2016 Weaning Dates ~
February 7th - 10th
March 5th - 8th
April 1st - 5th and April 29th - May 2nd
May 26th - 29th
June 22nd - 26th
July 19th - 23rd
August 16th - 19th
September 12th - 16th
October 10th - 13th
November 6th - 9th
December 3rd - 7th and December 30th - January 2nd 2017
could you explain please …
Sure! 
I’m the one responsible for the Weaning Dates (look at the top of this forum where that discussion is pinned). I learned this from very, very respected and experienced Thoroughbred horsemen that have long since passed away, and they learned from ones before them. I’ll post an article following my comments that makes it easier to understand but in a nutshell, it’s a weaning theory started decades ago by cattlemen who would wait until certain moon signs to separate the calves from the cows. Less stressful on both mother and child and less milk was lost by the cow. Less calling by the calves too. Old timey Thoroughbred breeders picked up on it and started using it and found it worked for horses too. I used Thoroughbred Times and Bloodhorse for the dates, along with various other farming publications. The dates are given (usually a four-day span, sometimes more) and you never wean on the last day of the days given.
Weaning your animal when they are six months of age also is beneficial to both mother and child.
Here’s the article:
This explains how “The Signs” works for those of you who wish to learn how to figure the dates yourself.
Weaning by The Signs
"We wean by The Signs if it’s convenient. Many of the farmhands feel better if we do it that way. I guess it’s just like walking under stepladder–you may say that you’re not superstitious, but you’d just as soon not go under it."Those comments, made almost 50 years ago by Preston Madden, owner of historic Hamburg Place in central Kentucky, at the time represented a felling prevalent among a sizable number of horsemen that “The Signs” is one thing that should be considered in deciding when to wean a foal. Many horsemen still feel that way, and even the farm managers who won’t admit to believing in the theory might steal a glance at a Farmer’s Almanac as weaning time approaches in the fall.But what are “The Signs”? And how does a mare owner decipher those odd-looking zodiac symbols in the almanac if he wants to be certain “The Signs” are “right” for weaning?The fundamental principle of astrology is that the moon, sun, planets, and stars somehow are able to exert an influence on events in our everyday lives here on earth. How this might happen is anybody’s guess, but proponents of the pseudoscience are certain that it does happen, and farm managers who wean by “The Signs” usually have substantial anecdotal evidence; they remember entire foal crops weaned by “The Signs” that turned out well, and individuals weaned when “The Signs” were"wrong" that had nothing but problems.
Valid or not, this is how weaning by “The Signs” works:
It takes the moon a little less than 28 days to complete on orbit around the earth, and on any given night during that lunar cycle, the moon appears to be near on of a dozen groups of fixed stars, or constellations. These are the same constellations that make up the 12 signs of the zodiac familiar to anyone who ever has read a horoscope --Pisces, Aries, Taurus, and so on. Two thousand years ago, astrologers assigned each sign of the zodiac to a part of the body. Every 28 days or so, as the moon moves from on constellation to the next, it also moves progressively from one part of the body to another, from the head (Aries), to the neck (Taurus), the arms (Gemini), the breast (Cancer), the heart (Leo), the bowels (Virgo), the kidneys (Libra, the loins (Scorpio), the thighs (Sagittarius), the knees (Capricorn), the legs (Aquarius), the feet (Pisces).The idea is to wait until the moon has moved to a sign (or part of the body) that is below the part of the body you are working on. The thinking gets a little fuzzy here, but the theory says that since you are weaning a foal’s body (apparently without his lower legs) it is best to wait until the moon–and therefore “The Signs”-- is below the knee. To do this, locate a calendar for the month in question, find the little diagrams, representing the signs below the knee (Aquarius for the legs and Pisces for the feet), then locate those two signs on the calendar.The calendar will indicate on which days of the month the mood enters those two signs (although theses dates will differ slightly from the almanac). Weaning supposedly can be done safely on the days when the moon is “in” Aquarius and Pisces (legs and feet).This works out to a 4-day window for “safe” weaning each month, ending when the moon chugs back up to Aries, sign for the head. The actual dates vary from month to month because of the variance between the moon’s regular 28-day cycle and the calendar’s 28-day to 31-day months.
Sure!
I’m the one responsible for the Weaning Dates (look at the top of this forum where that discussion is pinned). I learned this from very, very respected and experienced Thoroughbred horsemen that have long since passed away, and they learned from ones before them. I’ll post an article following my comments that makes it easier to understand but in a nutshell, it’s a weaning theory started decades ago by cattlemen who would wait until certain moon signs to separate the calves from the cows. Less stressful on both mother and child and less milk was lost by the cow. Less calling by the calves too. Old timey Thoroughbred breeders picked up on it and started using it and found it worked for horses too. I used Thoroughbred Times and Bloodhorse for the dates, along with various other farming publications. The dates are given (usually a four-day span, sometimes more) and you never wean on the last day of the days given.
Weaning your animal when they are six months of age also is beneficial to both mother and child.
Here’s the article:
This explains how “The Signs” works for those of you who wish to learn how to figure the dates yourself.
Weaning by The Signs
“We wean by The Signs if it’s convenient. Many of the farmhands feel better if we do it that way. I guess it’s just like walking under stepladder–you may say that you’re not superstitious, but you’d just as soon not go under it.”
Those comments, made almost 50 years ago by Preston Madden, owner of historic Hamburg Place in central Kentucky, at the time represented a felling prevalent among a sizable number of horsemen that “The Signs” is one thing that should be considered in deciding when to wean a foal. Many horsemen still feel that way, and even the farm managers who won’t admit to believing in the theory might steal a glance at a Farmer’s Almanac as weaning time approaches in the fall.
But what are “The Signs”? And how does a mare owner decipher those odd-looking zodiac symbols in the almanac if he wants to be certain “The Signs” are “right” for weaning?
The fundamental principle of astrology is that the moon, sun, planets, and stars somehow are able to exert an influence on events in our everyday lives here on earth. How this might happen is anybody’s guess, but proponents of the pseudoscience are certain that it does happen, and farm managers who wean by “The Signs” usually have substantial anecdotal evidence; they remember entire foal crops weaned by “The Signs” that turned out well, and individuals weaned when “The Signs” were"wrong" that had nothing but problems.
[U]Valid or not, this is how weaning by “The Signs” works:
[/U][I]It takes the moon a little less than 28 days to complete on orbit around the earth, and on any given night during that lunar cycle, the moon appears to be near on of a dozen groups of fixed stars, or constellations. These are the same constellations that make up the 12 signs of the zodiac familiar to anyone who ever has read a horoscope --Pisces, Aries, Taurus, and so on.
[/I][I]Two thousand years ago, astrologers assigned each sign of the zodiac to a part of the body. Every 28 days or so, as the moon moves from on constellation to the next, it also moves progressively from one part of the body to another, from the head (Aries), to the neck (Taurus), the arms (Gemini), the breast (Cancer), the heart (Leo), the bowels (Virgo), the kidneys (Libra, the loins (Scorpio), the thighs (Sagittarius), the knees (Capricorn), the legs (Aquarius), the feet (Pisces).
[/I][I]The idea is to wait until the moon has moved to a sign (or part of the body) that is below the part of the body you are working on. The thinking gets a little fuzzy here, but the theory says that since you are weaning a foal’s body (apparently without his lower legs) it is best to wait until the moon–and therefore “The Signs”-- is below the knee. To do this, locate a calendar for the month in question, find the little diagrams, representing the signs below the knee (Aquarius for the legs and Pisces for the feet), then locate those two signs on the calendar.
[/I]
[I]The calendar will indicate on which days of the month the mood enters those two signs (although theses dates will differ slightly from the almanac). Weaning supposedly can be done safely on the days when the moon is “in” Aquarius and Pisces (legs and feet).
[/I]This works out to a 4-day window for “safe” weaning each month, ending when the moon chugs back up to Aries, sign for the head. The actual dates vary from month to month because of the variance between the moon’s regular 28-day cycle and the calendar’s 28-day to 31-day months.
thanks !
interesting, if it works all the better !
just one other question …
Do you have to start the weaning in these days or can they ‘only’ be included in the weaning period ?
You wean in the days posted and you never wait until the last of those days to wean.
