What do I do with bogof foal at weaning? Thoughts?

[maya2008]

So far I have these options:
1) Wean at ours, hope we have enough land to get through the winter. I can separate for weaning and she loves Auntie more than Mum anyway. Would ideally need to put them all together at some point but not sure when baby would be big enough to do this. Land gets boggy over the winter in places, my two younger ones hurt themselves fooling around last year.
2) Wean then send away to either:
- our land an hour away (would need to find a freelancer to check regularly but the lady next door has a freelancer who is good so could ask her). Would need to find her a friend.
- I could ask if the farm our older youngsters came from would do youngstock livery. They breed and their youngsters live a really good life. She would have friends to play with and lots of space.
3) Sell her (who would want a small foal of unknown breeding to make unknown height???).

Long-term, if we keep her at weaning, we don’t have space for both of them. Either mum or baby need to find a new home eventually. We were going to back mum and get her going, then see. If she takes to ridden life well, she is older, so easier to find a home for.

I know I have until the winter to figure this out, but really not sure. Part, I guess, is the extra cost of youngstock livery and the worry of finding somewhere that has ponies (she is tiny, the size of a large dog). I would love her to grow up with friends, but don’t want her to get hurt.

 

[ihatework]

I would see if you could stretch to the youngstock livery for a year or so.
Get mum going, decide if you want to keep or sell her. If you want to keep then sell baby as a yearling who has had a nice weaning and years horsey socialisation. If you sell the mum then baby could come back as a yearling/2yo

 

[milliepops]

what IHW said. unless you can get at least twice daily checks on your other land and would have time to do the bits of handling needed to make regular care hassle free (feet, worming etc). My case study of 2 is that young horses get themselves into mischief for no reason whatsoever and I would not be happy with just daily checks. Livery might well work out cheaper and less mentally taxing.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Another vote for the youngstock livery option.

 

[paddy555]

if baby, mum and auntie are all happy together ATM and mum is both young and healthy then I wouldn't do anything. I would leave them together and let mum kick her off IDC and when winter comes if mum loses condition give her a bit of feed. Let them sort the problem themselves. You can gradually take mum out for work and auntie will babysit whilst mum is away. You can take the foal out for work and mum and auntie will be happy and foal learn to leave mum and then go back.
Baby left with mum and auntie is unlikely to get hurt, if the land gets poached reduce the area and give some hay. Cost is very little and the worry factor even less.

That is what I tried to do with my semi feral mare and BOGOF. It was working very well and would have easily worked longterm but in the end I had to separate mare and foal because the mare was late 20's and physically couldn't get enough feed into her. She had been a starvation case when she arrived 5 months in foal.

ETA bearing in mind these are moorland type ponies it intrigues me why people would pay for youngstock livery for anything up to a year. I wonder if it will be easy to find youngstock livery with similar size ponies to avoid a little one getting hurt with larger ponies/horses.

 

[sport horse]

No doubt take the youngstock livery option if you can.

 

[Spotherisk]

Don’t wean her, just leave them as they are. She will be less and less interested in her dam and it’s stress free.

 

[JJS]

I’d also leave her with mum. It’s inexpensive and stress free for all involved. Plus, one dog-sized pony probably isn’t going to make much of a difference to your land come winter ??‍

 

[Rowreach]

Yup, leave them be. And relax.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

I am in the leave them together camp

 

[Kaylum]

Youngsters livery a young foal needs to play and learn about horse things. The mare is often not bothered about playing. An even better way is to have two mare and foals together.