Sorry foal questions.........

[LoopyLouise]

well Solli is now just over 4 months old and is standing at 13 hands what size do you think he will make? His mum is 16.2 dad unknown.

Also some people say I should wean him at six months and others have said to let mum do it??

 

[ggray1502]

Not sure about the height question but as for the weaning it depends what you are wanting to do.

If you want to sell the foal or start riding the mare you should think about weaning. But if not you can leave them.

I left my mare Rosie with her mum till she was nearly a year old, it was great no fuss one day just took mum out of field to the stallion again. Rosie now has a 4 month old foal at foot and I am planning to wean them in spring, I am not selling Bailey and not in a rush to start riding her again (want to have her back, teeth etc and muscle built up before getting on her again). In my experience there has been no stress for either of them but again we arent in a rush. If I had been selling Bailey he would have been weaned at 6months

 

[LoopyLouise]

Thanks for the reply I think I will just let mum wean Solli like you I have no plans of selling Solli at the moment and no rush in getting mum ready to be ridden. I have the others for that.

I have a feeling that he will be a big lad height and width wise.

 

[ggray1502]

No worries Bailey is going to be huge I think standing at 13.3-14.1 already and is only 4months old. My two have already started weaning themselves, I have been doing a lot of ground work with mine and it is making such a difference so will prob keep doing that for a while.

 

[Enfys]

Hi,

No idea on the height thing I am afraid, a favourite saying here is "He'll be as big as he gets"

As for weaning, it is such an individual thing, how the foal is looking, facilities, herds etc. If your mare is in good condition coming into winter, she isn't in foal again, and you have no plans to start work again, then I, too, would leave them together.

I wean colts at various ages, depending on the above. One mare looks like a hatrack because she feeds her foals so well and I take her colts off at 5 months or by the start of October at the latest. Another I have just weaned at 6 months because the mare is in foal, if she hadn't been she is such a tank of a mare that I would have left him on her.