wrong mare

[Lisann]

We have 2 mares with foals. Getting ready to bring the first one in Tues night, my husband was holding Ali, and I was holding her filly, Iffy. Jason noticed that Axel, who is Mo's foal, was nursing on Ali. I pushed Ali over, which moved him away. Within 30 seconds, he was back at it.

Anyone else see mares nurse foals that are not theirs?

[madelyn]

Yes. You might want to test the foal's dam's milk to see if the nutrition level has dropped off significantly, which can send a foal looking for another mare. Instinct and all that.

[Roguelet]

I know a guy who had two plain bay mares with two plain bay colts, turned out together all the time... One baby was always with the first mare and the other was always with the second mare... so he had no reason to doubt who was who... until he sent in the DNA for registration and learned that, sometime very early on, the mares had switched foals.

We had a mare last year who allowed an orphan foal to join in with her own foal, she treated them both as her own and allowed them both to nurse.

So, it's not all THAT uncommon. That being said, I must admit to being a little bit surprised that Ali would allow that... as if having one foal on her isn't enough of a drain...

[Lisann]

I'm not too worried about the mare's milk. This foal is STOUT and eat a good amount of Mom's grain, too.

[KBEquine]

We had a mare whose foals were always inviting their friends over for dinner . . . She didn't mind.

The other mares, not so accommodating.

[Roguelet]

This foal is STOUT and eat a good amount of Mom's grain, too.

And I'm surprised Mo allows THAT!

[Bedouwia]

Some mares are just too nice -- a couple of years ago I had a mare with a suckling foal, nursing as normal, but she also allowed her spoiled rotten and supposedly long since weaned yearling colt nurse too. Needless to say, I had to re-arrange the turn out system.

Bedouwia