4 month old foals.....help!

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forest imp

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after being told not to i obviously went and bought not only one but three! in the cataloge it said foals details tbc. anyway, after buying it turns out the poor dears are 4 months old. it themselves they are fine, well the grey is very quite. but they are suckling ALL the time from each other and i have no idea what to do? i feel i should buy some type of milk supp but do i bottle feed them or feed them in a feed but then i dont want to get into the feeding foals routine?
although it sounds it im not a moron honest, i just want to best for these babies! i was planning on putting them straight out with my yearling filly but as soon as i put them in the stable togther they all pilled over as if she was a milk bar, i think she felt quite violated!!!!!!

ps completly wild :)
 
Gosh, 4 months is very young, I am waiting for my new weanling to come in November, he is still feeding from mum at 4 1/2 months even though he's a strapping big lad. I'm not much help but perhaps give your vet a ring? Are they eating hay or any hard feed? At that age even if they are they may well need supplementary milk anyway, so perhaps give them a milk replacer as well? If you can get them drinking it out of a bucket that might not be so bad. Shame on whoever sent them to the sale though.
 
Ring Joanna Vardon at the National Foaling Bank:

http://www.nationalfoalingbank.com/

The phone number is at the top of the home page.

She is available 24/7 for mare/foal emergencies, although I try to keep phone calls to her to a more civilised hour if it's not an emergency.

She will be able to offer you very valuable advice on how to treat these foals, and will also be able to advise you of your nearest supplier of Aintree foal milk so that you can bucket feed them on that if she thinks it is the best thing to do, although they should be eating a good amount of grass too by now.

You will need to be careful that these foals don't get too pushy or overfamiliar with you while they are at a "cute" stage. You need them to respect your personal space even at this young age.

Trying to think of books that may help you. Possibly try:

Training your young foal (Cadmos)
From Foal to Full Grown (Janet Lorch)
Training your young horse (Richard Maxwell)
First Foal (Jane Van Lennup)
Imprint Training (R M Miller)

There's also a book by Sarah Weston on training wild Exmoor foals/ponies, which you may find useful.

Good luck.

Really DO ring Joanna Vardon sooner rather than later.

Sarah
 
A friend bought a foal at 4 months, a few years back, she turned it out with a quite pony and it ate grass, and was given foal creep, no problems, i dont have any answers for your foals suckleing each other, but i think they will grow out off it {young calfs will suckle each other, then just stop} can you turn them out in a small paddock to give them some thing to do, and well done for buying the little things.
 
Hi, I was there too! Which foals did you get? I was rather smitten with one of the tbxnf, though missed her gooing through. Accidently came back with the 4yr old chestnut mare that had been abandoned.

I'm guessing you've got some of the forester foals? If so they are probably suckling each other as they havn't long been weaned. The first drirfts started end of August so they will have been weaned for 3 weeks max. Once they settle this should subside.

Don't bottle feed them, they are old enough to have a little hard feed and some hay or grass. We have our foals here on equilibra 500, one cup with a small amount of sugarbeet (ours are warmblood foals though so you're guys won't need as much). Get them feeding out a bucket first and once they are confident with hard feed (some are not always sure what to do with it!) you can try and get them to feed from the bucket whilst holding it and go from there.

Good luck with the little fellas, prices were awfully low yesterday. My 4yr old is also completly wild, though like all ponies i'm sure she'll come round with some food bribary! L
 
Poor little scraps they haven't been weaned as such, just taken away from their mothers and by the sound of it, not very long ago :( I'm sure the suckling will stop once they realise nothing comes out.

I wouldn't worry about the 4 months bit, I started weaning 2 NF colts last Saturday. They were dragging their mothers down quite badly, and the mothers were fed up with them too. Nobody is pining for their mummy or baby, so all is OK. I had originally planned to leave it till after Christmas, but hey ho, the mums would have been skin and bone by then and I was feeding them 3 times a day as it was.

One of mine is a wild one, he is forest bred and has hidden behind his mother ever since we brought them home in August (because mum was struggling to keep condition on). He is in a stable on his own with a window through to the one next door where is cousin is also being weaned, so he has company. The improvement in him in 7 days is incredible. He is inquisitive, loves Devon Haylage and apples and will now take food from your hand. We waited to wean him until he was happy eating hard feed out of a bucket which of course helps a lot. He really is getting friendlier by the day.

I would suggest a handful of foal creep pellets (which contain milk powder) to start off with and as much nice hay as they will eat. You could build up to a bigger feed than that, possibly with Surelimb or something to ensure they get their vits and mins. You need to be careful with the youngstock mixes with natives, they are more aimed at TB types. Might be an idea to speak to some feed companies for some suggestions.

I think my little FB lad will be staying home to keep his cousin company as he grows up after what I saw yesterday, I could have wept. I'm just glad I only have one colt I want to sell, it must be terrible if you have 11 of them and keeping them really is not an option.
 
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Dodson & Horrel Mare and Youngstock is suited to native ponies according to blurb on the bag, I had mare and foal mine eating a bit of that and actually still use a pet scoop for my pony, instead of buying straights. If you can get foal pellets that would be ideal.
i agree with the be careful of not letting them get familiar, you should have seen my mare giving Baby what for when she was pushy, a bite on the bum or a shove, did her no harm at all.
Can you let them out during the day and in at night.
 
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i bought a chestnut with a big white face and an bay with "frosting" on his bottom. when he came through he went bonkers! tried to jump through the fence into the crowd! i must have bonkers to to buy him! my sister bought alittle grey roan filly. i still dont knw what came over me, i went with the intention of buying but i wanted FILLIES!>!>!

its been a week now, they are on foal pellets but i cannot get near either colt. the chestnut (tonto) is getting there, kind off. but the spotty (ziggy) is actually on the verge of killing himself to get away from me. i dont even make an attempt to touch him. i cough the other day and he actually fell over himself to get away, it turns into blind panic to and nothing stops him. the little filly got trampled, he knocked her to the floor and nearly broke her back, she then got cast trying to get up!!!!! im actually starting to dred going up there because of how fear full he is?! any ideas?
 
Maybe try on breeding for help with de-sensitising them, there are a lot of people on there with a wealth of knowledge about foals.
Personally I think it is a case of de-sensitising them and I would imagine it will take a while, must be very traumatic for them to be taken away from Mum and then put through the ring, experiences of humans is probably not very good at the moment.
Could you just stand in the area with them/him quietly(not sure if they're sharing a paddock or a stable), maybe next to the food/water, just stand and build up the length of time you stand and then work on standing closer.

Good luck and well done.
 
Well, if it was me, I'd turn them out in a very well fenced/hedged field so they can burn off some energy and be a comfortable distance from humans, but then I'd work on advance/retreat to gradually build their confidence. I'd be doing as many hours of that a day as I could, because you NEED to be able to handle them in case they injure themselves, so it really has to be a priority.

If they really do have to stay in a stable/barn, then I'd just be spending hours and hours there with them, "ignoring" them and giving them plenty of time to realise I wasn't a threat. Then I'd gradually start doing the advance/retreat stuff and build up to being able to touch them lightly with a very long stick, and build from there to be able to touch them directly, but each time being very quick to only touch briefly and then walk away, so they never feel the need to move away from you.

But you need to have your wits about you to avoid being injured, so worth reading up or watching some videos on joinup and similar kinds of stuff so that you are sure you know what signs to read.

Sarah
 
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