Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE Newsletter Archives

From: Heather

Hi Jessica;

Finally a question that has nothing to do with the people that board my fillies :). At the riding stable I work at in the summer, we wean the foals at three months of age because we need to use the mares, but at the Arab farms I have worked at they were usually not weaned until six months. I was thinking four or five months sounded like a good age so they have plenty of time with mom, but don't drag her down too long. What do you think?

Hi Heather -- that's good thinking! Three months is a bit young for weaning, not because of the nutrition, since by three months old, foals are eating hay and grain and using milk just to wash it down. Mares' milk gets less and less nutritious as time goes by; by three months it's just liquid... and comfort!

That's the real reason that three months is a bit young for weaning -- foals get steadily more independent, but it's easier to separate them from their mothers when they are already used to spending time playing in groups, just running back to the mares for a quick suck or a nap. It's nice to have foals that feel happy and secure during their first months, and after.

Mares also teach their babies quite a lot about how to behave around other horses -- and how to behave around humans, for that matter. It's nice if the mare can teach these lessons and then all you have to do is reinforce them; it's harder to do the mare's job AND your own. Foals brought up in mixed herds, and foals that stay with mares longer, are often much more accepting of human discipline because they already understand how discipline works.

You're right again about leaving foals on mares for too long, but if the mares are well-fed while they are lactating, they shouldn't ever get that ribby, pointy-hipped, hat-rack appearance. That's just a too-thin mare, and taking the foal away may help, but feeding her properly would have kept her looking good even while she was lactating.

If you're going to raise foals, you have to learn to watch mares and foals and develop good judgement about when to separate them and how much feed everyone needs. It's much easier to prevent problems than it is to solve them.

- Jessica

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