is there anything I should look out for with her since she was weaned to early from her mother?? She seems fine to me. But I want her to be healthy and grow normally. Shes already growing nicely.

Then as the foals got old enough to wean, we just pulled their mama’s out of the pasture and put them in another pasture on the other side of the farm. The mares fretted a bit, running the fence for a hour or so and whinnying here and there.

The babies would answer back, look around and then go play with the other foals.

By that evening, usually every one was settled down. We had a mare or two that really loved their babies and it would take a day or two for them to settle, but usually we had no problems at all doing it this way.

Now I only have 10 acres and do the fence line weaning pulling the mares out and putting them in the pasture right next to the babies. We have a good solid board fence with an electric wire between the pastures and the foals are use to this fence, so know not to challenge it.

Oh, and we don’t wean until the mare tells us to (around 6 or 7 months) unless there is reason to wean early due to illness… etc. Usually she will start nipping the foal when they try to nurse, and we notice that the foal is hardly around the mare any longer. The foal will be eating grain and grass/hay and looks forward to us coming into the pasture for some good butt scratching and tummy rubbing.

Melinda