Weaning - please cheer me up!

C

Catherine

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Dec 5, 1999
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Alresford, England
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Just wanted to have a moan about how horrible I am feeling to be weaning my filly off her mum. She's well past time for it in the conventional sense, being almost 10 months old, but we've only just been able to finish our extra stables.

In the past, I've sent the mare away for a few weeks, making a clean break of it, but this time, not being able to find anyone with experience of handling a dotty post-weaning mare, or anyone with enough grass and safe fences either, I'm stuck with doing the gradual separation method, keeping them both at home. They're apart all night now, from 7 pm till 8.30 am, and night time is quiet now, having begun with endless screeching across the yard. It's the next step I'm dreading.

I'm planning on moving the mare into the adjacent paddock a little while before they come in for the night, and then gradually making that time earlier and earlier in the day, hoping that eventually the mare's milk will shut off. There is an adult mare in with them whom the foal is very fond of, and she has a very playful pony as well, who is also her overnight companion at the moment.

Any sympathetic noises or positive input would be very gratefully received!!!
 
i read somewhere that mares wean their foals themselves at around a year or at about 7 months if they are in foal again. no idea if this is correct but i'll see if i can find it again (on the net somewhere).
 
weanoing is horrible but it does get better i promise i had to wean my foal unexpectedly one friday night when he was rushed to hospital there was room for him and not his mum and if he didnt go he would have died. i suppose i was looky in away because i didnt see the foals distress although ppprently he wasnt to bothered because there where other horses around him but the mare got in a right state and paced round he stable all night calling and all i could do was shut the door and let her get on with it and watch the panic on her face the next morning as she was running aroundher field lookin for her foal nly to realise he wasnt there. After a wek however things did settle down the are stopped looking for him and the foal came home and had forgotten about his mum the milks dried off with in about two weeks and she got very swollen for a few days

anyway i promise things will get better and in a few weeks they will be able to be reunited and they will have forgotten that they were mother and son. however i do do think a clean break would hav made it easier but im sure you will be able to cope this way. also her milk will not dry untilt he foal stops suckling

good luck
 
When I read the title of your post I thought, oh no, hope this isn't another foal being weaned at 5 or 6 months, quick and dirty, get them out of sight and sound of each other... you know the story. I was all psyched up to say something rude. I hate the traditional way.

How refreshing! 10 months - my God, a foal that's actually well old enough to leave its mum! And gradual separation - well, knock me down with a feather! The more gradual the better as far as I'm concerned. Well done, Catherine. Keep up the good work.
 
Thank you for your support!

Just thought I'd add that we have now moved things on a bit, and instead of the route I was going to follow, I had a rethink, trying to take everyone's feelings into account as to who was grazing with who, and who could see who, as I have three big geldings to fit into the grazing equation too.

Yesterday morning, Lacey had a long drink from Sammy, then went out into one paddock with her pony friend Ben, and Sammy went into the adjacent paddock with her best mare friend Jen. Sammy was totally cool and didn't panic that Lacey was the wrong side of the fence, and although Lacey went up and down the fence calling a little to begin with, after about an hour, she was happily grazing next to Ben and Sammy had wandered quite a way away to graze with Jen. Last night, before they came in for the night, they all went back together so that Lacey could have her milky drink before bedtime, and then they were apart all night, as is now the routine. Everything was very quiet, which was great.

This morning, Ben seemed a bit sore - he is laminitis-prone - so I had to have a slight change of plan, to keep him in, and Lacey went out to find Jen in her paddock, which she thought was worth celebrating with a silly run around. Sammy is on her own, as she is a dangerous tease with boys, but she seems very happy, and there's been no shouting. Lacey didn't fence-walk at all and seems very content.

I'm going to repeat this for a few days, and then decide how best to go down to one drink a day, and then no drink at all. I'm not sure how long this will take, but as their general attitude is far more relaced than I was expecting, I'm keeping everything crossed!

:)
 
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