The mare I adopted is due any day if not tonight. Brought her home yesterday. If she foals before I can get her gentled should I give her a month and continue as usual or wait until she’s weaned? If so how the heck am I supposed to wean a wild horse? This is the day before I picked her up.
Start now. Great of you to get her
Absolutely. Start now, otherwise she may never let you near her or her foal. What if something went wrong during foaling and you needed a vet? How would anyone handle her? On the other hand you could hope for the best, let her foal and then start working with the foal. Maybe if she sees her good you are with the baby she may decide to trust you. Either way, slow and steady is always the way. Think about this - these horses are basically from Mars. They know nothing of the world our domesticated animals live in. Present all things quietly and firmly - no nonsense. I used to joke with my friends that I could have worn a clown outfit every day to the barn and my mustang would have shrugged and figured oh well because that’s all she knew. Good luck - hoping for a cute baby.
Where does your mustang come from?
Start Now. Slow, patient and gentle. If she panics, back off, you’ve gone too fast. It would be great if she learns
to trust you before baby is born otherwise she may teach baby to be untrusting of humans. And that’s bad.
Many many years ago at a place I worked at we ended up with a feral mare with a 2-day-old filly at her side. Employees spent many hours with the mare, sitting with a feed pan in their laps, to try and gentle her down. She quickly became used to us, and allowed us to handle the foal without concern. Never did win her over-- sadly this is one of those horses I look back at and wish I knew then what I know now. However, to the point, the filly was no trouble with people, easily halter broke (with mom in pen) and later on, at weaning time, we ran mom out, separated them with panels, and put them both with their buddies. Had no trouble with weaning. Broke out the filly when she was old enough. She was tiny, but a friendly, happy little horse. So good luck! It can be done! Agree with all the advice above, that if you start now (and if she has a halter on), you should be able to get great lengths done in a few days, and while she might not be super gentle, she also won’t be aggressive when the time comes. Have you started any unhandled mustangs before?
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