We have a 5 yo mare that is about to drop her baby anytime. She is basically a pet and will allow you to pet and groom her (most of the time) but has never been broke. I was wondering if, when she has her baby, she will be more aggressive towards us or if there will be other problems we should watch out for?

First you need to make sure she is in a smaller pen (16ft X 16ft. would be good). Something that will be easy to catch her in. I would also suggest you (or get help if needed) and put a break away halter on her with a short lead one that does not drag the ground but hangs down giving you something to grab onto. You really need to get a handle on the mare otherwise you will have a hard time dealing with the baby. There are several things that should have been done and need to be done prior to foaling. At one month prior she needs to have a 6way and west nile vaccine and be dewormed that was she can pass the immunity on to her foal. Also you will need to make sure you keep the placenta for the vet to look at when they come out to do the post foal check. This exam is to look at the mare, the placenta (making sure it all passed so she doesn't get sick), and the foal. An IGg test should be preformed on the foal making sure the foal got all the colostrum that it needed. Also, you will need to dip the umbilicus at least 2-3 times a day with Nolvasan solution the first couple of days. Yes, to answer your question, a mare that is hard to catch and not all together tame can be aggresive towards you and not let you near the foal to do what is needed. I would potentially look into finding someone (trainer) that can help you with your mare and her foal when the time comes. Even if she is just a pet you should be able to handle her and do what you want to with her, without her putting up a fuss. I hope everything works out for you but I would recommend getting some help with her. I have seen mares like this with my job and if by chance your foal gets sick and needs to be handled or even the mare herself these mare are and can be very dangerous to mess with. We had a mare come into the clinic with a newborn foal at here side and they had never been handled well just fed and groomed (when the horse felt like it). The owners were able with help of us and other to run the mare and her foal into a trailer to bring them into the clinic after they had been attacked by dogs. We had to pen the mare up against the trailer wall to give her some IM sedation and had to wait for it to take affect before we could unload her at the clinic. Once sedated we placed a halter with a 3ft lead on her and got her fixed up and in a stall and then we started on the foal. Once we put them together back in the stall the mare made it impossible for us to treat the foal every two hours for its needed treatments. The mare would run around the 12X16 stall like a crazy thing and nearly running over us and her foal. We ended up taking the foal away from the mare and bottle feeding it after about a week. The foals side had be torn open at the flank and required lots of treatment that we were unable to do safely when it was with the mare. The owners of the mare gave her away and the foal ended up coming home with me to live after living at the clinic for about 4-5 months. He is just a pet and is not used at all do to the injury but he is treated like all my other horses and I can do what I need to with him. Hope this info helps and good luck.

Wow, thanks for the info P8ntCrazy. My mare is a little tamer than that. She has been haltered and can be loaded in and out of a trailer easily.

But, she delivered her baby two days after I made this post. A beautiful paint filly. She has not actually let me touch the baby yet but I have petted her since her delivery. She's not acting aggressive with me but stays between me and the baby. My other paint seems to be just as protective of the filly as mama is, cutting me off from the baby when I try to get with 3 feet of her.

Terri,

I'm glad to here of the filly. You need to get her caught up though and start getting your hands all over her. Don't let the other mares run you off. that is unacceptable behavior. They are showing you that they have no respect for you. This is an important time for that foal and the best time to be teaching them to pick up their feet, accept a halter, and anything else that might need to be done. If you don't get a handle on her she will be A LOT OF HARD WORK later.

Good Luck, I'm glad she is doing good.

Thanks for the advice. We put her and the mom in a corral today and handled her for the first time. She's still a little skiddish and mama is still very protective.

I am glad to hear that all is going well so far! We once had a semi-feral cat who had kittens under our porch. As soon as we could, we started handling those babies. The mama cat had a fit, but we knew that the kittens would end up wild, too, unless we touched them daily. Eventually, the mama cat calmed and let us help her babies.