After the birth, what are the breeder' s biggest worries for and newborn' s health? " The greatest potential for losing a foal is in the first few hours of its life, " Vanessa warns. " There are three major things to do. Your first responsibility is to treat the umbilical cord. Secondly, you want to be sure that the foal passes the meconium and urinates. I know this may not seem important, but people have lost foals when an enema would have made the difference! If the foal is straining but can't produce manure, don't assume the situation will fix itself. Also, I never go to bed (I assume you're having this foal at midnight; my mares always do) until I see that the foal is up in nursing. That colostrum is vitally important. Once I've seen that everything is normal, that' s a big relief, and I can go to bed."

Vanessa continues, " Assuming the foal shows no obvious weakness, I put the mare and foal outside for and hour or two the next day. An obvious weakness would be weak or contracted tendons. You need to call the vet for any tendon problem. Tendon problems can happen to any breeder, and there are things you can do, but you need the vet to tell you if exercise is a good idea or a bad idea right now. Also, I always have the vet out the first day to test the foal for antibodies. The colostrum should have taken care of this, but it pays to make sure.

"We have a pretty hot climate here. I think breeders in the hotter climates should really watch young foals; they have a hard time regulating their body temperature. They're better in cold weather than hot weather. I bring mine in during the heat of the day. We take their temperatures and whenever, the temperature is high or they're breathing to fast, we bring them in. Also, we don't let them get wet the first week. If it rains, they come in. We don't leave them outside over night the first week or two, either. Latter on they can go out and stay out, but not at first. "

Vanessa says, "It's hard to see what kind of movement your foal's going to have in the first week. He will be weak and wobbly the first day, with no muscle, no power. He'll look like a little skeleton. In a day or tow you'll see him canter, run, play and sleep, but it's particularly hard to get a good view of the trot. You can try walking the foal might break into a trot to keep up for a little bit. You'll get a better idea of the foal's movement when he's a few months old. While your foal looks like skin and bones, it's a good time to see how he's put together. You can actually see his bone structure, and you can tell a lot about how his neck is set, the angles of his hip and shoulder, what his proportions are."