The same basic principles of feeding and care of the mature horse apply to the pregnant mare during the first six months. The foal makes few demands on the mare the first six to seven months of pregnancy. However there are other considerations than just nutrition and there are some management changes you can make to protect the foal the first seven months. After the 6th month we do need to make nutritional changes to help the mare and foal.

Gestation, the time the mare is pregnant, varies in horses depending on the season of expected foaling, specie, and breed. Even when this is taken into account there can be still quite a bit variation in gestation length. Regular sized horses and ponies have an average gestational length of 340 days but may vary from 320 days to over 365 days. Donkeys typically have a year long gestation. Miniature horses average about 320 days. Foals bred early in the breeding season will usually gestate a little longer than those bred late in the season. This article discusses feeding and caring for the pregnant mare and getting prepared for your foal's birth.

Study carefully the article on Nutrition of the Adult Horse for basic feeding information of the mare during the first seven months of pregnancy. Pregnant mares should have their body condition scores in the range of moderately fleshy (condition 5) to fleshy (condition 6), ...more. Assuming your mare is in good weight and condition, just keeps doing what you are doing, with but a few exceptions and caveats.

Studies into the safety of Equitrol, the feed through fly control system that uses organophosphates, have measured a decrease in serum cholesterase levels. Though the drop was small it does suggest care with its use in pregnant mares. Also mentioned was the possibility of poisoning coprophagic foals. There also a few deworming products on the market which are toxic to the fetus and these should be avoided. Always be sure to read the warnings on the dewormers and for our suggestions see below. There are some contagious equine diseases which are potentially harmful to the foal so it is recommended that pregnancy mares be kept with a stable population of horses. There are some vaccines that should be given on the 5th, 7th, and 9th month of pregnancy with general boosters given the last month, see below for more.