Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE Newsletter Archives

Weaning, relapse

From: Kathy

Dear Jessica,

Thanks so much for your help. I have three Rocky Mt. horses in my back yard. Because of family, work, horse-keeping, etc., sometimes I feel isolated from the rest of the horse world. Horse Sense helps alot to keep me in touch and informed.

My question concerns my 7 month old gelding (gelded at 7 weeks thanks to your great advice). His 4 1/2 yr. old mom had been gone to a trainer for the last 6 weeks for weaning and training. All went smoothly for both mom and weanling. We brought her home 5 days ago. I reintroduced her slowly over the stall door to the gelding and our other mare. When I allowed her to be together in a 60 foot paddock with the baby, I thought she would injure him. Kicking, chasing, and biting in a no nonsense kind of way. A friend with lots of breeding experience told me to relax, that she was just doing what was necessary to wean him.

After a couple of days, everbody seemed to be learning their place in the little herd, so I was allowing all three together more and more in the paddock or pasture. This morning, while cleaning the stalls, I looked out to the paddock to check the horses, to find the gelding nursing from his mother and her happily accepting it. He is now back in the stall.

I have a barn with a stall for each horse, a sixty foot wood chip paddock and only one available pasture right now. I agree with you that a horse generally does best on 100% turnout and dislike stalling them for long periods of time. Also, I don't really have the time to shift them all around several times a day.

Any suggestions? How long is this likely to take? HELP!

Kathy

Hi Kathy! Sorry to hear about the "relapse", and you're going to have to separate them again, as you know. Some mares are delighted at weaning-time, and can share a field with the babies a month or two later, as they won't permit any more nursing. Others, as you've just found out, are willing to allow older foals to nurse. This can be very inconvenient for the owner who doesn't have the luxury of putting mare and foal in separate pastures.

You can try some of the other options: putting safe but bad-tasting substances (soap, for instance) on the mare's udder to discourage the foal, or putting a muzzle on the foal (there are special muzzles designed to discourage foals from nursing; prickles on the outside of the muzzle poke the mare when the foal attempts to nurse), but these methods are not always successful and both have disadvantages. Substances that discourage nursing must be substances that won't cause pain or damage to the mare's udder OR to the foal if he DOES ingest them; muzzles have to be attached to something (a foal slip or halter), and it's difficult to find reliable breakaway halters for young foals. And as it's a bad idea to leave halters on horses in pasture in any case, this isn't really such a good option. Separation is the only reliable method.

If you can't separate them on your own property in a way that will allow both of them turnout and exercise, you may need to make a separate arrangement for one. The foal might do quite well turned out with the gelding in the field; if your mare is being worked, she may be able to get her daily turnout and sunshine by staying in the paddock, with extra hay to make up for the lost grazing time. If your paddock is sixty feet square, it's large enough to allow her to walk and trot freely. You wouldn't want that to be her ONLY exercise, but it won't be, as you'll be riding her anyway. At this point, it's more important that the foal have the larger turnout area so that he can exercise and run and stretch his legs; you can work the mare, but the foal has to exercise himself to develop strong bones and the neuromuscular pathways that will allow him to become a coordinated, athletic horse.

You might consider dividing your pasture; if you're going to have both mares and geldings turned out, you will almost certainly want to keep the groups separated anyway, for safety. Even a few acres per group will let them exercise, graze, and benefit from the sun and air.

As for how long it's likely to take -- that I can't tell you. Some mares will "close the milk bar" as soon as they are taken away from their foals; some mares continue to produce milk and accept foals FOREVER. Others will dry up and/or say "NO" to the foals after a few months or half a year.

One last thought: If you have a mare who accepts foals -- her own and others -- you eventually have a great second career for her as a nurse mare. That kind of mare is always in great demand among breeders.

Jessica

Materials from Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE, The Newsletter of Holistic Horsemanship® may be distributed and copied for personal, non-commercial use provided that all authorship and copyright information, including this notice, is retained. Materials may not be republished in any form without express permission of the author.

Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE is a free, subscriber-supported electronic Q&A email newsletter which deals with all aspects of horses, their management, riding, and training. For more information, please visit www.horse-sense.org

Please visit Jessica Jahiel: Holistic Horsemanship® [www.jessicajahiel.com] for more information on Jessica Jahiel's clinics, video lessons, phone consultations, books, articles, columns, and expert witness and litigation consultant services.