Mare stealing foal from another mare

[Meadowind]

When Rod went out to check the mares, he found a new foal, a beautiful blue roan colt. The puzzle was whose was it. He knew that the mare that was protecting it was not the mother, but no one else seemed to claim it. He ran 4 mares through the chute to check them and found out it belonged to a maiden mare (Connie-you will know this one - it was Ima! :aktion033: ) He was worried that she might not accept it, but as soon as he put her in the barn with the foal, all was well.

The other mare was not so happy, but she did get over it. (Robin, it was Shadow who has such a strong mothering instinct that she wanted to take over!

)

Has anyone else had this happen? and is it always resolved or does the real mother sometimes reject it completely?

Heather

 

[RJRMINIS]

I know a breeder that had this happen, another mare stole the real momma's foal, and she would not let it back with the real momma, she didn't have milk, and by the time he realized it, he ended up losing the foal as it never got any colostrum or milk......because the other mare would not allow it to leave. SO SAD! :no:

 

[stormy]

I also have had foals stolen by another mare, can be very dangerous for the foal and mom. I learned quick to seperate the close up mares from everyone else and keep mom and baby together for a few days before returning to the herd. In my case when the foals were returned to their real moms one mom did not really want it and did not let her milk down for a few days, had to syringe feed the foal as he was very stressed also from being rum around by the mare who stole him. The other incident again the foal had to be syringe fed but only for a day, mom took him back no problems but he was weak from getting pushed around so much.

 

[Suzie]

We have had this happen also. Rule here is 3 days minimum with dam/foal only together, then with the herd. By 3 days, the foal will attach to mom and mom will have the strength to fend off other mares.

 

[Shari]

Happens all the time in Icelandic's.

Luckly the mares this one person has ..will nurse any foal! Never saw that before I was around Icelandics!!

But since you have mini's..is best to keep the mom and foal on their own the first few days...you are less likely to have that problem.

Sometimes even with that ...you will have a foal that makes it a game to sneak sips or a mare that does not mind nursing others. If you have other mares that have not foaled yet..you need to keep the foals like that away from them.

 

[Ashley]

Yep have had that happen. Seems to happen when its a maiden more then anything. I had my palomino colt stolen by a bay pinto mare. We knew it wasnt her foal as she would have a pinto foal(bred to a homozygous stallion).

However it took me a few days to get mom to take him back. She had to be backed into the corner to let him nurse or she would kick like crazy. AFter a few days everything was fine and she was the most protective mare I seen. She was fine years after to.

NOw, we did have another mare that was hard to get in foal so she ended up being a pet. She wanted to be a mom so bad, she would steel foals, baby llamas, baby goats, anything she could so she had to be locked seperate during spring.

 

[Just Us N Texas]

We just had a mare jump through a fence, and after put back in her pasture when the fence was repaired, then proceed to tear down a post and part of the fence to get back to the new foal that had just been born and wasn't hers. She was persistent! We had to lock her up in a round pen for a couple of days to keep her from stealing the new foal!

 

[Joyce]

I've never had it happen here but I know a Breeder that it happened to.

 

[Jean_B]

Yup - years ago I had an "alpha" mare that if she had not yet had her foal, would attempt to steal everyone else's.

So I always bred her to have her foal first, and if she had not yet had her foal - I would put her in a paddock with the open mares because she was a total WITCH and would try to kill the other mare if she tried to get her baby back. But if she had her own baby at her side she was fine. But there were a couple of times I didn't think she was going to live because I was ready to get a gun.

 

[PaintedMeadows]

Wow. Interesting post. I have 3 mares due this year all around the same time and 2 are maidens. I never thought of this problem and was going to have them all in the foaling paddock together. I don't have enough pens for everyone if I don't do that and don't have a barn. The foaling paddock is the only place that is dog and critter proof. I will have to figure something out. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Gena]

We had a friend that had a mare that would try to do this every year.

As a rule here too, we always kept mare and foal together in their own pasture/stall for a good week before they were introduced back into the herd.

 

[FoRebel]

One of my mares that is in foal for this year, and keeps making me guess when she's going to foal, is like that too. She really likes the babies so we've adopted the policy that the mare and foal stay in the stall, getting let out in our smalll indoor area for a full week. At that point they get put out with the other mares but they also have that bond and the dams are sometimes very witchy to any horse (including other foals) who approach their new baby.... It took the dams last season about 2-3 weeks to let the foals play together without trying to separate them....

As for the mare that likes to try to steal the babies... she's gonna have her own this year and when she's retired from breeding, she'll be a wonderful mare to help wean the foals!

 

[love_casper]

wow i never thought this story would come in handy...but YES!!!!!!

:

my baby Charm (in avvie) was born out in the pasture, just as owner at the time Cindy - DunPainted - had removed her bed from the barn. She gave up staring at miss Princess, and put her in the pasture with some other mares.

The next morning, Cindy noticed an extra little horsey running around in the pasture. By the time he was a few hours old, ...milk toes..(???) had already been worn off. Turns out Princess's dam Sugar, so charmie's grammy, had taken possesion of the baby. Normally the mares share their foals and nurse each others babies, but since Sugar didn't have an '06 foal, she needed her grandson. Well poor Princess was just going crazy needing her baby, with Sugar vying for possesion. So eventually she got Sugar separated, and Charm and Princess into a stall together. Then all was calm and Princess was a good mama. Well eventually, they were put back together and they did fine. Sugar still took charge though.

In the trailer coming here, Princess was kicking the heck outta her mother Sugar for being close to Charm. they had to actually put them in dividers and tie them away from each other. ahhh the love of a mother-daughter relationship.

: :bgrin

well we couldn't even keep Sugar near Mama and Baby, we had to keep them apart in different barns. on the weekends tho, to get charm used to being away from mommy, we'd bring Prin to Sugars stable, and since there was no baby in sight, they were a cute bonded pair.

withing a few months, Sugars stable ran out of room and we were kicked out, so i had to keep Sugar, Princess, and charm in one stall!!! :no: well now it was completely opposite.

Prin was trying to wean her baby, Sugar had kinda lost interest. So now it was more like soccer...."YOU take it!!" "no, YOU take it!!" "i dont want it, its YOUR baby, YOU take it" "but he nurses too much YOU take it" etc. lol!!!!

all is settled and no more confusion for Charm. well now Charm is weaned, and i have them in my own back yard now, and the three + Ghost get along fine. funny how things work out!

: :new_rofl:

 

[Candice]

I watched it happen at another farm with two QH mares. They had always been kept together. The one mare had aborted a few months prior to this. I stood with the owner and watched the foaling and as soon as the foal was out and Mom was up the other mare moved in and ran her off from the foal. It happened so fast. This mare was down right nasty and we had a hard time getting that mare out of the pen. To this day I don't know why the owner left her in there.

 

[PaintedPromiseRanch]

yes had this happened at our place but it was a molly mule trying to steal the foal - luckily they were in a separate pen but the mule stood by the fence and called the baby and he kept trying to go to her... and mama kept pushing him away from the fence... we did find them quickly and just shut the mule away in a farther pen... the good thing about this was a week or so later we heard the mule kicking the snot out of the pen and went out to find the second mare foaling... the only baby i have EVER got to watch being born. my mares like to hide them from me.

we also have friends who breed mules and last year two of their mares SWITCHED babies. first one mare stole from the other and was nursing two... well that doesn't work well for either mare, one is stuffed full and the other will get pulled down too fast... when my friends separated them the second mom would not take her own baby back... so they tried switching and she accepted the first mare's foal just fine! i guess you just never know...

 

[Triggy&Blue&Daisy Too]

Yes my QH mare Daisy is a confirmed baby thief. I've never seen one like her, she's never been bred let alone in foal but cannot be trusted anywhere near babies. She got so excited last year when the new foals were out playing she about gave herself a heart attack and fell down in her stall. She had to be kept stalled because she would break out of her paddock to get at them and upset the mommas every chance she got. Now she has to be locked up whenever there is a foal around.

I got Sophia, in part, just for her. She's very alpha and mothers Sophia shamelessly but around adult horses she rather try to kill them. A very strange animal, my Daisy.

 

[minisforever]

We always make sure that the mare and foal are not introduced to the herd for the first two to three weeks after foaling, that way baby knows its dam. However, one time I waited almost a month and put the mare into the herd. Here came another mare charging. She started circling the foal and sniffing and kicking the crap out of the mother. She herded the foal off from the mom and when the mom came near she tried to KILL her. It was a horrible ordeal. She knocked the foal down several times trying to keep it for herself. She didn't even want us near that foal. We had a terrible time getting it away from her. It was about thirty minutes of stress that I will NEVER forget. After that mare had her own foal a month later, she did not bother anyone elses...........Bad experience, but thank goodness we were there.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

I have had this happen- big and little alike.

One year I had a mare nursing FIVE foals (not all the time, obviously, but all at once)

After they are a few weeks old I stop worrying.

I have two mares that will do this- it seems to happen when the foals are the same age and colour, and, of course all my folks are inter-related through sire and dam, both.

I have also had mares take foals at birth- as said this is dangerous with a maiden and also quite common as if she is foaling unattended the foal will often be up and wandering around before the mare.

I had two chestnut foals (same father, mother was daughter of thief) on one mare and as others, I had trouble finding who had foaled as the afterbirth had been passed.

When I decided it was my maiden mare (still as fat as butter!!) I got them into the stall and helped the foal bond- I had to tie the mare up and get quite firm with her but once she bonded she was a good Mama.

The thief mare was OK about it as she had a foal already and was a little perplexed- like it had seemed like a good idea when she did it

So you do have to take care in these situations.

I have also put two orphans on Mini mares in the past and in neither case did I go in for all the subterfuge the books suggest.

I just took the mares dead foal away, rubbed a bit of milk on the new foal, and left my jacket on it for a bot so it smelled of me.

An hour later the mare was really upset about losing the dead foal and when she was presented with a live one instead she nearly ran over me to get it.

In both cases the mares raised the foals as their own, but I did notice that once these foals were weaned there was not the strength of bond that I see with blood children.