How early is it safe for new foal and dam

[CrescentMinis]

The mare here who happens to be at the bottom of the pecking order, is due to foal first this year. This will be the first foal here and usually my little herd of 5 mares and a yearling run together in a 3 acre pasture. How long do you think I need to keep the mare and new baby separate from the herd? I read something recently about other mares trying to steal foals, which made me concerned for this one since she normally avoids any confrontations. The other mare (the boss) is due about 4-6 weeks after the first one.

I noticed at one farm I was at last year, the mares w/ new foals have small separate paddocks off their stalls. How do you guys do it?

 

[Crabby-Chicken]

Hey Faith,,,,

I TRY and have two mares have their foals around the same time so the babies can socialize with each other. BUT like you I have single foalings this year.I have one mare @ 310 today.

I keep them by themselves for a while in a separate paddock. When the foal is a week or a even a couple weeks old, I then let the mares in the field next to them so they can see but the Mom can take the foal away safely if she wants. Then at about a month I will try and let them together adding one new mare a day to the small paddock ( which is about 3/4s of an acre. If there is trouble, it is easier to grab them.

Good luck and hope you get some beautiful healthy babies this year!

 

[CrescentMinis]

Thanks so much Kim, and I hope you know I am looking forward to seeing your foal SOON!!

Oh, I'm a ding dong, I just noticed that I posted this in the gallery, duh! I was out of practice I guess. Would a mod mind moving this for me? Thank you.

 

[Marty]

I keep my mare with foal in their own field alone for about a month. I think I do introductions a bit backwards from most but it works well for me.

I don't put my mare and baby out with the herd in the big mare pasture to meet everyone. Instead, I slowly will allow one mare to join them in their private field and see how that goes. Then I will rotate mares, one at a time, a new one every day to meet the new foal. I just pick a different mare every day so there are always 3 in there. This helps me also know who might be trouble and who I need to keep an eye on. If its real quiet, I might put two mares in with mommy and baby. This way the foal has already met the herd, just one by one instead of all at once.

By the time the foal is ready to join the entire herd in the big field, they are already introduced.

 

[Lucky-C-Acres-Minis]

We to try to do the pairings and have mares that get along foal close to each other.. We have 5 mares due and for the most part they get along great with the exception of our first mare due, she thinks she's all that and a bag of chips and can not seem to get along with any of the others, so with her I do have a problem of who to turn out with.. Now she got along great with my first mare Star, but since I unfortunately lost her in 2007, I don't have her to lean back on as a match.. However, that said, my mom does have a tall B now 3 year old filly that I had the idea of turning out with this mare over the past spring/summer since the mare did not foal this past year, and luckily, they got along GREAT and I'm hoping *fingers crossed*, that I can at least try this mare/foal and the filly as pasture buddies, we'll see, of course the welfare of the foal comes first and if I don't feel the filly will be a good match then I won't do it.. I'm a firm believer in that no one can teach a foal the ground rules and how to be a horse better than his/her mom and a herd setting, so I try to get my foal(s) paired up with another, and I also feels it's very important for the mindset and growth of a baby to have another to run and play with

You said you had a yearling, does the mare in question and the yearling get along well? You could always look into that as a "pair", if the mare doesn't mind the yearling to begin with and slowly introduce the pair with him/her..

 

[Relic]

We keep new mom and foal alone to get to know each other for at least 2 weeks then they can go out with another new mom and foal or the mares still waiting to foal. At around 6 weeks old they get turned in with the rest of the herd who by this time have met touched and smelled the foals through the fence so once all are put back together again there's no rowdy action or running after babies..we only had one time where a new foal was injured because of a scubble when put back out and another old bag wasn't happy about that and started a scream and kick fight and the foal got in the way..