Saturday morning one of the mares at our barn had her first baby. She was about 3 weeks early, and we hadn’t put her up in the barn yet. She had foaled out in the pasture, but everything went fine. Except that she won’t let the little guy drink!
The vet came out to give him his shots and stuff, and they had to sedate the mare just to let baby nurse. He said that sometimes the maiden mares are less than affectionate at first, and that she would come around fast enough. I have seen that before, but usually they come around pretty quickly!
Well, it is now Monday, and she still couldn’t care less about him… We have to hold her in order for baby to drink. If baby approaches her whenever we are not holding her, she chases him away, bites him and threatens to kick.
As long as he stays out of her way she is fine though… He seems to realize this too, and basically stays out of her way, until he sees us holding her and he will run over and drink. It kinda worries me that he already connects people=food! at this young age 
He should really be bonding to his mom, not us.
I have never seen a mare this mean to her own foal, will she come around?? Is there anything else we can do to make her more accepting?
Might just be easier to essentially treat him as an orphan, find a foster mare or start on teaching to drink from the igloo milk cooler. Are you just able to hold her in the open and she will let him nurse, or do you have to restrain/sedate her in any way? If it is just a matter of holding her and she is fine, I would attempt to try and rig up a tie stall idea where she is immobile and he can reach under to nurse but she can’t kick him for atleast the nightime hours when you might not be around enough to hold and give them a bit longer together and see what happens.
) so hopefully it will help with make her feel a little bit better about being a mom. Nursing actually causes the release of oxytocin, but giving a little bit upfront may help. Talk to your vet about it.
