Sad Foals

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Tia

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I have a bunch of very young foals who are living with their nanny and two mares with foals at foot. Our own homebred foals are really happy little things, but these little foals who were shipped her from a couple of thousand miles away seem really sad. I spend a fair amount of time with them and they are inquisitive and will let you touch them lightly. They don't run away from you and you can stand right next to them but if you go to put your hand out, they quietly move away from you.

I obviously want them to be happy, like all of the other horses here, but they appear quite withdrawn and I can't really think of any way of making them happy. Just time?

These foals lived on a 30,000 acre ranch with no fencing, so I'm guessing that being without their mothers (although their nanny does a wonderful job with them) and living in a penned in field is not total bliss for them. They are all incredibly well behaved......but at the expense of them playing and frolicking like our own foals.

Any suggestions to try to make their lives happier? Please?
 
They've been here for a month. I had expected them to be very quiet and withdrawn for a couple of weeks but not as long as this. They have never ever played, they don't run about, they just quietly go about their business.

I guess they have had major trauma and need a longer time than I had expected for them to adjust.
 
Are these foals in with your happy little home breds? If not, maybe putting them together would encourage them to play together?

If they are, then like you say, maybe they just need more time to get over the trauma they have had in their short little lives. I am sure you are doing everything you can to make them feel safe and loved.
 
Yes they are in with my little homebreds. Breeze, our little month old homebred foal is full of life! She is always trying to get them to play but they won't. Legacy, our older homebred plays all the time, but once again the foals won't play with her either. They just don't play.

Two of them are not so bad; we can halter them and pick their feet up and groom them and they will choose to spend time with you (albeit with their sad looking expression), but the others don't. They just stand and watch you. You can go right up to them and they won't run away, but they do eye you with slight suspicion. They will slink off if you go to pat them though. And if you walk along with them and pat them, they will continue walking until you give up, then they will stop and look at you.

I was thinking of field toys but I'm not sure they'd even have much to do with them. Heyho, don't think anything but time will help....however our puppy adores them and they do seem to like her so maybe encouraging her in there more often might help.

I just don't like them to look sad. They will be moving into a new field soon though, so hopefully this will jump-start them a bit.
 
Okay, so a little bit of a breakthrough - finally they have eaten hard feed this morning out of the rubber buckets. They wouldn't eat any of the feed previously. This seems to have lifted their spirits somewhat. They found the buckets interesting and although it took them an age to eat the feed, they did seem to enjoy it.

The two that are more friendly were great; lifted their feet and groomed them all over. The others came over and stood right next to me although they still didn't fancy a brush running over them, but they did let me stroke them.

There's just one, the little grulla colt, who won't let me touch him although he did stretch forward to my hand when I was kneeling down and he was only about 2 inches away. He still won't eat the feed but he did find the rubber buckets interesting and was starting to mouth the handles.

Another thing I did was put some feed in lots of spots in the round bale so they have been snuffling around in there to find the bits of feed.

It's odd because they aren't at all afraid of noise or things being thrown about - I brought some straw down to bed their barn down and threw it over the fence and they were all straight over to see what it was. They even came in the barn when I was fluffing it out. I can throw the buckets over the fence and they aren't spooky in the slightest and nothing seems to frighten them - they just look sad.

This is the brightest I've seen them - so tomorrow hopefully they will be as enthusiastic with their feed again.
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Ahhh, that's good news. If they are interested in the rubber buckets, maybe leave them in there and let them play with those. Harv used to love slinging his around whenever it was left in his stable or the field.
 
Are these the ones you bought at the auction? Maybe it has just been a massive shock for them all? Have you checked to see that they have not got a virus or something like that?

Poor little things, I would think it is just going to take a bit of time for them to get over it. You don't know how much they have been handled in the past either, maybe this is the closest they have go to humans?
 
I know this sounds odd, but would it be worth running a blood test on just one of them to see if they've got/had anything (on the premise that if one has, they all probably will).
I find weaning foals early makes them sad....I don't wean mine til about 9 months or whenever they're ready...perhaps they were weaned early?
Do you have any older youngsters (yearlings and 2yo's) that could go out with them to give them some oomph?
Or maybe they just don't want to live with you
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Harv; I did leave the buckets in the field previously but they didn't pay any attention to them unfortunately.

DD; yes you're right, they were unhandled before coming here. I very much doubt they would have had much to do with humans before as they were running the range.

Shilasdair; maybe they don't want to live with me; but one thing's for sure, they wouldn't have found anywhere quite as nice for many miles around my area, so it's the best place available for them.

They're perfectly healthy looking; have been wormed; are gaining weight nicely and looking nice and muscley; coats are shiny. The grullo was only 2 months old when he came here and the rest were only 4 months old, so yes they were weaned very young, as per usual for over here. I also don't wean my foals until they are about 9 months; actually I don't forcibly wean at all; I leave it to nature......and their mothers.
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With foals like this the only way is to bring them inside every day and handle them in a stable, after a couple of times you find they lose their fear and yo can stop and itch them outside.
They sound like they have been pretty traumatised and only time will allow them to settle as you already said.
We had one filly who has been different t the rest in that she was withdrawn too, even the others didn't seem to communicate with her much She recently injured herself and has had to allow us to break through her indifference, now she is so much friendlier as a result.
You always seem to get through to your lot eventually despite any problems, just keep trying.
 
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