My 21 year old arab mare had a filly foal on 18 July so she will be feeding her well into the winter. The mare always has a turnout rug on in the winter as she is prone to rainscald and losing weight. I am worried how the foal will drink from her safely with the straps. Anyone got any suggestions? Thanks
I had a foal once that jumped up the back of its dam and got its leg caught in the fillet string; and so I have now reverted to the leg straps and have found that my foals are finding their way around them without a problem. My mares are in their teens and I like to keep them warm and dry when they are out too - I have one colt at the moment who is constantly climbing on his dam's back and therefore could get caught in a fillet string if she had one.
One of our mares are rugged with a foal at foot we also use a fillet string rather than leg straps.She hates being in and with all the rain we have had she get rainscald really bad..Her poor baby did not know what to do with her self when we put the rug on her mum, shes fine now and has no proplem lifting her mums rug for a feed..
My mare had her foal in April and with her being very fine coated, in this weather she has to wear a rug, the foal thought it was strange at first but now dives under the tug for a drink. i removed legs straps and just have a filet string.
We have had to rug a mare before and I took the leg straps of and replace the fillit string with a piece of elastic with a bit of velcro on each end, this way if the foal got caught it it came straight off!!! hope this helps.
we have to rug our mare too, her foal didnt like it at first but they soon get the hang of it, they make sure thy dont go hungry!! make sure the rug isnt long or too big as this can make it harder for the foal to get its head under. I use leg straps
I have heard of a foal getting hung on leg straps so would never use a rug with them on a mare with a foal. Rambo's and Fal Pro's don't have leg straps and stay in place without them. I have never heard of a foal getting hurt on a fillet string, have always used them and I always leave my foals with their mums over winter as they then have a nice warm dring every hour or so as I am away at work for a long time so they are out for 13 hours. I feed the mares lots of good quality stud feed and have never had a problem with a mare losing weight; also they are not usually put in foal the same year so are not carrying a foal as well as feeding one.
My boy hates fillet strings so I took it off his Rambo rug and it stays in place absolutely fine without it, even in Scottish winds!! Just thought I would mention this because then your mare would have neither leg straps or fillet string
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Posted - 20 Aug 2007 : 9:41:22 PM
