A Rocky Start

By Jim Hargrove

Spring is a season of hope and promise for horse breeders everywhere. The anticipation of nearly a year’s wait, lots of money, the long decision-making process that accompanies finally choosing a stallion, and the concern for the well being of the mare and foal all culminate in that one late night or early morning.

Unfortunately, all of that angst and emotion is not without reason. For far too many horse owners each year, mares and foals are lost during the first crucial 24 hours after foaling.

For the Scheids of Owosso, Michigan, all breeders’ worst fears were realized when their 11 months of waiting ended in tragedy.

After much deliberation, they finally chose to breed their world champion, multiple Congress Champion, and American Quarter Horse Association record-holding mare, Scotch Margarita, to multiple World and Congress Champion stallion One Hot Krymsun. The filly was Scotch Margarita’s eighth foal by embryo transfer.

On March 16, the gentle thoroughbred recipient mare gave birth easily and without accord to a beautiful brown filly early in the morning. Mare and foal spent 12 hours together eating, drinking, bonding, before the mare suddenly began exhibiting signs of colic. Within 45 minutes vets arrived at the farm and initiated emergency care. After an hour and a half of treatment, the struggle to keep the mare on her feet was worsening. Stephanie Scheid transported the mare and newborn filly to Michigan State University where vets worked for nearly two hours to save the mare.

When it was finally determined their efforts were in vain, reality began to set it, followed immediately by panic. Stephanie had been in contact with the stallion owner, Becky Bailey of Batavia, Ohio, from the minute she left the farm with the horses in the trailer for MSU. Bailey began searching on the internet and calling around the country for potential nurse mares in the event that their worst fears were confirmed and the mare could not be saved. As precious moments were slipping away, Stephanie made call after call to the mare owners on the list and after nearly an hour had located just one mare near Ottawa which was a 10 hour trip each way, and another in Indianapolis, 5 hours each way, that needed to be rebred in 30 days by live cover.

The attending vet at MSU, Dr. Keith Brown, had previously worked with Rood and Riddle Vet Clinic in Lexington, Kentucky and after a few phone calls, was in touch with Paul Stamper, a Mountain Pleasure Horse breeder, and the owner of a nurse mare farm in Kentucky. While Stephanie and Keith were making arrangements for a nurse mare to be hauled up the next morning from Kentucky, the technicians began feeding the filly milk replacer out of a pan. To everyone’s relief, she drank it easily as she played with and nuzzled the girls doting on her. It became apparent to everyone there that there was something special about this filly who never once whinnied for her mom. It was obvious that she wasn’t going to give up easily, and her fight was contagious to the people around her.

It was after midnight when she loped back to the trailer and they lifted her into her bed of straw where she snuggled sleepily for the ride home to wait for the arrival of her new mom. Once back at the farm, every hour and a half throughout the night, Stephanie would leave the filly’s side and head to the house to mix the replacer. The filly would drink the entire pan, then run back and forth through the barn a few times chasing cats and dogs, before falling back to sleep with her head in Stephanie’s lap.

The clock ticked on, and midway through the morning the Scheids learned the driver had been delayed and would not be arriving until afternoon. The filly’s energy level began to visibly decline after her long night. The anxiety continued to mount as they realized the filly’s fate would probably be determined in the next few hours.

When the driver finally arrived, Stephanie recalls the butterflies she felt in her stomach watching the stock trailer round the drive up to the barn. They were expecting a Percheron, but when a blindfolded Rocky Mountain mare jumped off the trailer they were in for a little surprise.

“Everyone had assure us Percherons and Rockies make the best nurse mares though, so I just tried to keep calm while we held our breath to see what happened,” said Stephanie.

After Stephanie moved the filly out, the driver tied the mare in the stall with a hay bag, still blind folded. He then sprayed the mare and foal with a neutralizing scent and then they brought the baby in to the stall.

“When she walked right up to the mare and started nursing, I couldn’t stop the tears from coming,” Stephanie said. “I was just so relieved. I never let myself think the worst, but I still couldn’t help thinking how close we’d come and how far we still had to go.”

Last spring, the Scheids lost a filly at two months to ulcers, and with that memory still all too real, they were not taking any chances with this one and started her on preventative medication immediately.

“They told me to leave the blind fold on the mare until she rubbed it off and to keep her tied for a week, but I figured we needed to know if this was going to work and if it was they needed to bond as soon as possible,” Stephanie said. “So a few hours later, I untied the mare and took off her blind fold. She smelled the filly and snorted a few times, and that was it.”

By the next day, the mare was showing signs that she’d taken the baby as her own, pinning her ears and biting at the other horses when she and the filly were walking loose in the barn.

At six weeks, the filly borders on chunky and loves her old mother and the comfort she gives her. Watching the ungainly pair - a stout Quarter Horse filly of impeccable pedigree running along side a gaiting Rocky Mountain Horse with her tail in the air - is enough to bring a chuckle to everyone watching.

Touted for their easy-going nature and gentle disposition, Rocky Mountain Horses are enjoying ever-increasing popularity with people seeking the smooth ride of a gaited horse coupled with a good temperament. Their disposition also makes them ideal for nurse mares, not only because they accept the new foals more easily, but also because they teach their impressionable youngsters these traits as well.

“The mare has been a wonderful ambassador for the breed,” said Stephanie.

“Since this has happened, I’ve learned of many other Quarter Horses that have been raised by Rockies.” One such horse was the stallion Too Sleepy To Zip owned by BSB-R11 Quarter Horses in Sturgis, Michigan. Obviously no worse off for his unfortunate beginnings, “Ernie” went on to win the Congress and is facing a big future as a sire with a breeding book that reads like the Who’s Who of the Quarter Horse industry. Currently the farm has a Percheron mare of Stamper’s nursing a foal who was orphaned shortly after birth and is very happy to have found her.

“This mare has no idea what she’s done for us,” Stephanie said. “We are so grateful for her and for everyone who helped us find her. It will be very hard to watch her go after the baby has been weaned.”

Persons needing a nurse mare can call Stamper at 606-725-5635.