My Time on a Thoroughbred Breeding Farm

I want to first preface that I struggled a bit trying to write this entry. I want so much to share my experience with my readers but am also cognizant that some of the things I experienced can be very heavy topics for people. They can cause strong emotions and I want to protect the privacy of the farm which allowed me to have these experiences and the owners of the horses who send their horses to the farm.

I also find that I fall into incredibly detailed storytelling, including irrelevant and mundane details. I have written and re-written this to try and scale back to the pertinent details. So I will leave you with the following:

At the beginning of May, I got to have the experience of a lifetime. I got to spend 5 days on a large-scale thoroughbred breeding farm. I got to shadow the farm manager for that time and really go through the motions of the day-to-day operations of the farm. I got to ask questions and be hands-on with some events that very few people will ever get to experience firsthand.

Some of the things I am going to share of my experience highlight some of the HARDER things both large and small-scale breeders of ANY breed of horses may experience. To protect everyone I got to work with, I will not disclose the farm name that I was at or the names of the registered horses I got to work with. I just want to give a content warning this post will include animal death and information about orphan foals.

The biggest things I got to experience were:

1. I FINALLY got to see a baby horse be born from start to finish. It was AMAZING! Foaling out a mare is QUITE a process.
2. I got to be involved and hands-on in the afterbirth process of 3 additional foals. This includes taking notes on the foaling documentation and monitoring of milestones such as colostrum specific gravity score, time of meconium passing, and time of standing and first nursing.
3. I assisted in the giving plasma of SEVEN foals at once. This was a joint effort by two of the regular vets that serve the farm. It included rousing foals from sedation and pulling antibiotics for them.
4. I assisted with medical efforts to save and subsequently witnessed the passing of a mare due to foaling complications. Unfortunately, she had an internal hemorrhage and was bleeding internally. We pulled a farm gelding to take about 6 liters of blood from him. I pulled over 700ml of anticoagulant to put in the blood bags. We were unsuccessful in saving the mare. She thankfully went very peacefully.
5. I made up more Mare Match formula than I remember. I fed multiple bottles and assisted in changing two foals over to bucket feeding. One of the mares I did not get to witness foal, passed also due to complications. We ended up with 2 orphans in about 18 hours in addition to one already established orphan and one who had been removed from the mare’s side due to the mare needing surgery and was being supervised while nursing off a nurse mare.
6. I got to meet a US Olympic Medalist in Eventing and go to their farm. It WAS AMAZING. I got to watch them ride. What an honor!

All in total in the 5 days I was on the farm, we have ELEVEN foals come into the world while I was there. Some were at night and I didn’t get to witness, but I still got to see lots of babies and snuggles. I also got to see my long-distance boyfriend Cariboo Road and my best girls Cheese + Ema + Bella. I got to spend time with some chosen family and learn a lot!

I will say being able to snuggle orphans is a blessing and a curse. they are so so cute and they acclimate to people quickly, but they frequently don’t learn the manners they need from their mom. Thankfully, both orphans were being slated to be placed with nurse mares that belong to my friend (including my girl Cheese). In order to do so they needed certain things like vaccinations and a hormone to encourage their bodies to start producing milk. From what I understand both foals have been placed successfully with mares.

Please enjoy the photos below from my trip. Stetson, Harley, and CC were our orphans that I was hands-on with.

If anyone wants more info about my experiences I am happy to share in a less public forum. Hit me up.

Happy Riding + Reading,

A

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