Foaling around!
Lifestyle - Athenry man Noel Lally is willingly depriving himself of sleep for the next four months so that he can ensure the pregnant broodmares in his care will deliver their precious foals safely. Noel and his wife Sharon run Hollow Lodge Stud where that’s just one of the services they provide to horse-owners. He tells MICHAEL GLYNN how their niche business was born and bred.
The likelihood of facing into four months of deprived sleep would be a disturbing eventuality for most of us, but one Galwayman is revelling in the prospect.
The dysfunctional sleeping pattern of Noel Lally of Hollow Lodge Stud in Athenry between now and June will entail heading off to bed at 8pm, rising at midnight and watching a TV screen through the remaining hours of darkness.
But rather than having quirky television-viewing habits, Noel is monitoring live CCTV footage of heavily-pregnant broodmares who are stabled behind his Kingsland home, seeking signs that a birth is imminent.
It’s all because of the mares’ primal instinct is to deliver their offspring in darkness when, their inherited breed-memory tells them, it is easier to conceal foals from predators. As a consequence the majority of foals are born between midnight and 6am.
“The mares also tend to give birth when it is dark because they feel more comfortable and safe during that time,” reveals Noel, who is one of the few people in the county to offer a full ‘midwife’ service to Galway’s growing band of broodmare owners.
“The fact is that most mares will give birth unassisted, but some will have a problematic delivery. It is not always possible to accurately predict these ones in advance, so if an owner leaves a horse to her own devices, they are taking an enormous risk. So much can go wrong and, in a worst-case scenario, it can result in the death of the mare and the foal.
“We had a case here last year where a valuable thoroughbred broodmare, a first-time mother, produced an enormous foal and it took four of us, including a veterinarian, to help her deliver a beautiful filly. It was a long night and it took some effort on her part and on our part, but had she been left alone to give birth, it would not have been such a happy outcome.”
In addition to a foaling service, Hollow Lodge Stud, which Noel owns with his solicitor wife Sharon, also provides full livery and boarding for horses, as well as breaking and pre-training of young stock.
Established in 2002, the stud which stands on 95 acres, also has a distinguished record of breeding successful racehorses including Band of Blood (a seven-time winner over jumps), Raise the Goblet (four wins), The Snatcher (five wins on the flat for Richard Hannon Snr in the UK) and, more recently, the promising triple-winning six year-old Papal Lodge, Dedillon (three wins) and Pink Jazz, a four-time winner in England.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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