Weaning Foals: Best Practices to Reduce Stress

Weaning is the process of the foal becoming independent of its mother. At four months of age, due to the increased energy demands caused by the foal’s high rate of growth, their nutritional requirements can no longer be met by mare’s milk alone. They require supplementation with forage or grains. In the wild, weaning starts between nine and 11 months and is gradually completed by the time their dam gives birth to the next foal.

Artificial Weaning Pros and Cons

Domestic foals are artificially weaned at a younger age of between four and seven months. This is done for several reasons:

1. A mare’s milk production slows down significantly by the time the foal is four months old, and early weaning allows for nutritional supplementation with grains or forage without the mare interfering.
2. Early weaning allows for early marketing and sales of foals.
3. Early weaning allows the foal’s attention to become focused on human interaction.
4. Early weaning gives the mare additional time to recover biologically from the rigours of nursing before the next foal is born.

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There can, however, be negative consequences associated with forced early weaning which include:

1. An increased flight response to stress in the form of trotting or running back and forth which may result in injuries.
2. The development of lifelong stereotypical, stress-related behaviours such as cribbing, self-mutilation, windsucking, weaving, and box walking. Of note is the fact that these behaviours are only present in domestic horses and have not been observed in wild herds.
3. Impeding the development of healthy intestinal microbiomes.

According to Kathleen Crandell, Ph.D, “Weaning is widely recognized as a major source of stress that can lead to long-lasting effects on welfare and immunity.”

Readiness for Weaning

Weaning is a highly stressful event for a foal, therefore it is vital to make sure your foal is both biologically and psycho-socially ready to be weaned from their dam.

If a foal is injured, has an infection or is otherwise unwell, it would be best to wait until they have recovered before adding weaning into the mix. A sick or injured foal is already dealing with compromised health and weaning could aggravate these issues.

You should also pay careful attention to your foal’s psychological readiness to be weaned. Do they wander away from their dam, exploring on a regular basis or do they stick to her side like glue and become frantic when separated for even short periods of time? If your foal is the latter type, you may want to wait a little longer before weaning or opt for a more graduated approach.

Abrupt Weaning

Abrupt weaning involves separating the mare and foal so that they cannot see, hear or touch each other. Proponents of abrupt weaning liken this method to pulling a Band-Aid off. The foal will have short-term emotional distress, but will quickly settle.

When employing this method, it is recommended to place the foal with another foal as a buddy or with a mature, friendly “babysitter” adult horse. This helps to reduce the foal’s anxiety and increases their sense of safety. It is also recommended to confine the foal to a small paddock or stall for the first few days in order to limit the potential risk of injury from a panicked reaction.

An example of an abrupt weaning method:

Step 1: Bring at least two mares and their foals into the barn overnight and place them in neighbouring stalls.
Step 2: In the morning remove the buckets from the stalls and take the mares away to a place on the farm where the foals can’t see or hear them.
Step 3: Place the foals in the same stall together.

Gradual Weaning

Gradual weaning occurs over an extended period and often follows the principle of removing one variable at a time until the foal is successfully weaned.

An example of a gradual weaning method:

Step 1: Place a barrier between the mare and foal so that they can still touch, see and hear each other but the foal cannot nurse. Place a buddy in with the foal.
Step 2: Move the mare’s feed bucket to the opposite end of the pen, farthest away and place the foal and their companion’s hay farthest away from the mare’s pen.
Step 3: Move the mare into a pen farther away but still in sight.
Step 4: Move the mare out of sight and earshot of the foal

Large breeding farms often employ different weaning methods than a small farm with a single mare and foal. For example, a large commercial breeder with ten or more foals may decide to combine both methods by weaning small numbers of foals at a time instead of weaning the entire herd at once. This may work especially well if the entire broodmare band and their foals have been turned out together for several months and the foals are familiar with each other. Several foals can be removed at a time, placed together with an adult ‘babysitter’ buddy, in a small enclosure out of sight and earshot of their dams and the rest of the broodmare band. Gradually, over the course of several weeks, more and more foals are removed from the main band and placed with the already weaned foals until all the foals are weaned.

If your facility is too small, does not have a confined space or stalls, or does not allow for the mare and foal to be removed from earshot of one another, then abrupt weaning is not an option. Gradual weaning will need to be implemented in these cases. If your single foal is not yet halter and lead trained, you should consider doing so prior to weaning, while they still have the security of their mother at their side.

Weaning is a stressful event; however, this can be minimized by taking into consideration each foal’s biological and psychological readiness as well as the weaning method best suited to your particular circumstances.