Bought a weenling of 4 mths ?

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I always thought ponies / horses were weaned at 6 months but the breeder wants to get the foal off the mare at 4 months when we should collect her.

Are there any implications of her being weaned early and anything I need to do to help her grow / flourish in the normal way.

The foalie will be integrated with some yearling fillies.

Thankyou
 
We've just weaned ours at 5 months only due to the fact we've been given an orphan foal that needs some friends. Normally there is no reason to wean earlier than 6 months unless the mother is being vicious to the foal. It does affect there development in some way. They can lose alot of weight with the stress of weaning.
 
we weaned our foal at 4 months as the mare wasn't holding condition despite having feed thrown at her and would have rapidly gone downhill into winter with a foal still on her.

we left the foal with her field friends she was used to and carried on feeding her usual rations and she also had good grazing.

foal was absolutely fine, happy and healthy and as a 5yro is now successfully competing BE eventing so no ill effects!
 
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We've just weaned ours at 5 months only due to the fact we've been given an orphan foal that needs some friends. Normally there is no reason to wean earlier than 6 months unless the mother is being vicious to the foal. It does affect there development in some way. They can lose alot of weight with the stress of weaning.

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Sorry, I do have to disagree with this. There are any number of reasons to wean early if necessary, viciousness is not the only one.
You have a mare that cannot support a foal much longer as it is dragging her down too much in spite of the necessary feeding she requires (I have one of those!)
You have foals that are totally independent of the dam other than a few drinks through the day, always spending their time with others in the field or totally out of sight of the mare; those usually won't take any harm to be weaned earlyish.
You have foals that don't do well on their dam's milk who need to be got onto hard feed to be able to thrive and grow.
You have mares or foals that are ill or possibly coping with laminitis when it is unfair to subject the other to that confinement needed.
Obviously a lot of other reasons which mean you might have to wean earlier than the usual 5 - 6 months but as long as you have taken the correct steps and the foal is eating hard food (Suregrow, stud nuts/mix or whatever) and hay/haylage plus will have access to good grazing and companionship of some sort (preferably not something ancient or with shoes on as they need to be able to play safely) then your foal should not come to too much harm.
I am not saying it is right to wean foals by four months, it's always preferable for them to be older but it is not always so cut and dried and sometimes, needs must for the sake of either the mare or the foal and their health.

Last year, I reared two orphan foals from a fortnight old on the bucket and until then, like you, I would have said four months is far too early in normal circumstances, but now it doesn't worry me too much as long as the feeding and companion angle is sorted out well and safely. Certainly these two yearlings have not been put back in their development at all and I defy anyone to be able to tell, without being told, that they actually were raised by hand from a fortnight old.

To OP, I would suggest finding out that the foal is eating hard feed well and what type/brand it actually is so you can continue with that while it settles in to the new home and company. If you need to change the food, do it very gradually after the foal has been with you at least a fortnight and take at least a week to change it over completely. Suregrow by D & H is very good for foals as it has virtually everything they need for correct development without overloading them. It would also be fairer to the foal to be introduced to just one other first for a few days, don't just throw it out with the yearlings immediately it arrives. That time is also handy to handle it, get it to lead and have feet picked out if that's not done already as it needs time to get to know you too. I would also make sure that the first tet and flu jab is done either before it leaves the breeder or as soon as you can when it gets home to you.

Good luck and hope you'll post pictures soon.
 
I don't know much about foals/youngstock but I know its not always black and white and that there are good (and bad) reasons to wean earlier than normal. However recent reseach has been carried out which suggests that weaning at around the eight month period is really very good in so much as the foal and his immune system is better developed, the foal has more confidence and he has presumably been better socialised in preparation for his adult life by his mother who has been able to teach him all he requires to know. I read this somewhere in one of the horsey mags - sorry I cant be more helpful, I've since tried to google this information but without much sucess. Here is something you may like to look at :- http://mccallshorseworld.com/cms/content/view/126/79/
 
Thankyou very much, this post makes me feel better in that although I thought it was better to wean a little later at least her life won't be written off through lack of development and storing up problems for the future etc.

Thankyou for the advice re the D & H feed and yes she can have a special friend in the yearling sec a before she joins the others.
 
Glad to help. Do these two look runty?! They're just 18 months old now and both at 15 hands, out of cob mares by different TB's.
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Thank you! They only had Suregrow and haylage too, nothing fancy at all and it did them very well, I was impressed with it a lot and have just started feeding it to Tonka who is almost 4 months old as he needs to be weaned soon too, his dam is losing condition hand over fist in spite of virtually ad lib food being thrown at her; she's always the same but bounces back to blooming within a month of weaning.
 
'You have foals that are totally independent of the dam other than a few drinks through the day, always spending their time with others in the field or totally out of sight of the mare; those usually won't take any harm to be weaned earlyish.'
Quote from MFH_09

Well this is exactly what my foal is like now and he is only 10 weeks, I wouldnt dream of weaning him early he is staying on the mare for as long as poss!!!
 
Lol, I get your point and totally agree with you but I was referring to foals of four months for the OP. As the sentence after that one you quoted points out! -
"I am not saying it is right to wean foals by four months, it's always preferable for them to be older but it is not always so cut and dried and sometimes, needs must for the sake of either the mare or the foal and their health."
 
We've just had to wean our 4 month old as she was litrally sucking the life out of her mother.. the filly looks really really well and the mare looks like a charity case, all skin and bones. so we made the decision to take the foal away. Neither of them seemed too bothered by it and the filly is thriving on some hard feed and plenty of grass out with her two year old sister. Obvs we will keep an eye on her but so far she is doing even better than i imagined (and her mum is looking better for it too)
 
My yearling was weaned at 4 and a half months and i had him when he was just over 5 months old. they weanedhimearly because he was so bold and he just didn't bother with his mother at all. He is fine, well so far so good anyway!
 
I've weaned lots of foals early for varying reasons. I'll wean a foal off an older mare early, if she's in foal again then that foetus needs nutrition too!
 
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