Mares Switching Foals

[hpkingjr]

We had two maiden mares foal late Monday night and early Tuesday morning. Today, Friday, when we turned them out together, they started out with their own foals and then switched. Both mares and both foals seemed happy with the switch. We put back them into the stall with the correct foals and again everyone seems happy. Question? Has anybody experienced this and what happened?

[Roguelet]

I know of a case where 2 mares each had very similar foals... same sex, same size, same color. They were turned out together (I don't know if it was just those four horses or if it was a bigger herd) and whenever they were brought in, it was assumed that the foal by their side was their own... I guess there was no reason not to assume that. Anyway, in this case, apparently the mares had switched foals sometime very early on and kept eachother's foals until they were weaned.

One was sold early on, prior to registration, and when the owners turned in the DNA on the other one, it came back as not being a match. They resubmitted the sample a couple of times, I believe, before they figured out what had happened.

They contacted the buyer of the other foal and between everyone involved they got it all worked out, but the mares and foals seemed happy enough with the switch.

[adrienne]

I saw mares do that one day. We had a line of mares and foals outside the barn waiting for palpations. A friend of mine was holding one mare and I was holding the other and somehow the foals switched while we were talking and we didn't realize it until we were taking them back to the barn. Same color, gender, breed on the foals.

LoL, guess mares aren't as all knowing as we assume

~Adrienne

[Lindros]

One day when we were turning in a group of 5 mares and foals something similar happened. The part time girl started bringing in without me. Brought up the first mare and 'her' foal, put them in the stall. When she put the next mare and foal set in the stall, I walked in the door and just saw the mare trying to bite the foal. Not too agressive but anyway. I was just opening my mouth to yell at her and then I realized that it wasn't her foal! I panicked slightly. But the other wrong mare and foal were just fine! Standing in the stall and eating! So we reunited each foal with the correct mother again. The one mare nickered to her child, the other one was just kind of like:'Ya, that child did look a bit strange!'
Horse are strange animals!!