6 Month Old Not Yet Weaned - Looking for Advice

[Sporthorse_Shop]

My colt, well now gelding, turned 6 months old at the end of November. I am in AZ, so shelter is a large shade with stalls made of panels. To give his mom a break from him, I started this at 4 months, they go in separate stalls during the day. He can nurse through the panels if mom will let him. They go out with other horses at night.

My problem is, his mom is almost 6 months pregnant, reconfirmed the pregnancy last month. She eats about 4-5 alfalfa flakes and 2 bermuda a day (she never finishes all of her hay, this is my estimate minus what remains) along with 15 lbs TC Growth and 1 lb TC 30% supplement. It takes her all day to finish the TC. Despite all this, she is ribby. Her son looks great, he was a bit chunky, but it seems to come and go with the growth spurts.

I have been reading the articles regarding the emotional aspect of weaning at different ages and wanted to try to leave him with her as long as possible. However, should I just go ahead and wean? The other thought is I could put them on opposite schedules, ie he is in when she is out and vice versa. He could still nurse through the panels if she allows it. Or will that just cause more problems? Or will nature sort this out and she will dry up due to the pregnancy?

[secuono]

He’s fat and in good health. She is skinny, pregnant and risking the health of the unborn horse.
I would wean 100%.

[JB]

As long as he’s nursing, she will continue to produce milk.

He’s old enough to wean, especially given the situation.

[VirginiaBred]

Your timing is perfect! Six months of age is best and according to the signs, December 24th - 27th will be the last weaning days for 2014.

Good luck!

[gumtree]

We wean between 4 & 5 month at the longest. Have weaned between 3 & 4 for reasons. We also have at least 3-4 that are weaned together. Have never dealt with a single weaner and wouldn’t want to. Though I am sure plenty have but I would like to think the single weaner is placed with an older “baby sitter” not just thrown into a paddock by itself. This IMO may/would cause emotional issues. Again I have never done this so I have no experience to state this is an “absolute”. Personally I would never breed a single foal that couldn’t be weaned and taken somewhere and boarded with others its own age for a couple of months. IMO weaners and or foals for that matter need to interact/play and learn from those of their own age. Horses are heard animals buy nature and everyone in the heard plays a part. Even the solitary “heard stallion” in the wild.
The OP didn’t say how old and how many foals the mare has had. IME some mares that have a bit of age and or have had a number of foals and or ones that are just skinny by nature like some people remain ribby after foaling. You are certainly throwing enough feed at her as long as the foal is not eating the majority. IME most mares after a certain amount of time has passed will “protect” their bucket from their kid. Some much more so then others. We give foals their own bucket next to their momma’s starting around 3 months they will still try and eat out of their mother’s but soon find it is easier to use their own.

We wean by taking the mares out of the paddock/field and leaving the weaners in the place they know best. At 5 month or even 4 months there is little to no drama from either. Especially the mares. The weaners generally will walk the fence whinnying a bit but it usually doesn’t last more than a couple of days. They are not nearly as vocal as the ones we have weaned closer to 3 months. We have to close our bedroom windows but they soon go “horse”. Which I am sure is where the term came from.

It is easy to anthropomorphize, humanize the process, I still do a bit. When I first started breeding I read a lot of stuff. Most of which I never found to be as “true” set in stone as the authors make it out to be after breeding and raising a couple hundred. I “tested” imprinted because we have the number to do so. IME never made a difference. Nor does interacting on a daily bases other than brief interacting when feeding and checking for “things”. We don’t do any sort of “lead training” until close to weaning time. They learn quite quickly IME. I used to wean by the “signs” but haven’t for a long time. Never found it to make any difference. To each their own on this.

So that’s’ the long of it. The short is the same as others have said. Wean the bugger. At 6 months the foal will have no emotional issues and I guarantee his momma is more than ready to be done with him. She may give the “obligatory” whinny especially if she does not have other friends to hang out with.

All of the above is based entirely on working with Thoroughbreds only.

[Lynnwood]

Gumtree’s suggestion of a safe tolerant buddy is how we’ve handled any of our singleton’s over the years. Usually one of our retired geldings. We introduce the soon to be new buddy a few days /weeks in advance move them in the stall next to them. / Adjoining pasture fence.

As far as if the foal is pulling the mare down and is in good health wean.

[camohn]

We wean at 6 months most of the time. As noted: not alone, leave kiddo where he is comfortable and move mom.

[exvet]

I recently weaned my (then) 8 month old colt (actually gelding). I too had worked up to it by separating he and mom at feeding times. I started by taking mom away and putting her in a turn out at the other end of the property and adding an older gelding in with the colt (gelding has been used as a babysitter before). There has been little issue. Both mare and colt are doing fine. Older gelding wondering what the hell he did to deserve babysitting duty again but all is well.

[khall]

I have mostly had singletons over the years, weaned with everything from 2 yr old to aged gelding, to older mare. This year I waited until my filly was 9 months + for various reasons but dam and filly both looked great. Weaned filly with older mare and now older gelding who will play with her. Will more than likely try my big gelding with her as well so she can go out with both geldings next year routinely (I have one young mare who is a bully so do not want to try her out with the filly). Filly and dam were pretty bonded and they have called to each other more than any foal in recent past, but both are sensible and doing well now at a week out. I would wean now, have weaned as early as 4 months, usually though 5-6 months and foals did just fine. Just have a good baby sitter for your foal, whether it is a good gelding or mare, does not matter.

[can_t_re]

Six months is a good age to wean. I prefer not to do it much sooner. How is he in the herd? Is he pretty independent of his mother?

[Sporthorse_Shop]

Thanks for all the replies. He is turned out with his mom, another mare and an older gelding during the night (about 12 hours). I noticed in the past week he is starting to follow the gelding around (and the gelding is interacting with him) and only goes to his mom to nurse and groom. Although he has groomed with the other mare. Between that and him being in his own pen during the day he is essentially half weaned. I can easily walk him around out of his mom’s sight as well without him being concerned. So, it looks like I will wean this week.

Forgot to add, mare is coming 15 and the pregnancy is her third. She is of the body type that should be round (wide build, wells sprung ribs, big hind end) so seeing the ribs is concerning. She also stopped eating the final month of the last pregnancy (I think due to this colt being big) and I would like to go into this one’s final month extra fat.

[VirginiaBred]

Wait until Christmas Eve if you can.

[equinelover4ever]

[QUOTE=VirginiaBred;7895032]
Wait until Christmas Eve if you can.[/QUOTE]

Why? The mare is going downhill NOW. He’s 6 months old. Why wait a day longer?

[Cindy_s_Warmbloods]

I would wean now as well. The mare is going downhill and it will take a while to pick up, 3 weeks can make a difference! I have never weaned “by the signs” and all of mine have been stress free and easy so I wouldn’t hesitate.

[VirginiaBred]

@equinelover4ever

Why? The mare is going downhill NOW. He’s 6 months old. Why wait a day longer?

Good article to look over - [B]http://horse-journal.com/article/ite…of-horses-5364

[/B]OP can of course do what they want, but frequently the foal isn’t the culprit.

[JB]

While I agree that if a mare is loosing weight, assuming no health problems/teeth/deworming/etc, then she’s not getting enough calories.

However, it’s not always possible to get a mare to eat enough calories to meet the needs in these high-demand situations.

Even that article is calling “delayed” weaning 6 months or older, and that’s where this foal is now.

[VirginiaBred]

I completely agree that six months is the best time to wean.

[siegi_b]

You’ve certainly received lots of good suggestions and I, too, agree that your colt is ready to be weaned, especially since he also has a buddy.

The other thing I would strongly suggest is changing your mare’s diet a bit in order to help her gain back some of the weight she’s lost. Specifically I would reduce the amount of TC Growth she gets and up the 30% ration balancer, i. e. give her two to three pounds of of the TC 30% and 2 lbs of TC Growth twice a day, in addition to all the hay she will eat. I am willing to bet that within two months your mare will look good again and you’ll even be able to cut down her ration to 2 lbs of TC 30% and 1 lb of TC Growth until early next spring.

Good luck and keep us posted on your success!

[JB]

[QUOTE=siegi b.;7899555]

The other thing I would strongly suggest is changing your mare’s diet a bit in order to help her gain back some of the weight she’s lost. Specifically I would reduce the amount of TC Growth she gets and up the 30% ration balancer, i. e. give her two to three pounds of of the TC 30% and 2 lbs of TC Growth twice a day, in addition to all the hay she will eat. I am willing to bet that within two months your mare will look good again and you’ll even be able to cut down her ration to 2 lbs of TC 30% and 1 lb of TC Growth until early next spring. [/QUOTE]

I’m curious why you’d recommend reducing the higher cal/lb feed and adding more of a lower cal/lb feed, for gaining weight

6lb of TC 30 is too much, unless she’s just a ginormous mare. I personally think she’d be a lot better off with 3-4lb of the Growth 3-4 times a day. That’s a lot more calories than the TC30.

[_Tradewind]

@gumtree;7893216

We wean between 4 & 5 month at the longest. Have weaned between 3 & 4 for reasons. We also have at least 3-4 that are weaned together.

So that’s’ the long of it. The short is the same as others have said. Wean the bugger. At 6 months the foal will have no emotional issues and I guarantee his momma is more than ready to be done with him. She may give the “obligatory” whinny especially if she does not have other friends to hang out with.

Perhaps there was a good reason, but why would someone ever wean a foal at 3 months??

It’s not the emotional issues I’d be concerned about as much as the physical ones - the article VirginiaBred posted shows significant physical differences between foals weaned at 4.5 versus 6 months (cannon bone circumference and bone density). I also read a study recently which found that weaning later (6-8 months) is associated with a lower risk of bone and joint problems.