2024 Foal Preparation
It’s been a whirlwind of a year and I can’t believe we are already into the final countdown of Fortune and her 2024 foal. Looking through old memories, I couldn’t help but laugh at the first photo of Fortune with newborn Ariel snoozing in her stall and I had captioned it with, “I am never breeding a horse again.”
Funny how that changed over time, isn’t it? Not only is Fortune due to foal this month, but I have breeding contracts filled out and paid for both her and Train Wreck for 2025. I know that Fortune will be better this time around, her complications last time was the perfect storm of her being both a maiden and being mostly blind. She had no idea what Ariel was so it caused her to panic and subsequently strike out at her baby.
About two weeks ago, right before the end of January, the baby showed a lot of activity. So much so that Fortune was cowkicking at her belly and VERY uncomfortable. It had me quite nervous because, in my constant-crisis-mode thought process, I thought she was colicking. Being that close to foaling, I thought for sure I was going to end up losing everybody…. well I didn’t actually feel that way, but I thought that far down the rabbit hole that I told myself I needed to prepare myself mentally. I have had so much loss in the past few years, I felt that being prepared was the best way to move.
One of the stressors that I had was removing Fortune’s caslisk. A caslisk is a procedure formed by a veterinarian which involves closing the upper part of the vulva via suture. As a race bred mare, her conformation is bred to go fast, fast and FASTER. As it was explained to me, it meant that her vulva and genital area is shaped in an undesirable way to keep fecal matter, air, and other bacteria from being pulled into the vagina which could compromise the foal’s healthy development and can even cause an abortion.
I have never had a horse use a caslisk before, we didn’t use one when she had Ariel, so I had set a reminder in my phone and was stressing over having it removed. As soon as it went off, in fact, even a few days before, I started to reach out to my reproduction veterinarian to set up a time.
Nothing.
No text back, no Facebook message, no call back, and I even called the main office but, when they said she was out on personal leave and would get back when she could, I realized with some fear that something might be going on. Thankfully, my regular vet has a reproductive department and, while I’ve never used them before outside of the 24 hour foaling plasma run, I decided to set up a “just in case” appointment with them.
A few days before that appointment, I heard from my regular breeding vet and her husband had been moved to hospice. Her husband, Ken, is a long time cutting horse, reining horse, and reined cow horse trainer, as well as a breeder, former rodeo cowboy, and former racehorse trainer. He’s an absolute icon and is the person who got my sister her big start in the horse industry, while simultaneously giving me a ton of experience as a colt starter for him at the start of college.
On Monday, February 5, the vet took out the caslisk and I was almost embarrassed at just how pregnant Fortune was. I thought the caslisk was to be removed 2 week prior to the foaling date, I had found out from friends that it could be as early as 30 days! My poor mare was 10 days out from her foaling due date and still had it in!
Fortune getting her caslisk removed at the vet while under anesthesia.
You can see a little bit of waxing crystals forming on the teat. When she was due with Ariel, I was convinced this was “waxing” the sign of a foal coming within 24 hours. I quickly learned that this was not the case and actual “waxing” includes a significantly larger amount of crystallized milk.
While she was under the anesthesia, we took the time to also thoroughly clean her udders so that they would be ready for baby! I was surprised by how full they were already looking and was anxious over how long we waited.
When I got her home, I got a text from my repro vet - her husband had passed away. I felt my heart drop as I looked out the kitchen window at the first sunny day we’ve had in months, the feeling of spring just on the horizon. Ken had been so excited for me in taking this unorthodox approach and jump to start breeding for Appaloosa Racehorses. He had known some great ones back in the day and had sat with me just a summer ago as we wen through pedigrees of Appaloosa racehorses to cross on my mare.
I had hoped, knowing that his health was starting to fail, that I would have the chance to share the victories of getting a horse to the track (maybe) with him. I know he has the best seat in the house and I regret that I missed his birthday due to a work meeting just a few months ago. I can’t wait until I get to see him again and I hope that my sister and I continue to do is legacy and his justice proud.
As of today, February 10, we are at 344 days. Mares typically foal at 330 days. I think that we should have a baby no later than Valentine’s Day.
Me doing a tail flexibilit test on Fortune to see how close she was getting gauging by how far her tail would go to touch her back.