Orphan Foal

M

malibu211211

Well-Known Member
Joined
27 June 2005
Messages
1,661
Location
How the hell do I know??? I can barely remember my
Visit site
A friend has been sadly left with a very sweet orphan filly
frown.gif
, she has been advised to find a quiet companion pony to teach foal how to be a horse as she is being hand reared.
Anyone had any experience with this?
Thanx
smile.gif
 
Sad isn't it, my friend lost a mare to colic who left a colt though he wasn't young, young so not quite as bad as the poor filly.

No advice though I'm afraid.
 
I think orphan foals can become too humanised, and don't learn to socialise properly in terms of equine etiquette which may mean they don't integrate with other horses well.
It would be good for the foal if it can stay with an older, maternal mare (or even gelding) who can teach it how to be a horse...it also helps if you can introduce the foal to other youngsters/horses so it can learn from them.
Best of luck
S
smile.gif
 
Yes i hand raised an orphan foal, she is now 7 years old, a lot of time and patients, but well worth the effort, you have to be strict with them and teach them maners, but i know that my mare would follow me to the ends of the earth, and with the same respect she looks after me, circumstances dictated that she was kept on her own for the first 2 years, but now she is very independant, but also now mixes with other horses, but is very protective of me when i enter the field, friend for life with out a doubt, best wishes to your friend
wink.gif
 
Yes i hand raised an orphan foal, she is now 7 years old, a lot of time and patients, but well worth the effort, you have to be strict with them and teach them maners, but i know that my mare would follow me to the ends of the earth, and with the same respect she looks after me, circumstances dictated that she was kept on her own for the first 2 years, but now she is very independant, but also now mixes with other horses, but is very protective of me when i enter the field, friend for life with out a doubt, best wishes to your friend and foal
 
I was left with an orphan foal (the coloured in my sig). She is now 4. The most important thing is that they learn they are horses, not humans. I was lucky - my Icelandic gelding (the grey) adopted her and was her surrogate mum - he looked after her in the field and shared a stable with her, but he also reprimanded her when she overstepped the mark. He was wonderful with her. Even now, if she is worried by anything she goes straight up to him for reassurance. Has your friend got in touch with the National Foaling Bank?
 
We reared Izzie two year ago after her dam died, and it was damned hard work!
the trick is to find a companion who will Mother the foal, and we used her sister Tally. She was amazingly obliging only getting shirty when Iz tried to suckle.
If your friend has a supplier of goats milk it will be cheaper to use that, otherwise the huge tubs cost a fortune. try and persuade the foal to drink the milk from a bucket or a calf rearer, and get it onto creep pellets asap, as that too cuts down the time and money with milk.
We found Izzie thrived on Alfa A with pellets added to the bucket.
Please tell her to email me if she has any questions, on here or via my sig email.
(there are lots of pics of the two of them on my old blog in the archives www.henryhorn.blogspot.com
 
My shettie gelding was companion to an orphan foal. Folaie mum died from grass sickness when he was 2 weeks old. He was hand reared by his owner and turned out evryday with my shettie. It worked very well.
 
How awful. Has your friend contacted the national foaling bank? How old is the foal (sorry if I missed it)? I would get looking for a companion mare/pony/gelding straight away. The foal really needs the companionship of another horse, especially when turned out. As for handling, be firm and fair. Don't let them get away with chewing/bad behaviour.

I hope the foal takes to the bucket well. Please PM me if your friend want to know anything, I will do my best to help. I was in the exact same position last month. Good luck to her and the foal.
 
We hand reared a week old orphan foal, however he was also adopted by my very quiet gelding, who acted as 'uncle'. He fulfilled all the roles of a surrogtae mare except feeding. In time they went out with the rest of the mares and foals so that the foal was socialised as a normal equine and not over humanised. We did initially try and foster mare route and it was the most emotionally and physically exhausting thing I have ever done
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top