Hello! So this winter me and my family are adopting two nurse mare foals from Last Chance Corral. We have raised foals before but always with the mother. Are there any tips anyone can possibly give to us to be best prepared for these little blessings? Thank you so much! Any help is much appreciated.
I would probably cross post this in the breeding forum. They know more about foal care. You might want to include the approximate ages of the foals you are adopting for ‘targeted’ information.
They’re just like any other orphan. Get them out in a herd for social interaction, be sure to treat them like horses instead of stuffed toys and feed them appropriately with foal pellets or a quality growth formula, depending on their age.
Have fun!
I have raised multiple orphans. Put them with an quiet and gentle pony/horse. Listen to the advice of those who have raised orphans regarding how to feed them and follow it. Have a good vet. Be prepared to deal with things like diarrhea that require medications to be given many times a day. You may become an expert on foal diarrhea.
THE MOST IMPORTANT PART: They are not pets. Do NOT over handle them. Do not treat them like cute puppies. Other than monitoring their health and weight, medicating them, teaching basic manners and providing farrier/vet care you should leave them alone. As much as possible, allow another horse to raise them.
It is really difficult (impossible for some) for people to believe, but attempting to “bond with” an orphan foal or treat it like a pet is a big mistake. They need to be raised by their own species, even if not by their own mother.
The Last Chance Corral website has a lot of good information about feeding, handling, etc. I know they are also happy to answer specific questions. I’m sure they can also put in touch with repeat adopters as well.
I boarded briefly at a barn that adopted 4. Sadly, the general care, and knowledge of the management was very poor (which is why I boarded there for only a very short time) but I believe hearing after I left that one of the four had died. However, I think with proper management and care, the chance of raising a healthy horse is fairly good. The downside is you don’t know the breeding of the foal, so you have no idea what it’ll grow up into (gaited, draft cross, QH type, etc).
If you are experienced with handling and taking care of horses, and preferably with raising young ones, I think you’ll be fine. LCC doesn’t bottle feed, so a lot of the issues associated with raising orphans doesn’t apply here. Give them vet care, proper feed and environment, and some older “uncles” to mentor them, and you should be fine.
Thank you so much! This is really helpful. We have a really old mare that had one baby a long time ago. We think she will be a great teacher.
Thank you so much! We are preparing our barn and gathering supplies so I believe we will be in good shape to give them a good home. Thank you so much!
Just for a bit of clarity, since it’s October almost November, are you just getting a pair of weanlings who happen to have been bred by a nurse mare farm? It seems a bit late in the year to be getting “orphan” foals.
Most 2016 colts are weaned by now, even the summer ones.
I can’t speak for when LCC has foals available, but typically nurse mares are bred to foal at the same time as TBs so that should a TB mare die or reject her foal there would be a nurse mare available. Nurse mare foals stay with their own dam until the mare is needed for another foal. So I would expect that the first nurse mare foals would be available late Jan or early Feb.
One other point–LCC has a lot of good information about raising orphans on their website, HOWEVER, their information regarding why there are nurse mare foals available to begin with is inaccurate. TB mares are NEVER separated from their babies (and their babies given to nurse mares) for the purpose of re-breeding. Nurse mares are used in the rare and tragic event that a mare dies or rejects her foal. I simply don’t know why LCC hasn’t corrected this information on their website–anyone with two working eyeballs who has ever been on a TB farm anywhere in the US can easily confirm that the fields are full of TB mares taking care of their own babies.
^^^ What she said. LCC are a bunch of lying criminals in my opinion. They haven’t corrected the misinformation on their website because their lies tug on heartstrings and open wallets.
Sorry for the hijack OP, good luck with your foals. I personally would make sure they got a course of gastrogard.
[QUOTE=Simkie;8906797]
They’re just like any other orphan. Get them out in a herd for social interaction, be sure to treat them like horses instead of stuffed toys and feed them appropriately with foal pellets or a quality growth formula, depending on their age.
Have fun![/QUOTE]
Just to add I would keep them with “age appropriate” herd members, which means other youngsters only. Or with your one horse, as long as your old mare is kind to them.
[QUOTE=BeeHoney;8906832]
I have raised multiple orphans. Put them with an quiet and gentle pony/horse. Listen to the advice of those who have raised orphans regarding how to feed them and follow it. Have a good vet. Be prepared to deal with things like diarrhea that require medications to be given many times a day. You may become an expert on foal diarrhea.
THE MOST IMPORTANT PART: They are not pets. Do NOT over handle them. Do not treat them like cute puppies. Other than monitoring their health and weight, medicating them, teaching basic manners and providing farrier/vet care you should leave them alone. As much as possible, allow another horse to raise them.
It is really difficult (impossible for some) for people to believe, but attempting to “bond with” an orphan foal or treat it like a pet is a big mistake. They need to be raised by their own species, even if not by their own mother.[/QUOTE]
Take BeeHoney’s advice.
There is a lot of information online about horses and other large grazing animals which have been raised like pet dogs and the serious problems which can result from this treatment. A scary example is the aggressive stallion in the biographical movie Buck, about the horse trainer Buck Branaman. You can see a smidge of it in the movie trailer and read commentary on CoTH about that stallion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCMm5uoZtXw
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?323589-quot-Buck-quot-movie-question-spoiler-alert
There are threads on CoTH which discuss the issue of raising orphans. Some are listed at the bottom of this page and here are a couple more:
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?140026-5-week-old-orphan-foal-questions
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?428533-quot-Throw-away-quot-foals
Thank you all for the help!
Darn that went poof! quick. A second ago she was getting a pair of 2017 January foals that were being tossed aside so the mares could provide milk for more expensive colts, complete with a link to LCC’s Kool Aid.
[QUOTE=Claire3238;8910912]
We are getting a pair of foals that are tossed aside from their breeders so their moms can provide milk for another, more expensive foal. They are normally born in January so they are still not born yet. At least this is the information I got from Last Chance Corral’s website. http://www.lastchancecorral.org[/QUOTE]
Claire, a lot of that information LCC touts is flat out wrong and just inflammatory.
I commend you for adopting some orphan foals, but it might behoove you to do some research and hear from people who are actually in the racing industry about how the nurse mare thing works. Signing on to and spreading the rather egregious lies that come from LCC doesn’t really help anyone.
We’ve had a lot of good discussion here on this board about it, and there are also some really good articles online. At the most basic level, TB foals are not put on nurse mares when their dams are rebred. Nurse mares are used when a dam dies, or cannot nurse her foal due to illness or temperament.
Edited to add–here is one such article:
https://ayankeeinparis.com/2015/02/22/transparency-in-the-thoroughbred-industry/
Here is another: http://www.paulickreport.com/news/ray-s-paddock/nurse-mares-four-legged-mary-poppins-to-the-rescue/
One of the discussions on this board here: www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?454294-Born-to-Die-Have-you-all-seen-this/
You may want to give this a read, and do a bit of your own research before deciding to work with the particular organization…
Thank you all for the information. I was told about Last Chance Corral by friend and didn’t realize all the controversy with it. I don’t do anything with racing so I didn’t know. I didn’t mean to insult anyone or build on their views or anything. I just know we are getting orphaned foals from them. Wherever they came from is important but more important to me is just their care. Thank you for the responses however, I am sorry to upset anyone. Thank you though.
[QUOTE=Simkie;8910932]
Claire, a lot of that information LCC touts is flat out wrong and just inflammatory.
I commend you for adopting some orphan foals, but it might behoove you to do some research and hear from people who are actually in the racing industry about how the nurse mare thing works. Signing on to and spreading the rather egregious lies that come from LCC doesn’t really help anyone.
We’ve had a lot of good discussion here on this board about it, and there are also some really good articles online. At the most basic level, TB foals are not put on nurse mares when their dams are rebred. Nurse mares are used when a dam dies, or cannot nurse her foal due to illness or temperament.
Edited to add–here is one such article:
https://ayankeeinparis.com/2015/02/22/transparency-in-the-thoroughbred-industry/
Here is another: http://www.paulickreport.com/news/ray-s-paddock/nurse-mares-four-legged-mary-poppins-to-the-rescue/
One of the discussions on this board here: www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?454294-Born-to-Die-Have-you-all-seen-this/[/QUOTE]
I really appreciate you and many others on trying to enlighten me on all the facts. My friend and her family adopted foals from them and so that is how I heard about it. I do not know anything about racing and wasn’t trying to insult or call out anyone, I just want some advice on how to raise our orphaned foals, we are getting them regardless. I am happy that I am now armed with the information about LLC so I know who I am dealing with. Thank you so much for the information and again I apologize if I hurt anyone or offended anyone, that was not AT ALL my intention. Thank you once again. 
