Anxious Colt? Separation Anxiety?

[Manyspots]

We have always had horses, the last 20 years we have also bred, raised, trained and shown miniature horses. It has been a wonderful experience, made many wonderful friends. We've made mistakes along the way and learned, but when a program works we stick to it. I gave Julia this colt, he was weaned with 5 other weanlings, fed Nutrena Mare & Foal , alfalfa/grass mix hay. He had been wormed and had a farrier trim his hooves. He wasn't handled as much as I would have liked but family issues took time away for working with the horses. I knew Julia would put hours of handling on him. We wean here in Iowa at 4 months of age as a rule. At 3 months the dams milk starts to loose much of its nutrional value. We leave them until 4 months as they are older then, learning to be a horse. If we find one is not ready to wean we leave until older. We also take into account the mares body score and readiness to have foal weaned. We do not wean to hurry up and sale for the money. I don't like to see all breeders put into one category. Not all breeders are in it for the money, making a fast buck. Many like us have been in it to breed a better miniature horse. When we sell a foal we give to the new owners feed and info to them so they can continue with what that lil horse is used to eating. After they have them we have no control of feed or care. Horses are similar to people, some of us let stress bother us others don't get stressed. Julia is learning and so is her colt. He's even been to a show with her. This is a nice colt and should mature nicely. Ok off my rant, guess it's frustrating to read about breeders selling them so young for the money. This isn't us at all.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Manyspots, I think you must accept that it is not the norm to wean so young. Whilst I might start the weaning process at four months (and I,. too have been breeding and raising horses at least as long as you- 45 years+ with Arabs and Welsh, 35 years with Minis) I would not consider actually removing a foal from it's mother this young without a very, very good reason. I cannot see the point. The milk does not really change that early or that quickly, and I am afraid I just cannot see why you are in such a hurry to get the foals off! I know the weaning process is an unnatural thing from start to finish, there is no parallel in the wild, but I think you will find the accepted age for weaning is usually around five months. My foals come easily from their dams at this age, although, if there is a younger foal in the bunch, sometimes I will leave some until they are nearly six months- what is the hurry? The other point is that I just do not accept that a responsible breeder will wean a foal and allow it to go to a new home before being certain that they are OK physically and mentally. This takes at least two weeks and can take a month, so, even were I to wean at four months, I am afraid your foal would still not arrive until it is nearly five months.

 

[Tremor]

I know some breeders vary when they wean and that some wean at 4 months, I was pretty shocked to be honest. I always weaned my weanlings at 6+ months. (I've weaned at EIGHT months before-it was a filly) I've had varied experiences with weaning and how colts handled it, but I think with the amount of stress Brett was under was just too much for his little body to handle.

That was my fault entirely. I tried to introduce him too quickly into my herd and switched his pasture mates. (I had him in with my 2011 filly since she was the only one who would tolerate him, and then with my 2010 gelding until he sold untimely, and now he's out with the herd which has accepted him finally. He's only with the herd because we don't have hay bales to feed until November, so I couldn't feed him separately unless I wanted to feed him alfalfa pellets all day.)

Brett was a little harder to 'rehab" I guess if you would call it that. He was NOT keen on people what so ever, It took him about a month the even think about liking people, and that was with lots of handling and going on L-O-N-G walks. I put him on Ulcer Guard for 12 days with my vet's help and he perked up quite a bit.

I will have owned him two months on Friday (the 1st) and he'll be 6 months. Last week he's actually started to willingly trot for me. It was rare if we saw him trot with his pasture mate(s). He's finally warmed up and will trot and play.

He's a sweet little tyke, but definitely not a lover. He's more of a fighter.

I can update though! I fed him at 6:30pm last night and checked him at 9:30pm (he hadn't finished his feed) and SOLID poo!!! For the past couple weeks we've been having some issues with separation during feeding time. Ever since I got him, whenever I had him away from the herd (in the trailer, in the barn, dinner time, on our walks, etc) he was always pass these soft, small poos and OFTEN. The amount of poo he had astounded me. But we were solid last night!

He's getting better, its just taken us two months to make these leaps and bounds.

EDIT: I do think that some kids just take weaning harder than others. Just from seeing pictures of Brett with his dam, I'd say he was a bit of a...momma's boy (and comparing that to how he is with my mares)

 

[Manyspots]

I guess I still consider myself a responsible breeder. Our weanlings are monitored closely for any problems. This foal as well as his little herd mates were eating very well , their weaning from their dams went great. They all handled being trimmed by the farrier quite good, very little fussing or stress. There are a lot of mini breeders that wean at 4 months, I've heard of three months also. With the commercial feeds we have today the young horses thrive very well, some even better . Hindsight I probably should have sent more feed/hay with him, I think Julia did what she could with what she had. This little horse was in good health and I'm sure Julia will tell you that also.

 

[Tremor]

I guess I still consider myself a responsible breeder. Our weanlings are monitored closely for any problems. This foal as well as his little herd mates were eating very well , their weaning from their dams went great. They all handled being trimmed by the farrier quite good, very little fussing or stress. There are a lot of mini breeders that wean at 4 months, I've heard of three months also. With the commercial feeds we have today the young horses thrive very well, some even better . Hindsight I probably should have sent more feed/hay with him, I think Julia did what she could with what she had. This little horse was in good health and I'm sure Julia will tell you that also.

He's doing a lot better, and Lavonne wasn't at all in it for the money. In fact, she didn't make a dime of this kid! She gave me some feed that he was on and about half a bale of hay (which helped a lot since all I had was pasture. It helped for the first couple days of him being in a lot and me figuring out who his buddy should be.)

Did you ever sell any of the other youngsters? (I remember that I liked Duke, the firey red colt, and Santiago's filly)

 

[Manyspots]

No I had started on FB to offer them, then I got scared out as so many people were posting pictures of minis that had ended up in terrible living conditions and starved . As much as I would like to have less to take care go I can't stand the thought of one of ours ending up like that. I think they are nice and would like to see them shown but am picky about who buys them. We've been very fortunate over the years to have placed them in good homes. We have one mare I know of people we sold her to eventually sold her to the abusive gal in Oregon. Not sure if this mare is alive or was one of get casualties. Glad Brett is doing better. The drought this summer still lingers after effects here. Mares doing great, foals too. Last 300 small bales we bought were $7.50/bale. Rounds were $180 each. Good Alfalfa/grass mix. Need to get 20 more large rounds yet. I hope you can get some good hay reasonable. Anyway foals all doing good, farrier here again Friday!

 

I've always weaned at 4 months and had no problems. In fact, two of my mares had their foals weaned before I even started thinking about it. I went to start the weaning process, separated the foals from their mommas, went to check the mommas and they had no milk. Completely dried up. So, back the foals went into the pasture with their dams. I've had some foals that weren't ready, so they stayed with their mommas a little longer, and had to wean one foal at 2 1/2 months because mom was almost crashing. Baby did fine and momma was saved.

I think the responsibility comes from carefully watching the foals for any signs of distress during the weaning process, and being ready to act. I do creep feeding of weanlings -- so they can eat whenever they feel like it -- food in front of them at all times, so no ravenous babies waiting for food to be given. They feed themselves and are offered a high protein diet.

And personally, Lavonne, I think you're an AWESOME breeder, and have the very best interests of your horses at the forefront of your breeding program. LOVE those SPOTS!!