With foaling season upon us I'm curious to hear from the fellow breeders!

Where do you like your mares to foal - outside or inside? Also, if you have a barn/stall what bedding do you prefer - straw or shavings? Once the foal is born so you keep your mare and foal turned out or bring them in during rain, storms, etc? 

Many Questions---LOL.

IDEAL---a nice warm evening out in the pasture in a big bed of green grass. THIS RARELY HAPPENS.

We use SAWDUST in our stalls, not shavings. If mare foals inside I will let her foal, clean up the mess and then put a bunch of straw or hay down on top of the sawdust for 3-4 days then back to just sawdust. Whether they come in or stay out all depends on the weather---when it gets hot in the summer they all come in and then go back out at night.

I have a 10 x 20 run in shed with 6 or 7 panels attached making a small round pen. Most mares end up inside the run in for the actual birthing, by choice. I sometimes bed it with small shavings, which are more like sawdust, or with timothy hay. If it's dry weather for the most part I let it go with the natural dirt. The only time I've had an issue is three years ago when we were hip deep in slime from an overabundance of rain and no sun for a month prior. 

I move the mare into the pen when spring grass gets going strong. I don't ever want to deal with fescue toxicosisthe again and Virginia has plenty of that. The pair stays in the pen until the foals legs are good and strong. A 50' round pen is plenty big for them to test out their legs and gain strength without getting overextended and hurting themselves. 

Yes! While I've got your attention I want to ask allllll the questions! Lol

We use sawdust normally but I was concerned the small particles would stick more to the foal and mare. I'm glad to know it works for you. Can I ask why you put hay or straw down for the first little bit after foaling? 

Sounds like an ideal set up! I'm in TN so fescue is a concern here as well. 

We have 12 X 14 stalls with 24 X 24 runs attached to them for the mares.  The way our barn is set up, we have the four corner stalls with the large runs and the middle stalls have 12 x 24 runs. In an ideal situation the stall would be a bit bigger, but it works. Most of the mares choose to foal in the run anyway. We haul in new sand every winter for the runs and keep the manure cleaned out of them.  In a perfect world, they would foal during the day in our grass pasture but we have coyotes so we lock the mares in at night.  I just couldnt forgive myself if someones dog or a coyote got to one in the pasture at night. Also ideally, we would use straw, but its hard to find sometimes. 

Once the foal is born, based on how their legs look  they either get kept up for a few days to a week, or if they are good to go theyll get turned out at 24h old. We close them in the barn during cold or rainy weather. We are small scale with anywhere from only 1-4 foals born in a year, so we can stall the mares with the babies. If I had a bigger operation I would build lean tos for them to get out of the weather if they wanted. 

It just worries me a little the foal laying their head directly down in the sawdust and possible breathing some in---see I bed em down for a few days till the foal gets stronger. 

We used straw on top of sawdust. We have foaling stalls with camera's in them & the monitor in the living room. Come foaling season one of us slept on the couch so we could watch the monitor. It had sound so we had the volume turned up. After 24 hours & we see foal has drank well & is running a muck in the stall, we take mom & foal out to the round pen for out time. I loved watching the baby's really use their legs for the first time. I will miss breeding but after 25 years it's time for me & my 2 horses that I kept from my breeding program to go out & have some fun

This sounds awesome! I love a barn setup with stalls and runs. Hope all your foals turn out great this year! 

Makes sense. That's good thinking. I'm sure the straw is extra cozy for their first few days too. 

That's smart! Then you've got extra cushion but can remove the straw once baby is a few days old. Sounds like y'all had a well-monitored setup! Have fun competing! 

I have a broodmare shed and paddock.  When I built my barn I had a foaling stall added, twice the size of a normal stall and I had a mare still manage to get cast during foaling. It was a freak incident and might not happen again but that is when I went with the run in shed and paddock.