Dolly leaves this weekend.

Hoping this weekend goes well for Dolly, will be keeping an eye on facebook to see how she is :)

Dolly is young at 4 months (which happens to be a significant day for me, so i remember her being born on the same day) but seeing her in your updates, she looks big enough now to spend some time away. Especially if Tessy's pushing her away. If she's happy and eating well on her own then there should be few problems.
 
Breeze was weaned and sent to sales at 4 months old, she was fine had two hour journey. She is now the most rounded ,azure 3 year old I've ever known and grew a hand bigger than expected . Horses in captivity live a life so far from nature anyway well done Abby xx
 
Bon voyage little (well, perhaps not so little) Dolly Mixture . . . and Bon Chance . . . go . . . grow up . . . and make your HHO family (especially TessyBear) proud.

TB - you should be very, very proud of the love, care and start you have given your lovely foal (and her Dam) . . . your maturity belies your years. Head up girl. You done good.

P
 
I was thinking that too CT

I bet Dolly will be a knockout. Either that or she will literally be knocking people out but either way i hope we get to see it!
 
Good luck little Dolly! :)

4 months is very young to wean however as Abbie has said, she's made the decision and all the arrangements have been made, therefore there is no point in anyone going on and on about it. I wouldn't wean at this age and there's no way the foal has been digesting any of the snippets of feed she's been having for 3 months as foals cannot digest feed at only 1 or 2 months old ... however, that's by the by, she's eating hard feed now :smile3:
 
would just like to say in response to some of the comments on here that TB and her family have done a amazing job with Dolly, they were in no rush to wean her and we were in no rush to take her, im sure you can see from the size of Dolly and how huge she is that feeding from Tessybear became uncomfortable for them both, Dolly was crouching right down and Tessybear would push her away so was done more naturally than forcefully, the well being of both Tessybear and Dolly is in the forefront of all our minds.
 
titchward said:
would just like to say in response to some of the comments on here that TB and her family have done a amazing job with Dolly, they were in no rush to wean her and we were in no rush to take her, im sure you can see from the size of Dolly and how huge she is that feeding from Tessybear became uncomfortable for them both, Dolly was crouching right down and Tessybear would push her away so was done more naturally than forcefully, the well being of both Tessybear and Dolly is in the forefront of all our minds.
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Ah you are the owner of her now? Congratulations :smile3: I have to say, being a breeder, I did wonder whether Abbie had been pushed into a corner by the buyer to wean Dolly at such a young age, so thank you for coming on and saying that this is not the case :smile3:

I breed warmbloods and from birth they have to crouch down to get into the milk bar. That is definitely not a factor for me as to when best to wean lol!! Around 4 months old, many mares do start to naturally wean their foals, only allowing them to suckle a handful of times a day, that's normal at 4 months old. Doesn't mean that is the best for either mare or foal though and as I said above, I don't wean this early. However ... you've all made the decision so it's totally pointless for anyone, experienced breeder or not, to go on about it.
 
zigzag said:
Poor baby, they miss out on so much being weaned early, thought it was bad at 5 months, but even worse at 4 months
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Oh do give it a rest. You've said your point. Do you have to go on and on and try and belittle a 17 year old girl, that is acting much more mature than you are.
 
Best of luck to Dolly, Abbie. She is amcracking little (big) foal and I have LOVED following all the threads right from when you first discovered Tess was in foal.

It will be heart wrenching for you all, but you know that. But you also know that she is going to a great hime with lovely people.

Hope all goes well on saturday - will be thinking of you. X
 
Spring Feather said:
Ah you are the owner of her now? Congratulations :smile3: I have to say, being a breeder, I did wonder whether Abbie had been pushed into a corner by the buyer to wean Dolly at such a young age, so thank you for coming on and saying that this is not the case :smile3:

I breed warmbloods and from birth they have to crouch down to get into the milk bar. That is definitely not a factor for me as to when best to wean lol!! Around 4 months old, many mares do start to naturally wean their foals, only allowing them to suckle a handful of times a day, that's normal at 4 months old. Doesn't mean that is the best for either mare or foal though and as I said above, I don't wean this early. However ... you've all made the decision so it's totally pointless for anyone, experienced breeder or not, to go on about it.
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Really? As in have to bend their legs to suckle? They must be very big foals!
 
doriangrey said:
Really? As in have to bend their legs to suckle? They must be very big foals!
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I think it is quite common with warmblood foals, and in fact my mare had a giant foal and he had to bend to suckle from birth as well. She is ID x tb.
 
TheTrotter. said:
Oh do give it a rest. You've said your point. Do you have to go on and on and try and belittle a 17 year old girl, that is acting much more mature than you are.
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Why are you always telling people to shut up? It's just not cricket. People are allowed to share their views no matter what they may be. It's a forum, not the House of Commons and you're not Betty Boothroyd (I don't think you are anyway). It does get my goat when someone takes it upon themselves to be the forum police!

Anyway, I am of the opinion that four months is too young to wean and I feel a bit sad for giant Dolly foalie. That said, she's had a great start which has been better than so many get in life. She is the most beautiful giant foalie and I can't wait to see how striking she is when she grows into a big Mumma bear like Tess :)
 
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Billie1007 said:
Why are you always telling people to shut up? It's just not cricket. People are allowed to share their views no matter what they may be. It's a forum, not the House of Commons and you're not Betty Boothroyd (I don't think you are anyway). It does get my goat when someone takes it upon themselves to be the forum police!
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Thats funny, the only other person i've told to "Do shut up" is you. when you were being incredibly rude on one of armas' threads..
I know people are allowed to share their views, but when a poster is continually writing the same drivel, when they have already been answered by the OP. They are simply trying to cause upset on an otherwise happy thread.
If it gets on your 'goat' then feel free to UI me. ;)
 
TheTrotter. said:
Oh do give it a rest. You've said your point. Do you have to go on and on and try and belittle a 17 year old girl, that is acting much more mature than you are.
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I said my point when I thought the foal was 5 months old... Then it came to light that she is only 4 months old and been weaned a week already, so I commented further? How is that going on and belittling a 17 year old? What has the OP age got to do with it? I would say the same if she was 80 years old. And who are you to tell me to give it a rest?
 
TheTrotter. said:
Thats funny, the only other person i've told to "Do shut up" is you. when you were being incredibly rude on one of armas' threads..
I know people are allowed to share their views, but when a poster is continually writing the same drivel, when they have already been answered by the OP. They are simply trying to cause upset on an otherwise happy thread.
If it gets on your 'goat' then feel free to UI me. ;)
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Continually writing the same drivel? two posts in a 76 post thread, ...
 
Billie1007 said:
Why are you always telling people to shut up? It's just not cricket. People are allowed to share their views no matter what they may be. It's a forum, not the House of Commons and you're not Betty Boothroyd (I don't think you are anyway). It does get my goat when someone takes it upon themselves to be the forum police!
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But isn't that what you're doing with this post? :wink3:


*backs slowly out of thread....*
 
Billie1007 said:
No, I'm pointing out that people should be encouraged to share their views without being told to shut up. Trotter didn't say 'personally I feel that people should give it a rest now' (her view) she said 'give it a rest' (instruction). :)
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I'm terribly sorry for not constructing my sentences in a way which is nice and friendly.
But being a long time lurker on this forum, Billie1007, you are not one to tell people to be all nice as pie.. ;)
 
Clodagh said:
I think it is quite common with warmblood foals, and in fact my mare had a giant foal and he had to bend to suckle from birth as well. She is ID x tb.
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My experience is only with my foals (Connemara stallion to Thoroughbred mare). I never considered that foals would have to crouch to feed. Learn something everyday :)
 
justabob said:
She was not. She was a cow actually. Anyway Dolly will be fine and I can not for the life of me understand the hoohaa about her being weaned at 5 months old quite frankly.
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*whispers* she's four months. Which is young for weaning I guess and why some have suggested as much.
 
justabob said:
She was not. She was a cow actually. Anyway Dolly will be fine and I can not for the life of me understand the hoohaa about her being weaned at 5 months old quite frankly.
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I liked BB. I thought she was a kindly but firm speaker, and kind of old Labour. As am I (old Labour, not a H of C speaker ;) ). However of course I didn't know her, so am only going on public image. :)
 
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