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| My mare foaled early and although the baby looked healthy, he was stillborn. The mare is doing okay, as to be expected given the circumstances. I must admit, I'm having a hard time with it myself. Does anyone have similar experiences and how did you deal with the grief? I keep trying to problem solve in an attempt to find closure for myself, playing the would have, could have scenarios. |
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Go Get Em!
Posts: 13503
   
Location: OH. IO | We don't breed here but I can only imagine the pain.Dont beat yourself up.Im sure if there was anything you could have done you would have.Im sorry for your loss :( |
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  Ms. Marine
Posts: 4641
Location: Texas | I don't have any experience with this. So sorry for your loss. I am praying for you. |
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 Take a Picture
Posts: 12842
| I am sorry and can't really help much. I grew up on a ranch and we often had favorite animals die. I learned that you can't replace them but having another animal to fill the empty space helps. I did lose a foal a couple of years ago and I tried to concentrate on working with my yearling and two-year old and that helped a lot. |
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 My Heart Be Happy
Posts: 9159
Location: Arkansas | I'm so sorry for your loss and sending prayers up for you. |
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| Thank y'all very much. |
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 A Barrel Of Monkeys
Posts: 12972
Location: Texas | Yes, I've had it happen, and it's normal to go thru all the woulda, shouldas, along with the grief, and the sadness I felt for the mare. I guess it's just part of our experiences - the bad part.
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 Expert
Posts: 2258
| I have a mare right now who will more than likely lose her foal. She is not due until April but is bagged and dripping milk. I had the vet out and opted to not spend a bunch of money but let nature run its course. That was a tough choice to make but I have large vet bills from this year and lost 3 horses this year. I keep wondering if I would have noticed sooner maybe we could have got it stopped . It is normal to have all those feelings and doubts but these things happen and usually not much you can do to stop it. Sorry you lost your colt I know how much hope we have for them even before we see them. |
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My Heart Be Happy
Posts: 9159
Location: Arkansas | cutnrunqhmt - 2017-01-02 12:07 AM
I have a mare right now who will more than likely lose her foal. She is not due until April but is bagged and dripping milk. I had the vet out and opted to not spend a bunch of money but let nature run its course. That was a tough choice to make but I have large vet bills from this year and lost 3 horses this year. I keep wondering if I would have noticed sooner maybe we could have got it stopped . It is normal to have all those feelings and doubts but these things happen and usually not much you can do to stop it. Sorry you lost your colt I know how much hope we have for them even before we see them.
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 The Vaccinator
Posts: 3810
Location: Slipping down the slope of old age. Boo hoo. | So sorry for your loss.... hugs.
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 Northern Chocolate Queen
Posts: 16576
Location: ND | Sending a big hug your way. Losing a baby is so hard, I've lost 3. The first 2 I lost, where literally the first 2 foals I raised. The first was a yearling, he went through a fence in a storm, hit a t-post and broke his leg on it. Three months later I found his baby brother laying dead in the middle of the pasture. That was so hard to accept and I seriously considered giving my mares away and quitting. But since I have raised 7 healthy gorgeous young horses!
The last one I lost was fall of 2015, the mare aborted, and honestly it was my fault. My mare was not 5 panel tested at the time & we had pulled hair on the stallion but had not gotten the results yet. The results came back on the stud & he carried GBED. I tested my mare after she lost the foal, she is also a GBED carrier. Knowing I could have prevented losing that baby made that one dang hard to accept. |
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| So sorry |
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| I pray that you have a good outcome with your mare trying to foal early as well. Thank you all for your replies, it really helps heal my heart.
Edited by BigMomma 2017-01-02 1:17 PM
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 898
Location: Mountains of VA | Losing a foal will certainly suck the life out of you.............losing a mare is just as bad. Breeding any type of livestock is not for the faint of heart. It's tough, emotional but can be the most thrilling and rewarding thing at the same time. To any buyers that think it is easy to get these foals on the ground, healthy and correct, think again. Then the buyers want to pay next to nothing for the foals...........UGH
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 Horsey Gene Carrier
Posts: 1888
Location: LaBelle, Florida | It is hard...time helps.
I had to put one down at about 3 weeks. Dogs ran the horses and the foal came up with a broken leg. Bone was poking out of the skin. The other leg was already showing the stress of supporting the foal. I was a wreck for weeks about it.
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 618
| So incredibly sorry for your loss! In 2015 we had a late snow in Texas in March. Our mare foaled early that night/early morning. The baby froze to death and I could see where he struggled and tried to get up but the ground was wet from the rain we had. I literally had to dig his frozen body out of snow/ice. I cried the whole time, didn't sleep for days. Time is the only thing that helped, just accepting it and focusing on the other horses.
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My Heart Be Happy
Posts: 9159
Location: Arkansas | All of these stories broke my heart. Bless every one of y'all. This is one of the reasons I cannot commit to getting a foal from our beloved mare from one of my closest friends Haidas Little Pep stud. I've wanted to do it since we've owned Two but the thought of losing her and/or the baby stop me every breeding season. |
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 Guys Just Wanna Have Fun
Posts: 5530
Location: OH | Absolutely sucks---anyone that has been breeding for a while has been through this and there is no easy cure other than time. Sorry for your loss |
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| My dad has been in the TB breeding business for over 45 years and it still bothers him if he looses a foal or mare. It can be very disturbing. There is only so much that we can do to help them and the rest is in gods hands. So sorry for your loss. |
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 I Don't Brag
Posts: 6960
| So sorry for your loss. I lost my beloved mare 5 years agol leaving a 3 week old orphan and went though all of the shoulda, woulda, couldas....I still grieve her loss enough that I have vowed never again to breed a mare that I really like (and there is no point to breeding one I DON'T like).
I know that it doesn't help but time does take the edge off the grief.
Many hugs. |
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Regular
Posts: 50
| I'm sending you hugs right now!!! There really aren't any words that will help with the loss - the only thing you can do is keep pushing forward. This business is NOT for the faint of heart. It takes a special soldier to breed and raise babies, and I wish there was something I could say help you heal.
Lost our first foal at four weeks old May of last year and I think of her every. single. day. Palomino filly by Firewaterontherocks that had almost his exact face marking. She was perfect in every way. We found her in the pasture with a broken leg - she took her final breath with her head in my lap.
Time helps. It is slow and it is painful but it works. *HUGE HUGS* |
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| Thank you everyone. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1141
Location: Somewhere across the SABINE | We lost our first colored foal this spring. I was stuck with a 7k vet bill and really no answers. It was out of my favorite mare and a stallion that had been on my wish list for a while. I did not handle it well, and chose to sell my mares and focus on having fun with horses for a while. Seeing the stallion ads this season and knowing I cant breed anything is disheartening. Then I think about how exciting it is to find a new baby in the mornings is a feeling that I wont ever forget. Perhaps later on in life I can get back into it. Im very sorry for your loss and pray things get better for you. |
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 Star Padded Honey
Posts: 8890
Location: NW MT | I am so sorry for everyone's losses! In the years that I bred mares, I was very fortunate with no losses. Hugs to you all! |
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 Midget Lover
Location: Kentucky | We lost a foal in 2016. I had been lucky and had big perfect babies up until that point. My husband and I woke up, walked down to the barn and found my mare trying to push the babe out. Foal's head and neck were out, tongue was hanging out... I knew it was dead as soon as I saw it but my husband wouldn't accept it. I called the vet, but he was 20 minutes out. The foal's shoulder just needed a small adjustment and we pulled it out. Heart breaking thing is that I have been waiting for this mare to give me a filly for 4 years and there she was, a big pretty bay filly by Stoli My Heart. We buried her by the barn.
I can't say you'll ever get over it. It's been almost a year and I still really can't talk about it. It was horrific and sad and bad on the mare too. She wouldn't catch on foal heat, nor her next cycle so she's open now. We will try again this spring. I took a pic of the babe, not sure why. I haven't showed anyone, I feel it's private, but just felt if I didn't then I would forget. It's tough. I don't wish it on anyone and hope to never experience it again. |
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My Heart Be Happy
Posts: 9159
Location: Arkansas | Murphy - 2017-01-04 8:35 PM
We lost a foal in 2016. I had been lucky and had big perfect babies up until that point. My husband and I woke up, walked down to the barn and found my mare trying to push the babe out. Foal's head and neck were out, tongue was hanging out... I knew it was dead as soon as I saw it but my husband wouldn't accept it. I called the vet, but he was 20 minutes out. The foal's shoulder just needed a small adjustment and we pulled it out. Heart breaking thing is that I have been waiting for this mare to give me a filly for 4 years and there she was, a big pretty bay filly by Stoli My Heart. We buried her by the barn.
I can't say you'll ever get over it. It's been almost a year and I still really can't talk about it. It was horrific and sad and bad on the mare too. She wouldn't catch on foal heat, nor her next cycle so she's open now. We will try again this spring. I took a pic of the babe, not sure why. I haven't showed anyone, I feel it's private, but just felt if I didn't then I would forget. It's tough. I don't wish it on anyone and hope to never experience it again.
One of my closest friends raises cutting horses. There was a particular pali mare that she was hoping and praying for a pali foal from. On Easter Sunday (this was several years ago) she went to the barn early to check on her and found a perfect little replica of the mare laying beside her momma dead. Becky said it broke her heart and took some of the joy out of breeding for a long time. I can't imagine the heart break breeders go thru when this happens. I am so sorry for all the losses. |
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Coping with the loss of a foal