[aBreeze]

The general consensus among family friends is that we are rediculious/crazy/other-adjectives-not-appreciated-by-our-great-mods-here-on-HGS.

Tulah is a year old and still with her mama. We dont see any reason to wean her. She's not draining Stella. Its convenient.

Should we seriously look into seperating them?

***more info on #20, if that changes anything...***

[CowGirlUp1833]

Some women breast feed until thier kids are 8 years.... LOL

How do you feel about that.

Life has a natural progression.... I think its time to let momma have some peace.

[Mutrok]

What type of arrangement are they in? Large pasture? Can mom get away if she wants to? In the wild the mare will eventully wean her babies by herself (obviously). I find that my babies start respecting and paying a lot more attention to me once they are weaned so it is easier for me to work with them.

[Mary6478]

My neighbor had a mare and foal together for more than 3 years and he still drank his mom's milk!!! Their pasture was really really really small so they could not get away from each other (i don't think they would either). The mom died and thats when he got weaned.

I am all for weaning them for a month or more then you can put them back in the same field.

[Haas Horse Farm]

Well let me ask you this... At what age do you expect this horse to act independently? Can you halter her and lead her off and go for a trailer ride and be gone for several hours with out her or the dam throwing a fit? I bet not. It is common sense that says if you wean them at 4 to 6 months that both the mare and offspring do better.

My trainer is good at what he does... there is only one horse he ever called the owner and said it was crazy and come get it before it killed someone... The horse was four years old and NOT WEANED. They had to bring the mare to his place with the filly to get her in the round pen. He absolutely could not ride this mare or work with her because she would take off and go crazy looking for her dam. He did get her under saddle BUT he could not ride her outside at all or she would winny incessantly and be crazy looking for her dam.

Unless you are with your horses 24-7 how do you know that the yearling is not still sucking?

[Haas Horse Farm]

Oh and just for the record... some will drink again after being weaned for more than a year.

[CowGirlUp1833]

Originally Posted by mutrok

In the wild the mare will eventully wean her babies by herself (obviously).

Usually because they get rebred....

but a mare in a pasture is much different then a wild one....

[Haas Horse Farm]

Which reminds me of a mare I rescued several years ago... She had two still sucking on her... the would be weanling and the yearling! UMMMM why did the owner not think there was a problem????




These are both of the offspring... not to meantion the yearling is a COLT!

[Drafty1]

I'm one to wean my foal no later than 6 months.
Nutritionally the a yearling doesn't need mares milk. It is a habit at this point, not necessary. Baby need soothing it nurses, needs a drink it nurses rather than walk to the water trough. And it is taking from your mare not that you can see but it is taking something from her.

[Lexy]

Originally Posted by aBreeze

The general consensus among family friends is that we are rediculious/crazy/other-adjectives-not-appreciated-by-our-great-mods-here-on-HGS.

Tulah is a year old and still with her mama. We dont see any reason to wean her. She's not draining Stella. Its convenient.

Should we seriously look into seperating them?

Lotsa ppl think weaning is done to take the foal off it's dams milk. That is not really what weaning is about.

Usually by the time a foal is 4-6 ms old the mares milk is much more a comfort food and much less about nutrition. At that age, when anything the foal deems traumatic happens.... such as having to take mom out of his presence and eye site for more than a couple of minutes, the first thing the foal will do when mom is returned is run over and dive for the teat like he/she hasn't had anything in it's belly for a week. The mare is usually not quite as bad as the foal, but she too will freak out if the foal is removed for more than just a few minutes. The nursing is their bond. As a matter of fact, it is how they established their bond from the beginning. It's the bond (the nursing, not the actual milk),you have to wean them from.

The mare will eventually wean the foal from the milk, but unless she has another foal, she won't wean her from the bond. Just means you won't be able to do anything with one without dragging the other along.

Well, sorta. It won't be as bad as when you wean a foal, but it does make them a little crazy.

K.I.M. not all horses are the same. So not all mares/foals will react the same way if the foal is never actually weaned (separated) from the mare.