Kyzeke, the colt was orphaned when he was probably 2-3 months old. His turnout time was definitely alone. I don’t remember if he’s was ultimately turned out with the other weanlings. There were many other colts there through the years that were not nearly the challenge that he was! He was named Taz. After the Tasmanian devil… Lol
My horse was orphaned at 28 days. My employer at the time owned the dam so the days I was working, I bottle fed her. Her companion was a mini donk until I brought her home, where her companions were (and still are) two mini horses.
She just turned 13 years old and is the best horse I have ever had and most likely will ever have. I sure am glad her breeder didn’t have the “put it down, orphans are never any good” philosophy!
Individual personality and how they are raised are two huge factors in the success rate, I’m sure, but I would at least give them a chance! My girl turned out just fine. 
I purchased a TB gelding at the age of 7. In tracking down his breeder, I found out he was an orphan foal. There was nothing about him that lead me to believe he was an orphan foal as he was not pushy, nippy, cocky, etc. He was good in turn out with others and is respectful of humans. He’s now 29.
If after reading all these +/- stories you would be interested in raising an orphan foal, this organization is a rescue for nurse mare foals. They are always looking for fosters, and adoptive families. Located in Southern Ohio, Last Chance Corral is working hard to save these babies. I have a friend who has 4 of these little ones at her home and is loving it. http://www.lastchancecorral.org/
Regarding Last Chance, there was a lengthly discussion about them on the Racing Forum. The rescue maintains that the TB industry “routinely” uses nurse mares for convenience so they can ship & rebreed the TB moms. This is simply NOT true. I worked in the racing world for over a decade and never saw nurse mares used except in the rare instances where the mare died.
My view was supported by a number of other folks who worked at farms and /or bred racing TBs…the moms stayed with their babes if at all possible.
Just want to correct this…there are certainly alot of things that need “fixing” in the racing world, but facts ARE important. Last Chance was contacted by one poster about correcting this statement on their website, but they did not respond.
When I worked for a STB racehorse trainer I took care of a horse that was racing and was an ok race horse. nothing spectacular about his racing but was always getting checks. One day he coliced pretty severely and the owners paid for him to have colic surgery. I was surprised because he was never going to be competitive enough to pay that bill and those owners were very the horses pay their way type of owners with all their other horses. When I asked the trainer he said well that horse was an orphan foal and their daughter raised him. I would have never known. He was respectful on the ground and was never any trouble to deal with. I will say that he might have lacked heart but I didn’t think he was different than anyone else in the barn. When he retired the owners had me start him under saddle and then their daughter took him and ended up showing him low level hunters. He was a great boy and I would have never known that he was an orphan unless I was told.
Now in my younger years I worked at Busch Gardens with the Budweiser Clydesdales, we were where they sent horses that needed time off from the hitch for a vacation but we were also sent a mare and foal every year. WE were sent a mare who had rejected her foal with her foal. He was already started on the bucket. Because of the people that worked there and the rules in place (we were not to discipline the horses infront of guests and most of the people that worked there were not horse people) With no boundaries or rules by the fall this foal was a 800 pound monster!!! I strongly believe that it depends on how they are raised.
[QUOTE=cripplecreekfrm;7576627]
When I worked for a STB racehorse trainer I took care of a horse that was racing and was an ok race horse. nothing spectacular about his racing but was always getting checks. One day he coliced pretty severely and the owners paid for him to have colic surgery. I was surprised because he was never going to be competitive enough to pay that bill and those owners were very the horses pay their way type of owners with all their other horses. When I asked the trainer he said well that horse was an orphan foal and their daughter raised him. I would have never known. He was respectful on the ground and was never any trouble to deal with. I will say that he might have lacked heart but I didn’t think he was different than anyone else in the barn. When he retired the owners had me start him under saddle and then their daughter took him and ended up showing him low level hunters. He was a great boy and I would have never known that he was an orphan unless I was told.
Now in my younger years I worked at Busch Gardens with the Budweiser Clydesdales, we were where they sent horses that needed time off from the hitch for a vacation but we were also sent a mare and foal every year. WE were sent a mare who had rejected her foal with her foal. He was already started on the bucket. Because of the people that worked there and the rules in place (we were not to discipline the horses infront of guests and most of the people that worked there were not horse people) With no boundaries or rules by the fall this foal was a 800 pound monster!!! I strongly believe that it depends on how they are raised.[/QUOTE]
Exactly this. Couple this with how long the foal WAS with its dam before it was orphaned (imprinted), and if for not long, how soon it was taken by a nurse mare or other “mother”, and taught the ropes of being a horse like any other foal.
Lots of variables. But I will say, many orphans may wind up monsterous (as some have said), by all these factors – and often from humans babying them anthorporthically.
Nowadays, there is no need to bottle feed an orphan. You can turn any mare who has previously had at least one foal, into an accepting nurse mare. Learned about this amazing procedure just this early spring from a fellow breeder.
The procedure and methodology is simple:
Domperidone to get the milk production going (you will know within 3-4 days).
Then, put a divider in the stall, mare on one side, foal on the other.
Mare is administered oxytocin and prostaglandin. The vet then performs cervical massage. Usually within about 20-30 minutes the mare will start looking at the foal and nickering. Bonding is usually complete within 24 hours.
This has about a 90-95% success rate, compared to using mares who have lost a foal and trying to get them to accept a new orphan.
You may have to repeat the procedure for some slower accepting mares.
This seems to be ineffective for maiden mares. So the only criteria is that the mare has had at least one foal before, was a good mom, and is healthy enough to support a nursing foal.
And if you have an orphan anyway, isn’t it far better to use a mare you already know rather than trying to hunt the countryside for a mare?
At least this way, you are only having to set up an igloo nurser for 3-5 days.
Had 2 friends (breeders) use this procedure - one was for an orphan foal and one was for a rejected foal. Both were successful in very quick order, just as described.
[QUOTE=Bozilla;7576139]
If after reading all these +/- stories you would be interested in raising an orphan foal, this organization is a rescue for nurse mare foals. They are always looking for fosters, and adoptive families. Located in Southern Ohio, Last Chance Corral is working hard to save these babies. I have a friend who has 4 of these little ones at her home and is loving it. http://www.lastchancecorral.org/[/QUOTE]
I currently have a LCC foal- she is 8 weeks old as of yesterday. Regardless of who’s to blame, who’s the scapegoat, how accurate the information is, etc…foals are there- and they’re motherless, and they need help. They’ve had 100+ foals come through their organization this year so far. I am lucky enough to own the sweetest little filly, that a truly hope will be a heck of a horse when she’s older!
I find this thread very interesting though! I have never dealt with a COMPLETE orphan before (she was in New York with me at a mere 5 days old- at LCC at 3 days old). I’ll be sure to keep checking up on this thread and let you know how my girl turns out!
I had an orphan just last year. Mare died within 9 days from retained placenta. We did the drug protocol to induce lactation in a surrogate mare. It wasn’t a complete success. The mare allowed the foal to nurse and took care of her as though the foal was her own. However, her milk production was never that great and I supplemented the foal’s nursing with bucket feeding. The foal would never drink, suck, or lap the supplemental milk. I had to mix milk pellets in with powdered milk supplement and water to make a sloppy and thicker than milk feed. She wolfed that right down. I fed her that in a small bucket, but she insisted that I hold the bucket on my left hip or she would wander away. I eventually would leave on the ground for her to eat. I had to pull her out of the stall/paddock so that the surrogate mare would not help herself to the baby food. I weaned her off of that when I weaned all the foals to foal feed. She went through one or two stages of looking like something was missing nutritionally and I added some Calf Manna Performance to the mix. She is now healthy and gets along well with her three sisters. The only behavior I have experienced from this process is that when visiting the now yearlings in the pasture, I find her sneaking up beside me and checking my left side, just in case I have bucket hanging there. She will nose me looking for that bucket. She gets reprimanded for that when I can catch her!
We raised an orphan 4 years ago after the mare died 5 days after foaling. Cinder Ella (named by the neighbours kids before she became an orphan) was raised on a bottle for 4 months. She didn’t want to do the bucket and to be honest I was too tired to fight with her about it. We partnered her with an open mare (her “godmother” and the mare took care of her when out with the other mares and foals. They were in separate stalls at night with a half wall between them. I was always tired so didn’t put up with any crap from her. She is now 4 and going well under saddle. She has been a brat to others about respect so I never trust her with non-horse people. Our equine vet couldn’t believe at 9 months that the horse standing in front of him was the one that he just asked if it was potbellied and looking ugly.
And yes McVille’s - Cinder sucks her tongue too.
I had one. Mare died 3 days after birth. It was one of the most frustrating experiences I have ever had. She was wonderful in many ways, but difficult. Transitioning to each new type of food was nerve wracking as she was sure anything new was poison. She ended up with ulcers. We didn’t have any other babies that year so she got limited time with an oldie. But she spent so much time in the barn (For feeding) she started to bond to the barn. It was weird.
She was very pretty, lovely mover etc. By the time she was 2 she had realized she wasn’t a baby barn and would eat food fairly well. Sadly she slipped and fell in the paddock and broke her pelvis. Even the vet cried when she put her down, she had been there all along helping me with my ‘problem’ foal.
All that said I would do it all over again. I loved that filly.
[QUOTE=lindsay.anne;7582789]
I currently have a LCC foal- she is 8 weeks old as of yesterday. Regardless of who’s to blame, who’s the scapegoat, how accurate the information is, etc…foals are there- and they’re motherless, and they need help. They’ve had 100+ foals come through their organization this year so far. I am lucky enough to own the sweetest little filly, that a truly hope will be a heck of a horse when she’s older!
I find this thread very interesting though! I have never dealt with a COMPLETE orphan before (she was in New York with me at a mere 5 days old- at LCC at 3 days old). I’ll be sure to keep checking up on this thread and let you know how my girl turns out![/QUOTE]
To me it IS important as to where all these foals are coming from, but why keep trying to fix a problem when you can simply prevent it (by not breeding all those foals).
I’ve been away from the racing world for some time now but there is a thread on this forum that started out about one subject (inducing labor in horses) and segued (like so many COTH threads do 
) into a discussion of Nurse Mare use in the TB industry.
There were/are numerous responses from folks still active in TB breeding and living right in the heart of KY that jived with my experience…that nurse mares are NOT “routinely” used and in fact are used only in cases where the dam dies or rejects the foals.
So I would really like to know where all these foals are actually coming from…like the name of each farm they are getting these foals from. You know…like actual FACTS. Then people can be held accountable. Because if it IS a routine practice, it needs to be addressed.
That’s all I’m saying…
Raised an orphan from birth (his mother died of a main uterine artery rupture shortly after his arrival). Discipline and interaction with other horses is key to an orphan’s development. Mine needs a strict approach, but so do countless horses – he’s like thousands of other horses out there as far as testing boundaries. He’s good under saddle, for the most part. Still sucks on his tongue when he’s happy.
As long as the horse is raised well an orphan can be as good a horse as any.
