How do you wean your babies.

Jenny · Postby **Jenny** » Sat Jul 26, 2008 6:30 pm

A thread to discuss different techniques for weaning foals. How it has worked for you and what has not. Have your foals lost weight? How to combat this? etc.

Karie · Postby **Karie** » Sat Jul 26, 2008 6:53 pm

Keep them turned out in large groups and remove 2 mares a time..Keep the foals out with the group. The foals can handle it.. They do well.. don't lose weight or anything..
Works well..

Dave C · Postby **Dave C** » Sat Jul 26, 2008 8:15 pm

I take the mares to another farm leaving the foals in their pasture with most of their herd mates. They get over the separation with a minimal amount of anxiety and without hurting themselves.

valerie · Postby **valerie** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 7:12 am

Karie wrote:Keep them turned out in large groups and remove 2 mares a time..Keep the foals out with the group. The foals can handle it.. They do well.. don't lose weight or anything..
Works well..

Ditto that one, works so well for me. I also add my babysitter mare into the group a couple of weeks before weaning. She really helps them out except every year she manages to adopt one of them. But, I guess at 30 she is allowed to think she has a baby.

madelyn · Postby **madelyn** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 7:32 am

valerie wrote:
Karie wrote:Keep them turned out in large groups and remove 2 mares a time..Keep the foals out with the group. The foals can handle it.. They do well.. don't lose weight or anything..
Works well..

Ditto that one, works so well for me. I also add my babysitter mare into the group a couple of weeks before weaning. She really helps them out except every year she manages to adopt one of them. But, I guess at 30 she is allowed to think she has a baby.

Yup, me too, except I take away one mare at a time, the dam of the oldest foal in the group.

majxmom · Postby **majxmom** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 9:49 am

I have a small operation, so I always do fence-line weaning. Like the other posts said, I have the mare and foal in a group of horses, and remove the mare, leaving the baby in with the familiar horses. But I only put the mare on the other side of a fence. I think that leads to the least stress. The mare's bag can get very full from the proximity of the foal, but I think she's less uncomfortable from that than from crying and whinnying and fretting.

I also wait a good long time to wean. I know that many big operations wean at five months these days. I realized a few years ago that I could draw an absolute correlation between how nervous my horses were and when they had been weaned. Orphan foals: hardest to deal with. One I weaned at four months: very nervous mare. One weaned at seven months: no problems, about average horse. One rescue mare I picked up had foaled in July, so I didn't want to wean her in winter. By the time I got around to weaning, it was the next June, so the foal was 11 months old. That horse is by far the calmest, nicest mare I have, and it was the easiest weaning. So now I wait. Recently I read something that said that in the early 1900's, when you went out to pastures in KY, it looked like the mares had yearlings standing next to them. Now I wonder if everyone weans earlier just so they can start billing for an extra horse faster.

Ramona · Postby **Ramona** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 7:02 pm

We do like Maximom. Put the foals in a paddock next to the mothers. They are familiar with each other. (Usually have two) They winny at each other for a while but, when the food comes they take a break. We wean at 5-6 months. The mare's are starting to get tired of them by then. Works perfect with little stress on mares and babies. I think the mare's find comfort in knowing their foal is safe.

Karie · Postby **Karie** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 8:40 pm

Yup, me too, except I take away one mare at a time, the dam of the oldest foal in the group.

well, we do also.. but we start with removing 2 from each mare and foal pasture so the new lonely babies can hang out and eat together.
Its really stress free..
after that we do them one by one..

soundfast · Postby **soundfast** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 6:21 pm

I let my mare wean her foal herself. She weaned her between 9 and 10 months. They are still together. I learned with cattle that the longer they get milk from their mother the better they grow. I do not understand why people think they should interfere with nature.

serenarider · Postby **serenarider** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 5:01 am

I let my mare wean her foal herself. She weaned her between 9 and 10 months. They are still together. I learned with cattle that the longer they get milk from their mother the better they grow. I do not understand why people think they should interfere with nature.

Soundfast what do you do with your foals? Do you race them? Do they go to sales, What do they do? When I read your post it gave me a good laugh. I almost can see you nursing your own child till it's 2 or something. :roll:

The breeders that have told people how they wean Do something with there foals;) The comment you made about interfering with mother nature Im guessing you would call a vet for one of your horses. That would be interfering.

BridledObsession · Postby **BridledObsession** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 5:57 am

serenarider wrote:
I let my mare wean her foal herself. She weaned her between 9 and 10 months. They are still together. I learned with cattle that the longer they get milk from their mother the better they grow. I do not understand why people think they should interfere with nature.

Soundfast what do you do with your foals? Do you race them? Do they go to sales, What do they do? When I read your post it gave me a good laugh. I almost can see you nursing your own child till it's 2 or something. The breeders that have told people how they wean Do something with there foals;) The comment you made about interfering with mother nature Im guessing you would call a vet for one of your horses. That would be interfering.

Serena -- I'm not sure I understand why you find her suggestion so outrageous. Nursing for 9 to 10 months is only 3 to 4 months longer than the average. Others said they waited until spring to wean. As for nursing your own children, I stopped at 1 only because they had teeth. :lol:

Had they not started biting I would have easily considered continuing to at least 18 mos. When they can ask for it in a full sentence, then they're too old. :wink:

The point where I'm really baffled by your response is where you ask if she does something with her foals. How would continuing to nurse stop her from "doing something" with them?? Our 4 month old is halter broke, leads, gets bathed, picks up her feet, etc. Nursing has not and will not stop us from doing things with her. Yes, we're going to race her, but she's not in training yet. :wink:

Of course, her diet has followed the natural course of things, which I assume it would continue to do the longer she nurses, and she is now eating her share of grain, hay and grass.

We'll wean her sometime this fall, I'm sure. But we're not in a hurry or confined to artificial deadlines. We'll let her and Mom tell us when they're ready. You can already see Mom wanting more space and baby getting more independent. I see no reason why continuing to nurse while transitioning to a regular diet would impede a foal's progress. There are many reasons why most people would not be able to let a foal nurse for 9 - 11 months, but if they can, it doesn't make them extremists. :lol:

At least not to my way of thinking.

Postby **Roguelet** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 6:29 am

serenarider wrote:I almost can see you nursing your own child till it's 2 or something.

Hi! Just thought you might be interested in these articles:
http://www.breastfeeding.com/all_about/faq_bf_toddler.html
and
http://www.lightparty.com/Health/10ReasonsToBreastfeed.html

These are about extended nursing with human babies, but is it really a stretch to believe that the nutritional, social (comfort), and immunological benefits might also exist in other species?

Me, personally? I wean on an individual basis. It's pretty easy to tell, by watching their behavior, when mom and baby are "ready" and it can be done with the least amount of stress to everyone involved. I remove the mares but only to the field on the other side of the fence. If it causes a huge ruckus, the mare goes back and I try later. It's just not worth it to me. I tend to wait longer than average unless it's taking way too much out of the mare. I just think it's easier on everyone.

As for humans... I could go into that, but that would probably belong in the OT section... :wink:

serenarider · Postby **serenarider** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 7:17 am

Bridled,
I asked her what she did with her foals? It was a simple question.

The point where I'm really baffled by your response is where you ask if she does something with her foals. How would continuing to nurse stop her from "doing something" with them?? Our 4 month old is halter broke, leads, gets bathed, picks up her feet, etc. Nursing has not and will not stop us from doing things with her. Yes, we're going to race her, but she's not in training yet. Of course, her diet has followed the natural course of things, which I assume it would continue to do the longer she nurses, and she is now eating her share of grain, hay and grass.

This I understand. What I had a problem with was the comment of why mess with mother nature. I would like to see a picture of a mare with her 9,10 or 11th mth old foal by side and see if she is taken down at all.

Now I will take back my human child comment. To each there own on that one.

Dave C · Postby **Dave C** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 7:21 am

I said above that I move my mares to another farm, which is true. However, since I don't like sending foals off to stud farms when the mare gets bred (exposing them to who knows what from all the strange horses shipping in) I only breed the mares every second year. Since the mares aren't in foal, I will leave fillies on them until the mare is ready to ship to the stud the next spring. Colts get weaned at 5-6m. There are exceptions of course such as several years ago we weaned a filly by taking her mother away to be euthanized (the mare was old and was in a good deal of joint pain that required alot of meds to keep her mobile unti the foal was old enough to wean). There are also cases where the mare is losing too much body condition to allow the foal to continue to nurse. As was stated by others it is always a case by case situation.

BridledObsession · Postby **BridledObsession** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 7:54 am

serenarider wrote:[
Soundfast what do you do with your foals? Do you race them? Do they go to sales, What do they do? When I read your post it gave me a good laugh. I almost can see you nursing your own child till it's 2 or something. The breeders that have told people how they wean Do something with there foals;) The comment you made about interfering with mother nature Im guessing you would call a vet for one of your horses. That would be interfering.

Serena,

My point, I suppose, was that it wasn't really a simple question. Your post had a somewhat mocking tone to it, ie. "When I read your post it gave me a good laugh" or "The breeders that have told people how they wean do something with their foals".

I could just be grumpy though........ :wink:

It's been one of those months. :lol: