reintroducing mare and 'foal'

[AlisonMi]

Hi, Does anyone have any experience/information on when it is possible/acceptable to turn a mother and her baby out together again. Foal is now 13 months old (weaned at 6) and we having to rotate turnout out as we only have so much grazing and limited companions. Any views gratefully recieved as ever, cheers, Alison

 

[brackenhappy]

hi i have done this! i seperated them when my foal was 8 months old let brackens milk totally dry up then put them back together! i had limited grazing as old yard would only let you turn your own horses out together and the field was stripped into paddocks for each horse owner. coco and bracken got on fine when back together although i stayed and watched so could intervine if ness, coco attempted to suckle once at this bracken squealed and bit her bum! she never tried agin! they where fine til coco was PTS at 13 months!

edited to say piccies in my sig think its the 3rd one! are from when coco was 10 months!!

 

[Maesfen]

Now!
Seriously, you can re introduce mare and foal as soon as the mare has dried up after weaning, so usually 8 weeks at the very most to be on the safe side.
If it was me, I would be inclined to introduce mare into the field that yearling is already in if that is possible; it will put the mare on the back foot rather than the other way around. Is there any chance they could be in adjoining fields for a time before so they can talk over the fence safely? You'll probably find the yearling will be quite submissive to the mare anyway.