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Post by dollylanedales on Jan 20, 2007 20:29:47 GMT -1
I am asking for Kathryn, who is preparing to wean Folly. She is over 8 months old. A few weeks back, she stopped suckling from Carly, and Kathryn thought she was weaning herself, which probably Kathryn would have preferred, less stressful etc.
Seemingly, Carly is now allowing Folly to feed again - obviously thinks she is not quite ready, yet!!
Has anyone had any experience of leaving the foal on the mare, and it weaning itself (or the mare making it wean itself)? My mare was in foal again, and still feeding Vicky. Once Martini arrived, Vicky was out of the milk bar immediately courtesy of Mum! Carly is not in foal again, so this will not be the case here.
So anyone who has been through this "natural weaning" or has any views on the subject, I will pass them on to Kathryn.
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Post by Debbie on Jan 20, 2007 21:18:09 GMT -1
About the only thing I can remember is seeing photos of the wild mustangs, with foal nursing on mum, who's only maybe two to three years old herself nursing on her mum! In the wild, I'm sure the mares will allow the foal to continue to nurse, but only so long as they're not feeding their foalie.
I'd say as long as Carly's not being pulled down weightwise by Folly's continued feeding, to leave them be. It may even help Folly through the winter months.
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Post by admin on Jan 20, 2007 21:52:30 GMT -1
Do you remember Cobnut - he naturally weaned his foal from his mare.
All he did was start to take her out of the field to ride - 10 mins to start off with gradually building up to several hours. The foal stayed in the field with his friends and wasn't too bothered. He did attempt to suckle when teh mare was returned to the field when it was older - but the mare made her feelings quite clear on that matter!!!
The mare glowed with health despite feeding a foal long past when it would have been taken off her in a more commercial section. That was on top of being brought up to quite high levels of fitness for Cobnut to compete seriously at TREC.
Olivia
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Post by felldale on Jan 21, 2007 6:46:28 GMT -1
I left Amber on Star until she was 9 months old. I had intended to leave her on all winter to try for a "natural" weaning, but around February time Star really started to drop weight despite extra feed and the filly looked so well I decided to take her off for the sake of her mum. It took quite a while to get the weight back on Star too..... With Freya and Midnight I weaned at 6 months with no problems.
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Post by Daftmare on Jan 21, 2007 9:20:31 GMT -1
A girl I know has left her mare and foal to wean naturally and he is 2 now and still going for a suck. Pearl has never been put back in foal. I think its an individual thing and I weaned Charlie boy when he was ready to go to pastures new. Mandys foal I weaned a bit early because the mare had been in such terrible condition when she arrived and he was really pulling her down. He was a strong healthy foal and she was getting weaker, we thought she deserved a break and time to gain condition before she foals again.
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