Mare Savages Foal
We run a small operation where we foal out about a dozen broodmares each year, mostly Arabians and Quarter Horses. Last spring, one of our maiden mares attacked her foal. It was a filly which was born with no problems. For the first couple of days the mare was great; the foal nursed and seemed perfectly normal. All of a sudden on the third day, the mare charged at the filly, picked it up by the neck, and shook it. We were putting hay out into the field bunks and saw the whole thing. The filly whirled right out of the pen, through two rails of the pipe fence. She died on the way to the clinic.
This mare has been bred back. Our vet advised us that this mare might repeat this behavior with her second foal, so we should plan to take the foal away as soon as it’s born. She suggested we try to find a nurse mare. She said bottle feeding a young foal takes a lot of work and that the foal might develop weird behavior. What do you think?
AI agree with your veterinarian on all points. Mares which unpredictably savage a foal in this manner typically savage again if given the opportunity, either with a surviving target foal or with subsequent foals. A small percentage have been fine mothers of subsequent foals, but we don’t know how to tell which ones are safe. So the best plan is early separation as your vet suggested.
Behaviorists also agree that probably the best solution for normal social and physical development of an orphan foal is a nurse mare. The challenge is to find a lactating mare whose foal can be weaned or who has lost a foal within a day, and which will accept an orphan. First, not all mares will accept an orphan. There are a few farms nationwide that specialize in preparing nurse mares (see listing in the January 2000 issue of The Horse). These are mares with proven generosity as foster mares. They are bred and have a foal of their own each year. When a call comes in, an older foal is weaned and the mare taken to the orphan. Here in the Mid-Atlantic, all through the foaling season you can have a nurse mare delivered to you within hours of a request. A fostering specialist experienced with that particular mare usually comes along to assist with the introduction of your foal. There usually is a flat fee for the service, and you are responsible to return the foster mare in foal for the next year
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