natural weaning

[horseymadamz]

can anyone explain to me what natural weaning is? and what the pro's and con's of it is? all advice on the subject of weaning welcome as this my first foal

[Deleted]

I find my mares tend to start pushing their foals away around 5 months, I do tend to wean them around 6 months, but it would be interesting to see them wean them themselves, I 'm sure they would, may try a few this year.

[horseymadamz]

well my filly on hard feed hay and grass but still suckling off her mum a bit at moment i only heard natural weaning mentioned i not exactly sure what it is

[Guestless]

It happens more in the wild than anywhere else - the mare usually chases the previous year's foal away either as she is due to foal again or just after. I have heard of cases where a mare is feeding both her new foal and her previous year's but I don't think that is very good for her condition.

I wean when my foals are around 8 months old as I find the foals aren't nursing very much by then and mum is more than ready to let go. I would only carry on with that as long as my mare was carrying enough weight though - which mine so far always have been.

[horseymadamz]

my mare in good condition , been making sure she getting enough food, hay, grass and vitamins/minerals etc she got a good weight on her at moment and coat etc is looking well so i assume at the moment she is fine, has it ever happened that a mare has been totally took away from her foal just straight away like sold or something and the foal has just weaned off like that?

[pattendown]

me myself i wouldnt as my dad got a little dartmoor pony and she had a 3 yr old filly stil suckling on her she was so thin ,,in the wild a mare will suckle a yearling and a new born foal ,, some mares will go enough is enough but others will not

[holiday]

I take my foals off the mare about 5 months, some are later if the foals need a little bit more, however I do remove the mare completely and take her somewhere else (to another field on the farm) it works for me but not everyone. Within a couple of days the foals are quite settled and back out with their friends.

[horseymadamz]

im just wondering as i dont have the option of moving the mare right out of the way to another field, also when passporting and registering the foal does the mum have to be around?

[harrythepig]

No mother doesnt have to be there. You should have a covering certificate to prove parentage.
If your foal was AId you will probably need to get a DNA test done as well to prove correct semen was used.

[horseymadamz]

dont have a certificate when i asked previous owner for it she said she never got one

[pencaedu]

Don't panic about the weaning - our coloured cob was still drinking from Mum at 3 y.o. - both looked fab. He was well integrated with the geldings & didn't even notice Mum had gone. We used to take her away to ride her occasionally - neither of them ever bothered - seemed like the only 'bond' left was the milk!!!

[horseymadamz]

thats good to know pencaedu

[Guestless]

Nov 19, 2010 14:33:31 GMT horseymadamz said:

dont have a certificate when i asked previous owner for it she said she never got one

It's likely you may not be able to register the sire of the foal unless you can get a covering certificate retrospectively or go down the DNA route....is your mare (and the sire) a specific breed?

[horseymadamz]

mare is exmoor and sire traditional coloured cob

[holiday]

If the sire is not graded or licensed it is feasible there are no covering certs, it maybe worth trying to get in touch with the owner of him to find out. If not I dont know about the Exmoor society to know if they have part breds? Im sure someone else will. If they do you should be able to get her details on a passport and sire unknown or you need to go down the route of pet id or pleasure horse or the such to get a none breed passport, whichever way your vet will need to do the drawing and insert a microchip. Some of our breed diagrams do ask if the mare was present, ie the vet can confirm the mare being foals dam.

[exmoorowner]

Exmoor pony society does register first crosses but pretty sure that the non exmoor part has to be registered and licensed with relevant breed society. However may have changed as been 10+ years since I registered a first cross.
Secretary contact details on exmoor pony society website.
I assume the mare is a registered exmoor? if not then you def cannot register the offspring regardless.

[stormyskies]

My filly is 6 months now and is staying on mum over winter! So she will be 10 or 11 months when she is weaned. Mum not in foal again and will keep her weight down and good for foal.

[horseymadamz]

Thinking registering foal with chaps as she lovely skewbald, is it a bad thing to take mare away completely from foal as in sell as someone was enquiring about buying the mare but not the foal? It would be one way doing the weaning process but don't want to stress the foal right out? She doesn't cling to her mum just now then suckles off her

[Guestless]

I have bought a couple of foals that were weaned literally as they were loaded onto my lorry. It is a bit stressful for the foals, but weaning can be stressful anyway so as long as you are prepared to give the foal necessary support and supervision, it should be fine.

[soph123]

We weaned our foal after about 6 months, We moved the foal a few stables away and was relaltivly stress free, we let the mare out for a few hours in the morning to help her milk shut the top door on the foal and left him with some toys to play with and then in the afternoon swaped them round and out the foal out with another gelding. Only took around 2 weeks and was not as heartbreaking as we though it would be, neither of them seemed to care.

[saz88]

I am so glad to have read this thread, especially the last one.- soph
I am in the process of checking out stallions as I would like to put my mare in foal early next year.
I am trying to absorb as much info as possible, so after reading a book last night, from beginning to end on breeding I was quite concerned that we didn't have vast amounts of land or somewhere else to put mare when it comes to weaning, I was almost considering not going through with it as I want to ensure the best possible start...this thread has given me a bit of confidence that there are other ways and approaches that are successful, so thank you.

[larkhaven]

I am lucky to have an old mare who is our paddock auntie. She is turned out with he mares and foals all summer, and when the foals are around 6 months old we shut them in just for an hour or so while we take the mares away (we do try to move them out of earshot, but luckily have never had a mare worry) We come back and let the foals out with auntie - this year they had one little look round, and that was that!

[sarahp]

horseymadamz - best if foal has a companion rather than left on it's own, maybe you can borrow something if you don't have others? I like to bring mare and foal over and get them into the routine the foal will have when weaned, including eating whatever you will be feeding it and being turned out with the new companion, then take mare away as far as possible, or sold if that is what you want to do, then carry on with foal as it is used to. I have my foals in at night, out in the day and do most of the handling at that stage, as a one man band I find it easier when dam is not around.

[soph123]

Saz - This was our first foal aswell and i have to say it is one of the most rewarding things we have ever done. Day one it has just been me, my mum and sister doing everything to him even helping the mare give birth. It was the mares first aswell so she had no idea what to expect. We dont have that much space to seperate them out of ear shot but after a few days they just deal with it and put their trust in you. Both the mare and foal seemed to tell you when the time is right for them to move onto the next stage.

[pattendown]

i put mine 2 in each stable and mums are in the next paddock they calll for a couple of days then i put the foals in the bottom paddocks with the others and never have any trouble i also havent the opertunaty to move out of ear shot