It's official: spring is in the air! Sure, we still have days in the forecast with cool weather but for the most part the grass is growing, trees are blooming, mares are preparing to foal and we're moving in to a very busy time of year.
Most importantly for our fans, spring means foaling season! On our part, this entails a lot of waiting around for mares to foal followed by a few very intense hours making sure all goes well and then days of monitoring the new arrival for any problems. We use a foaling alert system that we ran across in Belgium which monitors the mare's temperature via probe and alerts us when her temperature drops prior to delivery. This is our second year with the system and while the temperature drop is very apparent we find that we also get a lot of false alerts and interference with the system so it makes for some extra attentiveness to be sure we catch the real deal. When the mare goes into labor we want to be present to make sure there are no complications with the delivery and that the foal stands and nurses in a timely manner. As most mares foal at night (our seem to prefer 12-1AM or else 5-6AM) it can lead to some short nights and we're often sleep deprived during foaling season.
Another important spring task is preparing to turn horses out on pasture. We use a rotational grazing system to maximize the forage available for our horses and take the best care of the land. In the spring we spend a lot of time repairing or adapting fences, removing weeds, and mapping out our summer grazing plan. I also took a day this week and applied fertilizer to the hay fields to help with our hay production since one of our big summer tasks is preparing for winter feed needs. A final step in preparing for spring turnout is doing fecal egg counts on all the horses to determine which ones need to be dewormed and making sure that is up to date before turning them out on new fields. This is a skill I learned a few years back and while it's a bit time consuming it has helped our horse management and responsible use of dewormers on our farm.
Spring brings changes for Dehan as well, as he transitions from a winter spent logging with the horses to his summer work doing residential tree trimming. He enjoys getting to keep his chainsaw sharp and working with a great group of guys, but it does complicate farm work since they work long days! He is great about helping with farm projects when he gets home, which is great as some of our breeding work requires more than one person. We've been doing a lot of practice on collection with the stallions as well as starting to ultrasound mares for early season breedings in May. Before long we will be full into breeding season which means the plan for a day can change at a moment's notice based on what we find when we scan the day's mares.
If I had to sum up the spring season, it would be one of intense preparation. We're trying hard to be diligent in watching the mares and giving our foals their best start. We spend a lot of time working with stallions not because we need to collect them now, but as a means to ensure that they are ready to go when we do need them. The more we can prepare ahead of time for good fencing, grazing plans, etc the better off we will be for the summer when we need things to work well. Spring can be an uncomfortable season. There are some very intense moments but there's also a lot of waiting and preparing but not quite knowing when we'll be called on to act. Staying grounded is key along with remembering why we work hard now to make things run smoother in the days to come. And when it all feels like a lot, well, that means it's time to stop and snuggle the babies for a while!
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