oh boys almost time to wean the colt

colt is now 2.5 months and vet says I can wean him at 3 months of age as mare is melting away and now foundered because of all that feed..I've been raking my brains out trying to help this poor mare....how do you go abouts doing this and how long will it take for the mare to dry up?...should I put the colt with the other horses and put mare in the barn or the other way around? will they make a big fuss when they are seperated ?? :36_33_11[1].gi

I didn't wean Prince till he was 7 months and didn't know anything about the process. The previous owner of the mare told me to "just lock her in a stall for a week" :roll:. I built her a seperate turnout pen but had to leave her in the barn when I wasn't home because she was frantic to get back with Prince (he didn't really care that she was gone). I ended up re-homing her because of several reasons so she was separated for about a week at my place. Her udder was still rock hard when she left so I don't know how long it took for her to dry up.

If you can, put the foal with some older geldings that he can buddy with. Ideally the mare should be out of sight and far enough away she can't be heard calling either. If your property isn't big enough for that than you can take her to another barn for some time (1-2 months). Not always a possibility. It's hard either way. The mare will be very upset and I would imagine since the foal is so young he will be too compared to what I dealt with.

We usually try to keep our foals on for 4 months at least but have weaned earlier if the mare is losing weight. We bring mom and baby into a box stall and then quickly lead mom back out and simply shut the door. It sounds mean but if you can do it quickly it takes both a bit by surprise. We are lucky enough to have our pastures seperated and usually do the weaning early in the morning and move mom to a field or enclosure out of ear shot of the foal. They will call back and forth but if they can't hear each other well they will soon settle down as a rule. We take all grain away from the mare and they will usually dry up in 4 or 5 days. The first couple of days their udder will be full and hard but will gradually soften.

We usually check in on the foal regularly but do not go into the stall until later in the day. By that time they have calmed and want attention. We just pat and reassure them. This has been our practise for several years. We also do not turn the foal back out with the mom later in the season since some moms will let them start to nurse once again.

SexyDexy wrote:

I ended up re-homing her because of several reasons so she was separated for about a week at my place. Her udder was still rock hard when she left so I don't know how long it took for her to dry up.

If you can, put the foal with some older geldings that he can buddy with. .

Oh re-homing her is gonna be a little hard because of all her health issues..I would be constantly worried...putting colt with my guelding and mare with my other mare ...could work..both would have company. :flower:

Freva wrote:

We usually try to keep our foals on for 4 months at least but have weaned earlier if the mare is losing weight. We simple bring mom and baby into a box stall and then quickly lead mom back out and simply shut the door. It sounds mean but if you can do it quickly it takes both a bit by surprise. We are lucky enough to have our pastures seperated and usually do the weaning early in the morning and move mom to a field or enclosure out of ear shot of the foal. They will call back and forth but if they can't hear each other well they will soon settle down as a rule. We take all grain away from the mare and they will usually dry up in 4 or 5 days. The first couple of days their udder will be full and hard but will gradually soften.

. We also do not turn the foal back out with the mom later in the season since some moms will let them start to nurse once again.

good plan...but oh boys I really thought this would of been just a couple of weeks thing....having to seperate them for a season could be a problem..I can't wait to get things back to normal...the whole pack together again..getting colt off her to help her get back to health.

Every situation is unique. We find keeping the pair separate is what works for us but it won't hurt to see what happens after a couple of weeks. Some moms will shun their foals after they have been weaned a while and they are reintroduced....hopefully this is what will happen in your case. :flower:

The past couple of foals that I have raised have been weaned without much difficulty. I find seperating the mare and foal throughout the first couple of months helps.

This year, Ozzy is basically weaning himself, he doesn't spend a lot of time with his mom and is quite happy to be off elsewhere. I take him away from her just about daily. I leave the mama in the stall and take him out for a walk. He only hollers a couple of times, and then he gets interested in seeing the sites.

In the beginning, I start out in small amounts of time (say 5 minutes) and gradually work up adding 5-10 minutes each time out.

The other night I took mama out of her stall to get her feet done and he didn't even care.

Good luck!