When to Wean a Foal

DAN: "What age would you recommend weaning a mini colt? Can late weaning cause health issues? And first, I am going to say by cashew_butter, please send us a photo of your mini colt.

DR LYDIA GRAY: I thought you were going to say a sample-- please send us a sample of cashew_butter

DAN: No. I mean, if you wanted to. But a picture of the mini colt because that sounds adorable.

DR LYDIA GRAY: We brought a mini halter,

DAN: I mean--

DR LYDIA GRAY: --which we thought was cute, but-- but this is a full-sized-- she's talking about a mini weanling, a foal. This is an adult. So, even smaller.

DAN: So we need to tighten this up a little bit.

DR LYDIA GRAY: I know. I know. So, all right. When you talk about weaning, no matter what you are equine size, it's when and it's how. So the when-- turns out in the wild, they will begin weaning at pretty late, eight months.

DAN: Oh, OK. Wow.

DR LYDIA GRAY: And it might go as long as two years until the foal, weanling, is two years old.

DAN: Wow.

DR LYDIA GRAY: So yeah, it's very gradual. And it's more like they stick around for not the nutrition, because there's none. They stick around for the companionship and the safety and the--

DAN: Of being in a herd.

DR LYDIA GRAY: --it's my mom and comfort. If there's something scary, I go back to my mom. So that's why they do it. In domesticated horses, it's more like the range is about-- I've seen as early as three months to six months. And I would say the majority are in the four to five month range. Is that--

DAN: Yeah.

DR LYDIA GRAY: OK. But it has to do with your farm, your setup, and the people that you have around you and the horses themselves. So is your foal ready physically and mentally and emotionally and socially to be a grown-up horse? I mean, some are ready at three months-- they're precocious-- and some, you might wait until seven months because they're just not developed their emotional intelligence is not there. They don't know how to be a horse.

DAN: But say some you see when they're a little are a little more adventurous. They're a little more willing to--

DR LYDIA GRAY: That's exactly right.

DAN: --go away from Mom to explore something--

DR LYDIA GRAY: That's exactly right.

DAN: --some are right on mom the entire time.

DR LYDIA GRAY: Yep. So the ones that are more adventurous, independent, confident, you could wean earlier. And the ones that need a little bit more time, well, then give them that more time because there's no evidence that late, whatever you define as late, weaning has any health-- any negative effects. The only negative effect I could think of was that maybe the mare-- because lactation or milk is one of the-- where she'll use the most calories in her life, more than breeding, more than high performance. It does literally suck the nutrition out of horses. So they'll lose weight. They'll look kind of bad. But the advice I saw was don't wean based on that. Maybe just try to get more nutrition into the mare. Feed her more. But really, the foal is not-- the peak milk is at six weeks.

DAN: Six weeks? OK.

DR LYDIA GRAY: Six weeks. So by three months, they're already not getting the majority or much even of their nutrition from the mare's milk. They're eating, which is another thing. Before you wean, I mean, this foal has to be eating forage-- hay or pasture-- and grain, like fully. They have to fully depend on it because when you wean, you don't want to have other big events happen at the same time because weaning is super stressful. So you don't want to be changing their diet. You don't want to be introducing new horses. You'd rather not move the baby. You don't want to be doing any major vet work. So don't be castrating at the same time.

DAN: Yeah, let's not a check all the boxes at once.

DR LYDIA GRAY: No. Don't have the farrier out. Don't deworm. Don't vaccinate them, do all those things. Because their immune system is fighting to keep them healthy. And if you attack them with some more things, you'll overwhelm it. And they're not even going to be able to respond to a vaccination at that time anyway. They need to be vaccinated before you deworm-- wean and deworm before you wean.

DAN: I like that point you made about not moving the foal, moving the mom. Because keep them with the area they're already familiar with--

DR LYDIA GRAY: Correct.

DAN: --and remove her. But at least they're still familiar with that surrounding versus introduce them to a whole other place. That's like such a simple tip that I think a lot of times people kind of overlook.

DR LYDIA GRAY: Well, there's this thing called group pasture weaning, and it only works if you have a lot of mares and foals that are going to be weaned at the same time. So if you have one mini colt, it can be a problem. You may want to consider boarding somewhere that has other ones that your foal could bond with and then have some weaning buddies.

DAN: Oh, yeah.

DR LYDIA GRAY: But the way this group pasture weaning works is you have a pasture of mares and foals, and they've grown up that way. They've been living together for months and months. And so you figure out who is the most independent foal, like we talked. And then you one day take that mare away until you've got nine mares and ten foals.

DAN: OK. Nine mares, ten foals. Yeah.

DR LYDIA GRAY: Right, because you took a mare away. And then maybe that foal is like, there's something different about today. But he's like, well I got my herd--

DAN: All my buddies are here.

DR LYDIA GRAY: --so I'm all good. And so every couple of days, you take another mare away. And by taking them away, you have to take them out of eye-- like visual sight. And they also have to be out of earshot because if they can hear each other, you're going to prolong the weaning.

DAN: A lot of screaming that goes on.

DR LYDIA GRAY: So it may even be-- unless you have a large farm-- maybe off site. OK. And eventually, you're down to no mares and just babies. And then you're done.

DAN: Look it that. Easy as that.

DR LYDIA GRAY: Easy-peasy.

DAN: So simple.

DR LYDIA GRAY: So that's one method. That's the least stressful method, according to the studies.