Please no blankets on either. Always scares the heck out of me. I have a month old colt and he has been out in these cool nights AND rain. There is shelter but the mare won’t always go in unless it is pretty bad. Foal is thriving.
Our vet says foals do FAR better in the cold than the heat. For this reason we’ve moved our mares up in the year to be due in March vs May. Never a problem with the cold, but lots of dehydration in our hot, humid weather. I wouldn’t do anything for either - heck 40 seems to be our horses’ favorite temperature! That’s bucking and farting weather! LOL
I have also been lurking on this thread since the beginning. Congratulations! Your little guffer is super cute.
This photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikahana/6196453111/in/set-72157627783455668/ makes light of what started out as an uncomfortable and scary situation. :sadsmile:
Just remember that foals tend to be pretty hardy. You’ll have lots of fun now! 
Ok, so no blankies for now. But when baby is bigger, at like 2 months old when our temps are in the teens and twenties, is blanketing ok then? Mama and the uncle Turdinator (Ivan) will shiver at those temps (then again, Ivan shivers below 45 with his thoroughbred skin and coat that never grows very wooly or thick over the winters).
I think my barn name for her foretold her personality, LOL. She’s definitely a little queen around the paddock right now. Since I don’t have any other babies on my farm other than a 2.5 year old mini who is pastured elsewhere on the farm, Queen has taken up trying to play with ME when I go out to feed her mama 
We race around the small paddock and play tag around mama. This little sucker can MOVE! And she has great balance so far. My fiance was a doll and filled up the water trough for me the other morning but accidentally let the hose run a little long to cause some overflow. The little squirt went racing through the resulting mud puddle, slid like a cat on slick hardwood, stayed up and then kept on trucking, galloping around her mama. I’m so glad my mare is so trusting of me because she stops stressing about the other horses on the other side of the fence and will finally relax and eat when I take over watching the little one. I’m thinking about bringing them both up to my arena and letting little Queen play with my big exercise ball.
Be careful! You can not allow her to get away with any behaviors that you would not allow a full sized horse to do. She is little now but is still big enough to injure you and will just get bigger as time goes by. Not fair to have one set of rules now then change the rules later.
I never ever blanket my foals who are born in February in MD. We can get into the 0’s. It’s too dangerous. Bring them in out of the wind or wet and make sure there is always hay available.
She’s not currently doing anything that I wouldn’t want her to do when she’s bigger, at least not yet. She’s just racing around and following me really. She occasionally tries to steal her mom’s bucket and pick it up, and she has been playing with the Jolly Ball that nobody else will play with. So far she’s still being very respectful of my space but will come in for scratches and rubs when invited. She’s super darling
I’ve used Carol Resnick’s waterhole rituals with my horses and wow did they work like a charm with my colt.
He is a yearling now and is very respectful of people. I think it is so important for the babies to grow-up seeing you as the leader. I bought another colt as a weaning that had been allowed to rule the roost so to speak and he has been much harder to work with. It’s like he is always testing the human to see who is the leader.
I’ve been lurking too 
Love the face markings. She is soooooo cute. I wonder it any App colors will come out in the future? Just because she was born black doesn’t mean she will stay that way…lol.
[QUOTE=Nootka;5877052]
I’ve been lurking too
Love the face markings. She is soooooo cute. I wonder it any App colors will come out in the future? Just because she was born black doesn’t mean she will stay that way…lol.[/QUOTE]
Ha, don’t jinx me! This would make foal number 2 of the stud’s that doesn’t have appy markings yet… The other is a good bit older and already weaned. Strangely enough, she looks palomino-ish… The two that have appy markings are both colts and both red.
I will cross my fingers for you then…lol!
&&&& Please stay SOLID &&&&& LOL…
She is so cute - congratulations! I heartily agree with Laurierace - IMO do not play tag with her or run around with her as it WILL escalate. There are plenty of ways to bond and have fun with them in a respectful, teaching way. We love our foals and normally have only 2 a year - this year we only have one. Lots of scratching, playing “pick up your foot and let me tap on it and brush it”, leading (even at the trot) and in-hand work, grooming in the stall (which Mama loves even more, so the foal sees her enjoying and tries to push his way in), call the foal’s name and see if they’ll come for a scratching or a treat - all of these are constructive things. Again, you can do what you think is right, but having a foal chase you is never a good idea and that is what I am getting from your playing tag comment. They are so cute and fun, but they get more energetic and strong and next thing you know you are posting a thread entitled “My baby is dangerous - help!” lol!
Sorry to be a downer, just a real red flag for me when I see first time “Mom’s” do things like letting a foal “kiss” their face, letting a foal follow as a game, running around and playing with a foal, or thinking it’s cute to let them play tug of war etc. It just makes them more aggressive and non-horse like and leads to a naughty yearling usually.
Okay, beat me with a stick - I’ve said too much as usual, and maybe you are fine, but I’m just going by that one post.
Love the name, the color and glad she has someone who will see that she has a good home.
It’s more me chasing her, catching her for a second, letting her go, then trying to catch her again. There’s not a whole lot of her chasing me going on, but she will follow me a little bit before scampering off again occasionally. When I say tag, it’s not exactly the classic game. I do think it’s funny when she runs around, but she does that when her mom is eating whether I’m involved or not generally. She just gets really excited and alternates between nursing, racing, bucking, and checking out her mom’s dinner bucket. She’s 6 days old now, so at what point will she grow teeth? I should refer back to the foaling book I got probably… She’s already mouthing on her mom’s Ultium Growth pellets and has started playing in the small water trough. We have two that are the size of rubbermaid bins in the small paddock, and she went to town in one of them splashing her face all around this afternoon.
A Ha!
A foal’s teeth will start to erupt within a week of birth. The first set to appear will be the four incisors - located in the middle - two on the top and two on the bottom. The second set (intermediate) will appear a week or two later; the third set (corner incisors) appearing at about six months of age. There will be a total of 12 teeth in the front.
The premolars will also erupt at about two or three weeks of age. There are three on each side - top and bottom - for a total of 12 teeth in the back.
New photos from today! I let the pair of them out in the front paddock. We’re still fixing it and replacing some fencing, but it was ok to let them wander around in it today with supervision. Got some cute pics of little Queen making some funny faces
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k171/erikahana824/prego/2011-10October024.jpg
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k171/erikahana824/prego/2011-10October042.jpg
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k171/erikahana824/prego/2011-10October084.jpg
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k171/erikahana824/prego/2011-10October069.jpg
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k171/erikahana824/prego/2011-10October058.jpg
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k171/erikahana824/prego/2011-10October011.jpg
She’s a real hoot
Those are adorable!
Too funny…love the personality behind those photos!
Love the pics Congratulations, what a sweetie.
At least at this point it doesn’t look like you could have done much better had you bred her on purpose! Congrats again.
OMG I love your baby!!! :yes:
Thanks everybody! She’s such a doll We’re enjoying her tons and tons!
More from earlier today.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikahana/sets/72157627703430181/
