When you are faced with an orphan or rejected foal, the best long?term solution is for the foal to be accepted by its dam or by a foster mare. Raising an orphan by bucket feeding is less than ideal, as they quickly become over?humanised and often miss out on the socialisation skills they would normally learn from other horses.
This is why orphan foals often grow into pushy, insensitive horses—people simply can’t provide the consistent discipline that a herd naturally does.
Even if the foal is kept with other horses (preferably young ones it can also play with), it will still return to people many times a day for a drink during the first few months of life. This can become a problem if the people involved aren’t strict about balancing affection with appropriate boundaries.
If the mare is alive but has rejected the foal, there is a window of opportunity in the first few days to train her to accept it before her milk dries up. Read more about this process in Orphan Foals part 1.
Finding a Foster Mare
Finding a foster mare is not always easy. If you have a mare that loses her foal, please consider offering her to foster an orphan. Call local vets and larger studs to let them know you have a mare available. Spread the word online through discussion groups and email contacts. Until a foal is found, keep milking your mare to stimulate production and freeze the colostrum in 200 ml portions.
Both mare and foal owners must be flexible about where the foal or mare goes. It depends on who has the experience, time, and facilities. In the case of valuable mares or foals, a formal lease and insurance may be appropriate.
Introducing the Foster Mare
When a foster mare became available we placed the foster mare in the stable beside him, where she could see him, while his real mum was outside in a yard where he could still see her.
Using the horse’s natural instinct to seek companionship was a real advantage here, and the story ended happily with the mare accepting the colt as her own.
But first we followed the same process of introduction to ensure the foster mare accepted the foal.
Keeping Mare and Foal Safe
Initially, keep the mare and foal close but separate so she cannot injure the foal with aggressive biting or kicking. Have your vet sedate the mare if necessary to help keep her still while the foal nurses. You may need to distract her with feed and limit her view of the foal to allow it to drink. This process requires at least two people, so get experienced help if possible.
The mare will need to be milked every hour to stimulate her supply and may even require a hormone injection from the vet to help her “let down” her milk. If milking her is difficult, set up a crush using a portable fence panel against a wall, as shown in the photo.
Helping the Mare Accept the Foal
Some methods that may help include skinning her deceased foal and placing the skin over the orphan (unpleasant and not always practical), or rubbing the orphan with her afterbirth.
If you use either method, put a foal rug on the orphan to offer some protection from any initial biting. You can also put a grazing muzzle (or a homemade version) on the mare if she tends to bite rather than kick.
Never assume a potential foster mare will accept another foal. She may be grieving, and she will certainly know the orphan is not hers. It takes time and patient training to convince her to take it on.
There are occasional mares who are natural “mothers” and will nurse any foal. These mares are ideal foster mums—I’ve even heard of mares producing milk despite not being pregnant. There is now a course of hormone injections that can induce lactation in a non?pregnant mare. Visit www.thehorse.com and search for “orphan foals” and “induced lactation” for more information.
Using a Crush for Safe Bonding
Having a crush set up in a stable or yard is the safest way to begin the bonding?through?drinking process. Feed the mare in the crush a few times first so she is not stressed about entering or being contained. Use a rope looped around the rail behind her that can be released quickly if she is not used to confinement, and gradually help her accept it rather than forcing her, which could cause injury.
Do not tie her solidly—wrap the rope around a rail so it can slip if needed. A feed is a good distraction and gives her a reason to stand quietly.
Have someone at her head to block her view of the foal at first. Begin by washing her teats and hand?milking her—ensuring she is comfortable being touched around the flank and udder. Then bring the foal in and guide it to the rails. Padding above where its head will be is helpful so the foal doesn’t get discouraged.
Avoid pushing its head down, as this creates resistance. Instead, get it sucking your milk?coated fingers to stimulate the suck reflex, then guide its head toward the udder.
Most foals figure out how to reach the udder after a few attempts. We even had to hold our colt back at first because his enthusiastic rush toward the mare upset her!
When the mare accepts the foal drinking while her vision is restricted, gradually allow her to see the foal while it drinks, and then as it approaches.
When she accepts the foal through the panel, you can begin opening the panel and allowing the foal to feed with her tied. If she kicks, this may not be possible yet—be patient. You may consider hobbling her hind legs if you are experienced, or seek help from someone who is.
You can also strap up a front leg with a stirrup leather so she stands on one leg on the side the foal feeds from.
Encourage her with kind words and rewards when she behaves well, and aim for small progress at each feeding session.
When it is time to leave the mare and foal together, you may want to muzzle the mare if she is a biter, to ensure the foal’s safety. This should only be done for short periods and always under supervision.
Using Clicker Training
We used clicker training to teach a very aggressive mare to accept her foal by teaching her to “target” the foal (touch it with her nose) to earn a treat. The photo shows her at the stage where she was ready to be turned loose with the foal, wearing a homemade muzzle—a plastic flowerpot with a hole in the bottom so she could still eat treats! She had just been clicked for allowing him to drink without turning to bite.
Later, we rewarded her only when her ears were forward to encourage a positive attitude.
We also used clicker training to teach the foster mare to accept this foal, which she did within four days. From experiences shared with me, it can take up to a week or more for a foster mare to fully accept a foal that isn’t hers, so don’t expect it to happen overnight.
Ensuring the Foal Is Fed
When the mare reliably accepts the foal and shows no signs of biting or kicking, it is safe to leave them together unsupervised. We still provided an escape route for the foal by placing a rope across the stable so he could duck under it if needed.
Just because the mare tolerates the foal near her, don’t assume she will feed it when you’re not there. The mare pictured would only feed her foal when we were visible. We gradually trained her to feed him while we stood at the gate, using a longer rope and eventually working at liberty, always using the clicker to reward her.
Meanwhile, the foal—still being bucket?fed every two hours to supplement his mother’s limited milk—learned to drink formula from a dog water dispenser, allowing him to access milk whenever he wanted. This was a huge help and meant we no longer had to live in his paddock!
A Rewarding Process
Having a mare reject her foal or fostering an orphan onto another mare is time?consuming but incredibly rewarding. It is also far cheaper in the long term than raising a foal on formula. There is plenty of information available online, so you are not alone if this happens to you. Treat each case individually, try different approaches if something isn’t working, and you will eventually succeed in raising a healthy young foal.
