Weaning - Colt & Filly

[risingrainbow]

We're weaning a colt and a filly here and it's not my favorite time. I always feel like such a bully taking babies away for their moms but it has to be done.
The filly, Gypcy, is 6 months old and absolutely huge for a Arabian foal. Her mom, Lucy, I bought in December to breed to my stallion and she won't even give he a look with that foal at her side. And that filly is dragging her down, the mare is too thin and I can't make any headway. Don't dare add any more groceries because I can't risk epithisitis with the filly. The only way to get weight on the mare is take the filly.
Then there's the colt, Suede. He's 4 months old and nearly as big as the filly which makes him more like a moose than an Arab. He's very, very arrogant and getting worse every day. His mom, Aana, is a hard keeper and always has been. She's in foal and too thin and can't make any headway with her weight either. The colt, also, could use a little weight. Aana has already sluffed one pregnancy this year. I think feeding the colt and trying to nourish a new life were just too much for her so weaning just seems like the best thing to do for all concerned.
So, the decision's been made and the poor foals are seperate from their moms. Suede has lost his poor little voice from screaming for his mom and Gypcy has a lost, bewildered look in her eye. It's a sad time here for sure.
I don't usually put my weaners out for a while (2 weeks maybe) because they can be so crazed to get back to their moms that they run through fences and I don't want anymore of that. I'm curious what other people do to make weaning less stressful for everyone, mares, babes and keepers??

[ShainaTN]

What I've seen done to help ease the stress on the foals when weaning is to put them in connecting paddocks until the babies start getting more independent and not standing next to their mom by the fence. Another method is to stick the foals in a pen with another adult horse that is like a surrogate mother to them. Usually an older mare or a gentle gelding will do. Hope I've helped. Good luck with your weaning. *Could you post some pics of them? *

[Golden Girl]

I have always turned another brood mare, or older mare out with the mare & foal when the foal is about a month old. The foal bonds with the other mare quickly. By the time weaning age arrives, 4 or 5 months here at my farm, I put mama in an adjoining pasture so she & the foal can see each other. I guess I have been lucky, my newly weaned foals never seem to miss Mama, it is the other way around. But the Mama soon goes about her business and peace reins

Good Luck! and post pictures!!!!!

[downundermum]

Laura, we do a similar thing to you only we use an old gelding (grandpa Gus is 27 this year) and when we take the mares out we take them to another farm down the road so they cant hear their foals. Have seen a mare go through a fence trying to get back into the adjoining paddock to her foal, made a real mess of herself. Now they leave home and are stabled and pampered a bit well away from baby. Only takes a couple of weeks.

[Heather T]

We take the foal for the day and put them back in with the mare at night. We'll do this for a week (or two depending on how they are acting) and then we finally just take the foal and they are weaned, but they are next to the mare (fenceline).

Best wishes...it's not fun.

[risingrainbow]

Thanks everyone for the input. Seems like I've tried most of these things at one time or another. I think part of my problem is that my place is so small, it's hard to get the mare's far enough away from the babies. If I put them side by side, someone wants to do the fence. There's just now way I can have them out at the same time. And I worry about the mare's getting mastitis so it's important to have them out walking around as much as possible. So I guess for now, I'm stuck with the foals in the stalls. Although, they're not screaming anymore. Gypcy jumped the wheelbarrow yesterday and escaoed while Lindsay was trying to clean her stall. I was working Legs in the roundpen and saw the whole thing. So I left Legs and helped Lindsay round up Gypcy but not before she came over to the round pen and sniffed noses with Legs. She loves him which is good because someday she's going to be his wife!! Suede really cried while Gypcy was loose but settled back in as soon as she was safely in her stall. I think tomorrow I'm going to try to take them both into the round pen and free lunge them and maybe burn off some energy. Hopefully that will help them feel better. Will try and get some pics to post but you guys need to know it's dangerous to be asking me for pics - I have a bunch of horses ;D and I love to share pics