Weaning my first foal...

[Tamarack]

Spirit is my first foal and I am very attached to him. His mom is the best. I hate the thought of having to separate them. All my pastures and corrals are attached. I have two other mares. Can I just put him in with them? HE will be 5 months old in October. Mom has been bred back. How long can I leave him on her without causing problems? :no: Thanks for any help

Tamarack

 

[miniaddiction]

Well I am by no means an expert but going from what I have gathered from the forum and other places...If he is 5 months old and mum is bred back it definitely time to wean. If he is not going to nurse off the other mares and they will be good to him then he would be fine with them but he would also be fine in a pasture next to his mum. Good Luck, be tough and make sure he has a good supply of a quality weanling feed throughout the process ( and make sure he will eat this before you take him off mum). Hopefully somebody with a bit more experience than me can also comment.

 

[ChrystalPaths]

I'm of the mind to take a few weeks to do this. First a few hours, the a bit more until they're apart all day then switch then they are apart all day long. Surely there's another of your horses he likes? I'd buddy them up and take mom away not baby. Baby needs the comfort of friends and territory. I hate it too. Course lots of folks belive in cold turkey, having nursed a child I never did it..ouchie mare.

 

[Jetiki]

my filly is 5 months old and I have her in with my anceint gelding, who's going blind, he loves her and they share a fence line with her dam. I don't have any issues. I also have her yearling who has been a gelding for almost 2 weeks now out with another gelding and they have shared a fence line with no issues. Start gradually taking her away from mom and you shouldn't have too many issues, start with an hour or two a day if you can, also if you are feeding mom, cut her food way down for a few weeks, I didn't do that and I ended up with a mare with mastitis last year. This year I cut her food out completely, she wasn't bred back and started working her. I'd take mom out, leaving baby with her friend drive mom for a bit and then put them back, then I'd put mom in another pasture for a while and then finally seperated them completely.

Karen

 

[Sue S]

I feel the same way as you do, I feel so bad that I will be taking my little Shimmering Rose away from her mom at the end of the month, The mom will be in a pasture and in a stall right next to her at night and she is an excellent mother, she is the only foal we had this year so I went out and bought a little playmate for her the same age as her. She eats hay and grain and beet pulp just fine but going to get some foal feed for her being that she won't be nursing anymore. I will give the little ones Omolene 300 (2 parts of Omolene 300) mixed with 1 part of my reg. grain plus calf Manna. This was suggested by someone here in the forum.

 

[lilnickers]

Around 5-6 months old, I usually put them all out together for the day ,and then at night, separate mom and baby in ajoining stalls. I do this for maybe a week. Then I put baby in with friends in a separate pasture(ajoining mom's) for a few hrs a day and gradually increase it till eventually they aren't together at all, and mom should be dried up by then and she won't let him nurse when there's no milk. This year when my colt is weaned, I will try putting him in with his Dad. His Dad's buddy was recently sold and I think they will become good buddies. They play through the fence now. I don't recommend putting ANY foal with a stud, sire or not, if you are not absolutely certain it will work. Our stud is so good with the mares and babies . He is very gentle and respectful. He enjoys having a pasturemate and misses the colt we sold, and I know he is lonely.

Good luck with your weaning process. It won't be painful to any of you if you do it gradually over time. I weaned one early last year (4 months) as the buyer was moving and it was necessary, but I prefer to wait till 5-6 months old and then its easier on mom, baby and owner.

:

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Gently gently is my way of weaning and it starts when the foal is a week old and ends, as two of mine will today, with the foal just not going out again.

They will be in the big round pen that is in the field, Mama will be right there on the other side of the fence, they will only not be able to nurse, that is all.

At the end of the month two more will join them and at the end of (probably the middle of) November the last filly will join them.

At that time only will they then go out of sight of Mama as they will move into "Winter Quarters" at that time and the foals go next to the entire filed and the mares go out on the big filed.

There is a bit of calling at this point but not too much and not the heart rending screaming you get if you do "cold turkey".

Even the mares you would think have all but dried up will spring a HUGE bag- do keep an eye on it and draw enough milk each day to make sure there is no Mastitis.

 

[qtrrae]

I love my way of weaning - there is no stress on the baby or the Mom. I put the foals in a pen right next to their Moms so they can always see them, at first they might stand next to each other for comfort but that becomes less and less.

Before I wean I make sure my babies are all eating good, they get their grain mixture with Omolene 300, calf manna and hay - plus they also get very soupy beet pulp.

I have already seen the babies sneak a bit of milk from their Moms, especially when the mare's udder gets tight but I figure it really doesn't hurt anything and before long they completely stop.

I know a lot of people wean "cold turkey" - I just can not bring myself to do that - this works for me and alleviates the stress for both Mom and baby.