Travelling with a young foal Y or N ?

[ysewynwelshcobs]

Hi all,

I need your opinion on this. I have found a very nice perlino Welsh Cob stallion, that I would like to use for my mare.

One problem though... he is not available via A.I., so this means that I would have to travel with my mare and young foal at foot about 260 km (= +/- 160 miles - single direction).

Does anyone have experience with travelling that distance with a foal, that's only a few days old ?

All your comments (positive / negative) would be very much appreciated.

Thanks & regards,
Stefan.

[lotte]

Hi Stefan,

At the stud where I work, the youngest we travelled a foal was about 6 months and this wasnt even the distance you have suggested, I wouldnt suggest any younger as there can be complications any way in at least the 1st week of life anyway.

Couldnt you wait until the foal is at least weaned? For me it would have to be NO!

lotte

[rosiehannah]

there is someone here then after all, thought everyone had disappeared! ;D

dont really know about this, id have thought if you took every precaution like a bed for the foal to sit down if they want and regular breaks to let them get a bit of fresh air it would be ok, when do you need to get her covered by? surely as the foal gets older day by day they will get stronger so the longer you can leave it the better the foal will travel. think here you can enter a foal in a show at 3 weeks, so surely travelling a foal to a show would be more stressful, especially when they could be taking a foal to a show at great distance, so i cant see any problems with it. but like i say i dont know much ;D

the stallion sounds lovely by the way, have you got any pics of him?

hannah ;D xxx

[ysewynwelshcobs]

Hi Lotte, Hi Hanah,

Thank you both for your reply.
Daisy's foal is now due mid-may (which is already late since the first shows in Belgium are already at the end of may). If I have to wait till the foal is weaned (at 6 months), it will be november. Meaning next year's foal would be born in october. Which is far to late.
I am thinking about not covering her this year and then using that stallion next year... 'cause personaly I think it might be asked too much from a young foal.

On the other hand, I have heard the same things from people like Hannah says.

Hence my question here on the board... Maybe they are people that have good experience with it.

To be honest... I would love to have my mare covered by that stallion this year... but I have no good feelings about travelling that distance either...

Take care,
Stefan.

P.S. for Hannah... the stallion is Oeclide Sponte... There is a pic of him as a yearling on allbreedpedigree. I'll try to upload a recent picture of him over the weekend.

[rosiehannah]

he does look lovely stefan ;D i know you have to organise things, but could you wait until the foal is born and see how strong the foal is a new born and make your decision from that? could you take her in early/mid june when the foal will be a few weeks old so the foal would be potentially due the same tiem as this one?

anyway good luck with the foal ;D

hannah ;D xxx

[ysewynwelshcobs]

Hi Hannah,
There are some things, that will indeed influence my final decission, such as... when will the foal be born, will it be a strong-one, when will Daisy come into season after the foaling, etc...
I have already thaught about taking her there early/mid june or even July (if it's early 'cause I am coming to Wales for the RWAS ) Well, we'll see.
Anyway... anybody-else with experience... please let me know.
grtz,
Stefan.

[ysewynwelshcobs]

As promissed.... herewith a picture of the perlino Welsh Cob stallion

[rosiehannah]

wow look at the movement on that ;D hes lovely stefan, the pic on allbreedpedigree.com does him no justice. with your beautiful little mare you could have a gorgeous foal there ;D

hannah ;D xxx

[lotte]

he is scrummy! i can just imagine his babies! beautiful!