On Mar 6, 2008, at 6:01 AM, Janice McDonald wrote: > My friend Sylvia called at 4 this morning She went out and found her > mare Bob has delivered a gorgeous healthy baby appaloosa/arab mule but > Bob won't let him nurse!
Hello Janice: I am soooooo far behind with the list mail because we are in the process of moving into our new house - what an incredible mess! So this is probably way too late to help you and Silvia. But I have been there and done that. The first thing I need to say is that you must do everything you can to have your mare trust you completely before the birth of the foal. Then, you must handle the mare's udder before the birth of the foal. I do that by washing the udder gently and often. You want to get the crud out between the teats anyway. Then, if you are trying to get a mare to accept her own foal, which she is trying to reject because she sees it as a foreign being or because her udder is ticklish, or even to accept a foal that is not her own you may need at least two people to help. If it is her own foal you need to cross-tie her and have someone to guide the foal to her udder. With my horses, I can safely stand tightly behind the mare while the foal is being guided to the mare's udder. Since cannot kick me (and believe me, if she is bonded with you she simply cannot), she also cannot kick the foal since she cannot kick the foal without also kicking me. She may not like the idea of the foal nursing but once she does, she will feel the relief of pressure in her udder and may accept the foal from then on. You also need give ample praise. If the foal is not her own, you may have to repeat this process for a few times. After that, simply holding her halter with be enough for her to allow the foal to nurse. (At this point she will allow the foal to nurse to please you.) After that the authority of your presence will cause her to stand still for the foal to nurse and also give the foal the courage to approach her. In my case, all I had to do after a couple of weeks was to turn on the outside light of the house. And soon after that she will accept the foal completely. If there is a danger that the mare will kick the foal while you are not around. You can put the two of them in a stall together but build a barrier where the foal can get away and the cannot kick him or her. There are mares who will totally reject any foal. It has something to do with hormone imbalance. In that case you have to bottle feed after you have milked her colostrum and administered that to the foal. Goat milk is an excellent mare's milk substitute. Sorry, I don't have time to into all the details but if anyone has a specific question about that sort of thing you can e-mail me off-list. I am caught up on my private mail. All the best and good luck, Anneliese
