Would you buy...

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Hemirjtm

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an orphaned foal??

I've been lookin around and found a charity that takes on orphaned foals and french trotters that couldn't compete because they canter
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Although i'm not looking for one just yet, have to wait until we move, i was just wondering what your thoughts were. The reason i ask is because i know some people wouldn't because it has been had reared, this doesnt bother me, but it does bother other people
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Yes we have decided NOT to put our mare into foal and instead but a foal/youngster as we have looked at all the risks, the fact it may possibly never be what we want it to be...and have taken on all your ideas/thoughts on our situation
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We are also not going to sell Hemi just yet as our partnership is going from strength to strength
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Thanks everyone for you lovely comments, my confidence is really coming back now and i feel better than i have done in a LONG, LONG time
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I wouldn't have any objection to buying an orphaned foal! Can't say I know much about the ins and outs of it tho!
 
A girl at my old yard had a horse that was orphaned and hand reared as a foal. She was very nice but couldn't really interact with other horses very well, and unfortunately ended up being fatally kicked in the field as she didn't really socialise with other horses.
 
I wouldn't discount an orphaned foal - it's six of one and half a dozen of the other as they say! Some hand reared foals become so humanised that they have very little respect for us tiny people and can be a handful while others are very affectionate. It all comes down to the early handling and discipline and that is the same whether they were reared on a mare or on a bottle
 
I think a lot of people are put off hand-reared foals because they have been humanised too much. They often dont realise that they aren't human, and dont know their own strength. The human rearer often molly-coddles them and doesnt discipline them sufficiently - resulting in bolshy, bad-mannered little horsies!
I'd have one though!
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The only hand reared foal i have come across was very bulshy and difficult and it was hand reared by a professional. It totally depends on the foal, spend a bit of time with it before making a decision.
 
I was left with a foal to hand-rear when her mum tragically died. We couldn't find a foster mum, so it was left to me. Our vet stressed that she had to know she was a horse and not a human, otherwise they can turn into monsters when they are fully grown - with no respect for their human handlers and no idea how to interact with other horses. I was very lucky in that we had an older gelding who had been raised in a huge mixed herd and he basically adopted her and acted like a mum - looking after her in the field, but telling her what was and wasn't acceptable behaviour. My only role was to feed her, apart from that she relied on him totally. She is now 4 and a half and is the coloured in my sig - her adopted "mum" is the grey. She is very affectionate, but certainly knows she is a horse - albeit a typical cheeky coloured cob. She is still very fond of the grey pony, even though she is somewhat bigger than him now! Look into how the foal has been hand-reared, before you take the plunge - if it has been too humanised, you could be in for trouble.
Here is a piccie of her as a foal with her "mum"
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