taken 2 miles down the road and put into the stall with the orphan baby. She brought the baby's interest back into the world and stayed with the filly for 3 or 4 months. At the time we brought Pixie back home, she could walk under the other filly w/o ducking!! LOL.
Frosty was born on the 29th of January and this is 2 miles from our pasture. He was led up (by me - Magic didn't tolerate ponying a baby off of her). This was during 'Dira's riding lesson. The first show is the 26th of March (no pics of Frosty at the show).
Blizzard was born the 27th of January.
Spirit (the tiny "sleepy" silver pinto colt) is 12 days old... During part of the show he stayed in the cab of the truck in front of the air conditioner as it was 110* during the hottest part of the day.
When our daughters were pretty much leaving/on their own/going to college/marrying - I got back into the purebred shetlands in 2009. In 2010, GG went with her dam to our driving lessons every Tuesday. The first one - she was 19 days old. In 2012, I hauled 5 ponies to draft horse events - 3 mares and 2 foals of two of the mares. I haven't hauled babies like that since - might later this year, but don't know... Right now, dealing w/ lots of family emergencies - seems there's been one each month since December
June 29th - Bit, Bell & Bell's filly - GG.
3 August 2010 -
Shamrock was born the 13th of March while I was on the road taking 3 ponies to different trainers and meeting the 4th pony for the first time.... Classy was born the 29th of March (I was at home! but missed the birth by about 30 minutes).
I fed mare and foal feed(s) - to both the mares and their foals. As soon as a baby showed interest in his dam's feed, he had his own tiny bucket (usually less than a week after birth). When the baby didn't finish it, mama was allowed to. I fed Southern States feed (Legends, I think) then. Currently I feed Nutrena Safe Choice Original (pellets) and give the mares Mare + supplement both during the pregnancy and after they foaled while nursing.
I don't have a lot of pics (none of the other kids w/ our babies
).
