“Breeders who wean by the astrological signs still utilize one of the methods listed…but they’ll let the astrological signs determine when they will wean.”
“The foals stay quiet and don’t run a lot this way, and the mares seem to worry even less than the foals,” he explains. At Rainbow Equus Meadows, they also generally wait until the foals are six months old before weaning to reduce the stress on the foals and to allow for the weather to begin cooling off. Combined interval and incomplete separation is another
Two happy weaned foals at First Flight Farm in Texas.
five to ten days, until ultimately the separation becomes per- manent. While this is considered to be one of the least stress- ful methods of weaning, it is also the most labor intensive and time consuming and is therefore less common. Incomplete separation is similar to immediate separa-
tion except that the newly separated mares and foals will share a common fence. This allows them to see, hear and communicate with each other, but the foal will not be able to nurse. The foal is free to run off and play with his buddies and build his confidence and independence, but when he wants the comfort of his mother he can still find her. Assuming of course that the mare isn’t so glad to be free of her youngster that she retreats to the far side of the field and won’t answer the whinnies of her foal! Mo Swanson breeds Hanoverians and Oldenburgs (GOV)
at her Rolling Stone Farm in Pennsylvania. She has large foal crops—26 foals in 2014—and uses the incomplete separation method. She weans all of the foals at the same time after Dressage at Devon, usually in the beginning of October. “By then all of the foals are eating grain out of their mothers’ feed buckets and are pretty independent, playing most of the day with their friends and only coming to mom for an occasional quick drink,” says Mo. “The foals can see their mothers and stand next to them on the other side of the fence, but they cannot nurse through the fence. This method cuts down on the frantic screaming of both mares and foals that complete separation can sometimes bring. After a while the foals get hungry enough to leave the fence line and wander over to a feed bucket. The dams are pretty much over the removal of their foal more quickly.” Edgar Schutte, who owns and manages Rainbow Equus
Meadows in California uses a variation of the incomplete separation method. “We used to leave the mares in pastures next to the mares, but we found the foals had a tendency to want to jump back in with the mares,” he recalls. Their new approach is to wean in groups of two or three—putting the mares in stalls with windows overlooking a corral, and putting the foals in the corral next to the stalls/windows. This way the foals and mares can see each other, but the foals can’t nurse.
choice. These two are considered by many experts to be the least stressful methods of weaning, and combining them can reduce the stress even further. As with the interval weaning method, the biggest drawback is the additional time and work involved. Weaning by the astrological signs involves the phases of the moon and the moon’s correlation with the signs of the Zo- diac. The moon cycles are believed to be at their calmest when they correlate to the signs of the Zodiac for the lower body, sometimes referred to as “when the blood is in the feet.” These Zodiac signs are Sagittarius (thighs), Aquarius (legs), Capricorn (knees) and Pisces (feet.) Each year the Farmer’s Almanac pub- lishes the best days of each month to wean by the astrological signs, and the recommended dates for the current month are published on their website
farmersalmanac.com. Breeders who wean by the astrological signs still utilize one of the methods listed above, but they’ll let the astrologi- cal signs determine when they will wean.
Early Weaning Sometimes it isn’t possible to wait until a foal is at least four months old to wean. Foals and/or mares may be injured, requiring separation, and in some sad situations mares die and nurse mares aren’t available. Sometimes it may be desirable to separate the foal from the mare as soon as pos- sible because the mare has vices or bad behaviors you don’t want the foal to learn, such as cribbing or wood chewing. And sometimes the foal needs to be weaned early for the sake of the mare—if you’re unable to keep weight on the mare, for example. In these cases one of the weaning methods mentioned
earlier will still be utilized, but the mare and foal should be monitored even more closely. In the case of an orphan foal, the raising process becomes infinitely more difficult (par- ticularly in the early stages), as it is far beyond the scope of simply weaning.
Final Thoughts Although weaning can be stressful to horses and humans alike, the good news is that both mares and foals will usu- ally settle into the new routine in a few days. With some of the methods outlined above there will be almost no anxiety or stress at all. Before you know it your foal will be an inde- pendent, happy weanling ready to mature and learn how to be a horse.
Warmbloods Today 61
Courtesy Trivia Veley
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