Weaning Foals: What’s the Best Method?

Weaning foals is usually somewhat noisy and upsetting, at least for the first couple of days when mares are separated from their offspring. To reduce stress, several methods have been used.

Instead of suddenly taking all the mares away from their foals at the same time, one alternative is to remove the dams of the largest and oldest foals first, leaving the youngsters in a familiar field with other mares and foals with whom they have been pastured. A few more mares can be removed each day or two until the field contains only weanlings.

Adding one or more unrelated adult horses, either mares or geldings, to the weanling band can be a good plan. This can be done either a few days before or directly after the last mares are removed. The presence of mature horses seems to calm some weanlings and also helps to teach them the manners they will need in any herd.

Weaning a single foal is a different sort of challenge. The mare and foal should be separated so that they can’t see or hear each other, which may mean moving one or the other (preferably the mare) to another farm. If possible, find another weanling that can be turned out with the single foal, and consider putting a quiet but unrelated mature horse in the same field.