The first few hours in a foal’s life are very crucial to make sure that it’ll be able to complete the next life steps.
Have you ever seen a horse giving birth to its foal? Have you seen what the foal needs to do for the first 30 to 60 minutes of its life?
A foal must undergo so many changes in the first hour of its life.
First, because all the liquid from its lung is dispelled as the foal passes through the pelvic canal, it gasps for air as soon as it comes out.
This is normal and this movement helps the lungs to be filled with air for the first time.
As the foal takes its first deep breaths, the remaining liquid from the lungs is moved to the pulmonary blood vessels so there’s room for more air.
It’s quite magnificent how every body motion made has a purpose and connection with the rest of the body.
The heartbeat is also soft at first but gradually picks up the pace until it reaches around 60 beats per minute.
After five minutes, the foal lifts its head and attempts to stand up after five more minutes. ‘Attempt’ is the right word because a foal will still be unsteady while it regains strength.
No one should interfere with this moment because it is important for the foal to do it.
“Lifting the foal onto its feet before its legs are strong enough to support it may strain tendons and ligaments, and it interferes with the bonding process between the mare and foal,” Extension Horse explained.
It’s important that no one else besides the mare should interfere with the foal.
This is perhaps the only time that the mare and foal can bond properly. If someone else disrupted that, it will ruin their relationship.
This foal has just been born and is attempting to stand on her own so she could nurse. She keeps falling down because she doesn’t have the strength yet to stand on her own. Both her mother and brother encourage her and motivate her to keep going.
There was a point when it seems like the foal had given up trying.
Or maybe she was merely catching her breath before she makes another attempt to stand up again. Sensing that the foal needs even more encouragement, her mother licks her.
This is also believed a way to know and mark the foal as hers.
After falling down several times, the foal takes a couple of deep breaths.
It could be a way to just get more air into her lungs to help with the struggle. Or we could believe she is breathing in more air to get more confidence to accomplish her task.
What do you think?
Finally, she is strong to stand on her own. She gets her footing so she can begin to walk toward her mother and to nurse. The foal does not know where the teak is located exactly and needs her mother to guide her.
It can take a foal maybe an hour or two to get to this point.
When they do reach it, they become unstoppable.
Watch as the foal navigates her way from birth to nursing in the video below.
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