Question on foal and my mustang

Question
Susan,
I have a mare that is 6 years old that was an orphan foal.  She is so gentle and loves to be with people.  She is due to have her foal in a matter of weeks.  I have been watching her, my question is, since she was orphaned will natural instinct kick in and she will be a good mom or is she going to have problems with this.  Should I watch her very closely?  Also, is imprinting her foal important? If so, how do I go about that?  I have her in pasture right now.  I also have my 7 year old mustang gelding and 3 year old paint mare with her.  I was told that the paint will be fine out with her but to watch that she does not try to take the foal away from the mother.  We are moving my gelding to a friends because I am scared that he will try to hurt the foal.  I have a question about my mustang gelding but I will ask that question later.  Thank you for your time.

Answer
Hi Becky,

Wow, what an exciting time for you!  I honestly believe that natural instinct will kick in when she foals.  (Incidentally, my orphan mare is also 6, and we just bred her this week! So I have a strong belief that everything will be okay with her mothering skills.)  Of course, you always want to watch a new mom carefully, especially if she's foaling for the first time.  She may not understand about getting the foal to her udder to nurse, and you may need to help with that.  Take care to move slowly and quietly around her at first to avoid having her feel like you're a predator after her baby.

As for imprinting, it's extremely important in ensuring that the baby has no problems being handled.  There are several ways to do it.  My preference is to get into the stall within the first couple of hours after foaling and gently rub your hands all over the baby.  Start with the shoulders and work your way up the neck to the face and ears.  Then work your way back to the rump and down each leg.  You may need to halter your mare and have someone hold her to prevent her from going after you.  Their protective mothering instincts can be really strong, so you want to maintain a calm, constant monologue to the mom to reassure her.  

I wouldn't worry so much about the gelding, if he's got a calm temperament.  You might want to wait a couple of weeks, then reintroduce the gelding back into the herd.  That way, the baby gets a balanced herd experience.  Of course, if there's a problem with the gelding, you'll need to remove him.  In general, though, I've known some geldings to be really good caretakers of foals.  It's really only stallions that you have to worry about, and since your gelding's been out with the mare throughout her pregnancy, I don't think there'll be a problem.  Make sure you continue to give your paint and your gelding lots of attention when the new baby arrives.  You don't want any jealousy issues to come up.

Have you got a way to fence off part of the pasture for mom and baby?  That would be ideal.  Then you could have paint and gelding in one part, and mom and baby in the other. All horses would be able to see each other, but not necessarily be able to injure the others.  It's a thought...

Hope that helps!  Good luck with your new little one - very exciting!  And don't hesitate to write back if you have any other questions.

--Susan