Foster mares and milk

[Allover]

I have a retired broodmare, ever since she had her first foal she has produced varying amounts of "milk". It gets worse this time of year and also if she gets a bit too tubby. I keep an eye on her boobies to make sure they are not getting hot/lumpy and sometimes have a check of the fluid to make sure it is "clean" looking.
I have often thought she would make a great foster mare as she loved having her foals. This brought me round to the question of whether the "milk" she produces would be sufficient to feed a foal or whether foster mares are given some kind of drug to help them produce milk that is nutritionally suitable. This also raises another question of whether you would be able to introduce a mare and foal if the mare hasn't just lost her own foal?

TIA

 

[DuckToller]

I asked a similar question a few years ago and the more knowledgeable breeders on here said it was unlikely that a mare would accept a foal once their own was weaned, as it is the flood of hormones when a foal is born that makes them accept their own, and as this settles down it becomes less likely. You then have the risk that the mare could hurt the foal if she didn't accept it.

No idea about the milk but again I suspect the hormones around foaling time influence the milk so I doubt it would be as good, although I don't know that, just guessing. My mare had plenty of milk after weaning so I considered milking her, and had there been an orphan foal nearby I might have tried, but it's not easy apparently!

 

[Clodagh]

I secretly love watching RSPCA Australia and in the last series they put an orphan foal in with a mare who had no foal, nor had she recently foaled, but she was showing maternal behaviour over the fence. She fed him and looked after him like her own. I don't know if he was given supplementary food. Some mares must just love foals.

 

[Allover]

Thanks for the replies

She slipped a foal a few years back (we are not sure at what point in the pregnancy it happened) and she apparently "stole" a foal off of another mare. She would let him go back to feed but kept him with her at all other times. The other mare seemed perfectly happy with the situation too!!

It seems it will continue to be a mystery to me

 

[YorksG]

I don't know the answers to your questions, but can tell you that we milked a mare with a sickly foal and bottle fed him, the mare was easy to milk and let down easily.