Equine class welcomes new foals

BEATRICE – Southeast Community College (SCC) welcomed three new foals in April and a fourth in May.
Dee Cee Tee Jay, the sorrel mare, foaled on April 27, Three Jay Gal, the gray mare, foaled on April 29, and Missy Dayeynu, the black mare foaled on April 30, all of them having filleys.
On May 17, the fourth, a stud, was born to Bucky, a buckskin mare.  While this foal is officially unnamed, he is being referred to as Studley.
On Wednesday, April 30, Annie Erichsen, the instructor for the Introduction to Equine Management course, cheerfully entered the classroom and announced, ”We have babies everywhere.”
The three mares were pasture bread May of 2011. The gestation period for a mare is between 320 to 350 days, or about 11 months.
Nutrition is very important in a pregnant mare. For the first six to eight months, their diet stays about the same. The last few months of the pregnancy are when their diet of proteins and vitamins are increased. Also in the last three months of pregnancy, the mare will start to show.
Just before the birth of the foal, the mare’s milk sac will “bag up,” and when she is ready to foal, she will secrete a sticky milky substance.
At the first stage of birth, the foals move into position. In stage two, intense labor contractions begin and the birthing process takes about 30 minutes. In stage three, the placenta and fetal membranes are expelled. Erickson said, “80 percent of mares foal in the night.”
SCC lets the foals nurse on the mare for four to six months before the foal is weaned.
Two of the three mares that foaled in April are quarter horses and are registered with the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA); the third is also a quarter horse but is considered a paint horse, so its certification is with The American Paint Horse Association.
The AQHA is the world’s largest equine breed registry and membership organization. In their mission statement it states “To record and preserve the pedigrees of the American Quarter Horse….”
When a horse has a good pedigree, the owner will generally carry part of the name of the dam or sire. By doing this, another quarter horse owner can pick that up and know the horse’s characteristics. It could be a fast runner, a good cattle a good roper, a good barreler, etc.
The sorrel mare, Dee Cee Tee Jay, has a sire of Rifle Site Rocky and a dam of Roxy Dee Cee. On the certificate of registration, her Sire carries on the Bee, Tee and Jay names. Her dam carries the Dee and Cee names through the blood lines.
The other two mares were named in a similar fashion.
The Introduction to Equine Management class will be given these certificates of registration to see the pedigree they have and come up with a name for the foals.