Has anyone hand reared before??? If so advice/help please

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princess+dude

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Basically as above.....

I have a 8 week old filly who was unfortunately poorly when she was born which the led to my mare rejecting her!

I was wondering if anyone who has experienced this themselves has any tips or advice as haven't found anyone else that has done it to ask...

So far she is on 4 hourly feeds throughout the night and 2 1/2 during the day she snacks on straw, hay and i have tried creep pellets and hard feed but she doesn't seem interested!!

Anything is greatly appreciated
 
I hand reared a foal in 2008.

He was on 2 hourly feeds day & night to start with - he was four weeks old when his mum died. By about eight weeks, he was on four hourly feeds at night.

He had constant access to damped hay and hard feed. Until he was several months old, he never ate loads, he used to just pick throughout the day. I fed him Top Spec stud balancer, which I soaked so it was mush, on the advice of the TS nutritionist, and he seemed to do quite well on it. He definitely needed it mushed, and I used to mush it with warm water, which made it more attractive to him than cold.

You just have to persevere, and keep an eye on her weight, and consumption of milk / food. We weighed our chap, and monitored his feed / milk intake, so I knew exactly what was going in, and also what he wasted.
 
My neighbour hand reared a foal when its dam died foaling. It was a traumatic week or two and then they found a mare to be a companion. They did not attempt to pet it or make a fuss of it, just fed it and left and they obvioulsy did a great job as said horse is now 3 and been backed and broken in and is a nice quiet horse.

The biggest problem is making them too humanised, so they loose respect for humans and become difficult to handle, to the extent that some hand reared horses have had to be PTS when older as they were simply too difficult.

Best advice is to contact the National Foaling Bank.
 
I hand reared a filly ..she is now 12 yrs old
I agree with ORANGEHORSE.
I looked after her as if she was a calf ... gave her foal creep and hay adlib... got her a pony companion and fed her milk out of a bucket not a bottle ... she grew up to be a sensible ridden horse but always pals up with ANY pony !!!
 
Once had this with a maiden filly, it went on for weeks her rejecting it, until the time we thought time to give up completly and took it right away from her and left it on its own, it called ,the mother who was nearby called back - immediate bond - wierd !!!
 
I reared two from a fortnight old, very tiring but very rewarding.

At eight weeks it should be on four hours between feeds; I don't know what you're using but I used Dodson & Horrell's Equilac milk powder which is very easy to use and D & H are very helpful if you have any queries. They also started with a small handful of D & H Suregrow with a spot of bran and warm water made to a crumbly mash (as recommended by the foaling manager of the stud they were from) which I fed by hand until they 'wanted' it and would clear it up without me; it only took less than a week after which they just had the Suregrow dry twice a day and their milk feeds. They had ad lib meadow hay too. They were both fed at the same time from seperate buckets/mangers even though they shared a box as one was very territorial over his food; he still is! I weaned them from milk just after they were five months old after they had been down to two feeds a day. If you use Equilac they give a very good feed chart and timetable inside each bucket which helped me a lot.
As someone else said, you mustn't let them get too familiar with you. After their needs were met I virtually left mine completely alone as much as I could, I didn't even try to do things someone would normally do with a foal, I needed them as independent as possible, which hopefully they are; they'll be three in March and are still nice boys, one a bit cheekier than the other but they both know I mean what I say!

Good luck, let us know how you get on and if you need any help do ask.

Meant to say, please don't give her any chaff of any sort or sugar beet either as she won't be able to chew or digest them, she could become very ill, even get choke or colic. I found the Suregrow brilliant for them, it provides everything they need, you don't add anything to it and a bag will last one foal ages.
 
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She has been hand reared from birth as was born dysmature at first we were milking the mare but after about a week she dried up so we put her onto Aintree Foal Milk. As she was at the vets for her first 2 weeks i had no choice as to what milk she went on!!!!

They tried her on a bottle to begin with but thankfully didn't know what to do with it so has been fed from a bucket ever since!!! She is not quite 6 weeks old yet so hopefully by the end of the week she will be on 3 hourly feeds throughout the day and still 4 hourly at night!!

Maesfen thanks for the tip about the chaff I had wondered so hadn't given it to her. I have recently tried to introduce her to D&H's Foal mix which she plays with but nothing else!!! But will look into the suregrow.....

It sounds harsh but she doesn't get too much attention but already bucks at you every now and again!! Which i am trying to stop!!!???

She is stabled next to mum but they pay no attention to eachother whatsoever so am also looking into getting a companion but am in debate for whether to get something of a similar age or a slightly older one....
 
ORANGEHORSE said:
The biggest problem is making them too humanised, so they loose respect for humans and become difficult to handle, to the extent that some hand reared horses have had to be PTS when older as they were simply too difficult.

Best advice is to contact the National Foaling Bank.
Click to expand...

This is very good advice :)

It's good that you have got her drinking from a bucket, and I don't know how you giving the bucket, but if at all possible you need to come up with a system where as far as the foal is concerned the bucket/ feed is nothing to do with you i.e. it appears as if by magic!

Think along the lines of how you'd use a swivel feeder with an older horse. Maybe you could have a fixed bucket and pour the milk in externaly? I've seen this work very well. Her mobbing you for the bucket, or you holding it whilst she pushes you round the stable is the worst situation.

You need to be aware of not overhandling her at all times, and I think getting her a companion is an excellent idea. Good luck with her :)
 
We have hand reared two, and the best thing you can do is put a companion in with the foal so it remains a horse.
The first one we used her yearling sister, and the next a pony , but try not to baby it if at all possible.
We fed substitute milk, one foal refused to drink from a bucket so we bottle fed it for three months all through the night.
We found Alfa A good as the short lengths meant the foal could eat it, and foal creep mix too. We had to add some molasses to start with to persuade it to eat the mix.
We also gave aliquid vitamin supplement the vet recommended (sorry can't recall the name) and both horses grew up as normal with no after-effects.
You could try borrowing a calf feeder which means you may be able to stop those through the night feeds, but we just shared the getting up between us..
 
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