I’ll second everyone else saying that most horses are freaked out by foals, or at least very interested in them
I also leased a horse that was as close to bombproof as you can get but found small children very alarming. I didn’t totally blame him 
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I figure most horses have seen other foals very early in life.
Walk a weanling down a barn aisle and it’s exactly like taking a baby to the office. All the old geldings come out to coo! Mares may have more complex reactions including wondering where momma is and if she’s about to chase them off.
My mares are fascinated by minis and I think there’s an uncanny thing happening. The minis are smaller than foals but smell and act like adult horses. Does not compute.
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I’m sure your horse is fine!
My gelding gave a BO a hard time exactly once. She was trying to walk him past a paddock with a newly arrived foal. BO reported that my horse was so terrified that she was sure there was a coyote or some other threat nearby. But no. He was concerned about the foal. She got him closer to the foal’s fence. Foal tried to say hello. My horse tried to say goodbye.
He was totally fine with the foal after that incident.
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One of the barns we were at had a free roaming mini and Charlie was super cool with her, even upon first introductions. This spring we were at a show and there was a mini being ridden by a teeny child. Charlie definitely took notice of that! I don’t think he expected to see a person…albeit a small one, on a mini. He was the one staring then!
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You know how some people absolutely lose it when there is a puppy or a kitten around? “oh my GOODNESS what a BABY aren’t you so precious just look at you!!!”
Horses do the same thing. I kept my mare at a breeding facility for several years. Some horses genuinely didn’t have a care in the world. Others would go “oh, baby, ho-hum, as you were”. And some always had to go “!!! LOOK! it’s a BABY! LOOK AT IT!!!” In my experience I haven’t found that it particularly relates to being herdbound in any way. (My mare is obsessed with foals but not herdbound in the slightest.)
Some horses are fascinated/somewhat disconcerted by foals, some horses have a pressing urge to investigate (want to interact/socialize with) foals, some horses acknowledge then move on, and some of course just don’t care in the least.
It’s normal. Added point: Depending on how recent the weaning is, if the foal is making baby distress sounds, that can get other horses going sometimes. Again, very normal. I typically would liken this to when someone hears a kid crying. Some people can ignore it, others (parent or not, invested or not) still get a little stressed by the sound. Weaning was a tough time at former barn for a few days. It’s very normal.
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Reading all thread and thinking: we horse people are absolutely crazy lol, we spend our time/Money/energy in living with huge and strong animals who are scared of almost everything and absolutely impredictable
Going back to the topic our mare is one of the : Look there’s a baby!!! Oooooh isn’t It cute???
Gelding n.1 couldn’t care less, Gelding n. 2 would be scared AF and loose it completely
So your mare is just being a normal, crazy as a horse, horse
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we had one of our Morgans at an introduction to horses breed expo, there was a presentation of all the breeds in the main coliseum by alphabetical order Morgans followed Miniatures… our mare’s eyes nearly popped out of her head when she saw that miniature.
A few years later our son bought two minis the gelding is 6h, he is white which causes confusion as our Great Pyrenees is taller than he, given a glance it is hard to tell which is which, more than once we thought dog was in the horse pasture only to figure out it was the miniature
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My Haflinger made a show jumper fall down once. The horse (who always gave my gelding side eye) was kept up in the show barn, but was down in the arena during a lesson when we meandered by along the road beside the arena. My Haffie has some pretty extreme pangare coloring (in fact if you Google “Haflinger” and “pangare” he is usually the first one to pop up in images) particularly in the winter when his very white belly and legs are a stark contrast to his chestnut coat. The horse was even on the other side of the arena cantering around. Next thing I see is the trainer pelting across the arena and the horse just getting up having caught sight of my gelding and flung himself down at the ground.
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Well that sounds like it escalated quickly!! Oh my!
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Like i said, that particular horse always gave my gelding side eye when he saw him standing in one place, so I guess the fact that the freaky-looking multi-toned pony was headed by must have really thrown him for a loop.
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One of my ponies absolutely loved foals. He was on pasture board after I moved him to South Carolina, and the BO bred a couple of her mares. His pasture shared a fenceline with two of the mares, and he would hang out as close to them as he could get once the foals came. I don’t know his background at all as he came through a rescue. He was in his mid to late teens when I got him, and somewhere in his 30s when we all moved. It was really cute to watch him watching the babies.
Rebecca
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My old appy, who was pretty unfriendly and intolerant of other horses on the whole, just adored foals. And they loved him back… I remember watching a young one who was across the fence line from him with its mom bring over a mouthful of her hay and drop it through the fence for him one day.
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Previous next-door neighbor had a pretty Arabian mare and foal. Somehow the mare spooked and ran through their electric fence and mine. My mare is obsessed with foals, promptly blocked my gelding from going near the foal and tried to steal it from the Arabian mare. It was quite a thing separating them and getting the Arabian and foal back to her own pasture.
My mare also protected my minis from my gelding the one time they got loose in the big horse pasture. My gelding is fine with them, just my mare went mare-turnal on him!
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My boy, who has been showing all of the 16 years I’ve owned him just about lost it over a mule… It was an all breed show. The mule was standing in the middle of the warm up. Wasn’t an issue until we got close enough to smell him, I think. Much snorting ensued
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My mare starts with a subtle eye-twitch. THEN she locks her eyes on the scary thing. Then her eyes grow to three times their normal size. Then her head goes up. Then she snorts. Then her tail goes up. Then she takes 3-5 large steps backwards.
So concludes the progression of her spook. I can usually spot it at the eye twitch stage these days after having her for a year 
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At big camp-out poker ride I was at once, the trail into the camp went by a row of pens, and in one was a donkey. You could just stand there and watch as each horse and rider came down the trail into camp and the horse had a little fit --and sometimes not so little-- about passing that donkey. About every horse. They should have had a warning sign: DONKEY AHEAD.
I think the donkey smirked.
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My 20 yo mare went bonkers last year when the BO’s mare foaled. She literally was like flying a kite if she caught sight of the foal. It took about 2 weeks before she quit deeming the foal to be an alien. And she had been around foals before. I don’t know what registered in her little pea brain but she did get over it.
The excitement made for some good pictures though.
Said foal is on the other side of the fence (and luckily with a corridor between the pens.
Susan
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Super up horses do make for gorgeous pictures. Your mare is no exception!
Yes…not the old ladies regular demeanor.
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I had a lovely, level headed mare that I took on an organized ride. She about lost her mind when a person rode up behind us on a TWH. That just did not sound right to her and she was convinced said horse was an alien or worse.
Same horse was invited to show at the local donkey and mule show as she was fine with them right off the bat.
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