Weaning a Foal

When to wean a foal?
We believe that the dam has a huge influence on her baby’s actions and reactions, so we leave our foals with their dams until 6-7 months old. This decision is predicated on the fact that the mare is healthy, has superb temperament, is easily handled, and is relaxed in all situations to impart her world view to the foal. A great dam, helps you raise a great foal.

That begs the question, “Why would you want to breed to a horse without these qualities?” See Nature vs Nurture

Some studies in the 1960’s indicated that a mare’s milk begins to decrease by the time the foal is 3 months of age, and it became standard practice to wean foals at 3 months, provide them with a creep feeder and feed them supplemented diets.

We have not personally witnessed this lactation decline. Our personal observations show that the milk supply is an “on-demand” system and increases to meet demand. However, even if true, it is still of little relevance.

By 3 months, the baby’s nutrition is being supplemented by his foraging on his own as well as eating from his mother’s grain and supplement bowls. We have literally never had a foal that was poor or unhealthy because he was left with his mother. And, to further support this practice, wild horses do not naturally wean their foals until this age or much older. Even pregnant wild mares do not wean until about 10 months – just in time to interrupt lactation to develop new colostrum for a new foal.

Yes, she needs more nutrition to support her lactation and the drain on her resources as the foal gets larger. But a thin mare who is otherwise healthy just needs more calories. Feed the mare, don’t wean the colt.

There are drawbacks to weaning too early. After the wean-at-3-months craze, research showed that foals weaned at an early age are at higher risk of developing behavior issues caused by isolation from their peers and herd as well as physiological problems caused by improper diet with well-intentioned over-supplementation (a higher incidence of Developmental Orthopedic Disease is frequently seen in early-weaned, over-supplemented foals), and being stalled or confined during the growth of the long bones.

There seems to be little to discourage his staying by his mother’s side until his half year mark or longer, and many benefits.

NOTE:
If the mare was bred back on her foaling heat, she is beginning to need extra nutrition for the baby in the womb as well as the baby by her side when this baby is 6-7 months old. Just watch her weight and condition as the current foal approaches the 6 month mark. Make your decision then.

How to wean a foal? Prepare by making sure that the foal has a “herd” when his dam disappears. Ideally, he has been in a pasture with other mares and foals or a group of some kind. If the soon-to-be-weaned foal will end up isolated, we prepare by adding a mare or two to the pasture in the month before the weaning. That way he still has company when his dam is taken out. Ideally it is a mare or two who already know the dam. She may still be a little testy if they get too close to her baby, but the pasture soon settles down.

The barren mares don’t usually interact very much with a baby that is not their own. But they are still part of his herd and they actually continue his equine education so that he understands horse language and pasture etiquette. If there are other foals, he still has playmates to distract him.

We found by experience that separating the foal and the dam by just a wooden fence is not adequate. The dam will move over next to the boards and allow the foal to continue to nurse through the fence (quite comical). Not only does he not wean, but he can wear off his mane rubbing it under the fence board. Separate the foal and the dam by two pastures. It seems to be all right if they see each other. They will call to each other and possibly run the fence line for 2-3 days. Watch that they don’t get in trouble, but allow the process to complete.

When can they be put back together? Probably not for a month or two- maybe more. It seems like forever. Our mares don’t usually reject their weaned foal, so they are pretty much separated forever at this point.

Right away after weaning starts, the foal can begin more training. Your presence in the pasture should increase. He will start to look to you for comfort and leadership. You will become his BFF.

Horse training can be dangerous. Not all methods work on all horses. Instruction presented here is not meant to be prescriptive in nature, and Horse-Pros.com takes no responsibility for the welfare of any animal or person using our methods.

Please note that any advice given on horse-pros.com is neither veterinary nor prescriptive in nature but offered only as an introduction to this topic.

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2 thoughts on “Weaning a Foal

  1. Under domestic conditions, most foals are artificially weaned before the time of natural weaning, usually at 4 to 7 months of age. Artificial weaning is recognized as a major source of stress that can also lead to long-lasting deleterious effects. This common practice seriously impairs the welfare of foals. To date, there is still little data on the natural process of weaning and the immediate consequences for both partners. After reviewing the current scientific knowledge on this subject, we present the results of a longitudinal study carried out around the weaning period on mares and their foals kept under naturalistic conditions. We found that most foals were weaned spontaneously between 9 and 10 months of age, and overall, that natural weaning induced no stress response in either partner and no sign of rejection from the dam. The findings of this study can provide new insights on the management of weaning in breeding farms, and even lead to reconsider what is commonly practiced.

    1. Hi Ma:
      This insight is very important. There was even a movement some years ago to wean at 1 month! While we usually wean about 7 months, I don’t really have much problem with leaving the foals longer. We only do it because it is easier to train them separately if their dams are not in the way. OR, in the case of these 3, when the dams are overprotective and not as manageable as we would like and teach the babies stand-offish behavior.

      We had an interesting experience recently with a small herd of Caspians. We separated the 3 weanlings from the moms at 7 months. We put them in a separate pasture with an older gelding who was in their original herd, and he took very good care of them. They were all born at the same time, so they had friends and adult horse presence. However, after 1 month of separation, we had a flood at the ranch and the paddocks had to be reallocated temporarily. There was no choice but the put them back into the pasture with the other Caspians, which included their mothers. I was very surprised when they went right back to their dams and started nursing again with no objection from the mares at all. And apparently milk returned.

      They have been with the herd for 4 more months now. They’re nearly a year old. Nursing is pretty much stopped, but mostly because the babies don’t have much interest in it. The mares never weaned naturally, and no one suffered any adverse affects. It was an interesting experiment.

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