Megan, my girls stay out all day right up to the moment they foal just as they have always done regardless of the weather. It is so important for mares to keep active and moving as much as possible in the last days before foaling. My poor girls dont even have a 'run in' and to be honest I dont think I would want one! I would much rather they were off grazing and moving around. Obviously they are all in for the night by teatime, but so far, in some 30 years of foaling all types of horses, we have only had 3 foal outside (minis of course!). One of these we missed as we were several fields away mending a fence, but we did get back as she foaled. The other two were spotted during our regular checks (normally every 20 minutes) and we were able to be there to assist them and then to carry the new baby back up into the barn. Even if a mare looks imminent I would still turn her out in the morning, I may get her back in again after an hour or so if I felt that she might just foal during the day, but she would go out because I feel so strongly about her having the chance to move around and perhaps having a good roll should she feel the need. I do think that if we were going to leave the place for a couple of hours, I would rather have a really imminent mare in a stable for safety sake. But then if they were that imminent we wouldn't be going anywhere anyway! But having said all that I do realise that between Cathy and I we have the ideal set up as neither of us work away from home, so we can cover for each other and the mares never have to be left alone.
At this stage I certainly wouldn't worry about Laney being outside in the wet if you are not around. If she progresses normally towards foaling, then maybe when she's a couple of weeks from her due date, I would consider leaving her in her stable if you were away from the place, and the weather was bad, for safety's sake.
