So now you have an orphaned foal

Teddy

There are no words to describe the pain of loosing a beloved horse. When they leave behind a foal that needs you to raise it you have to suck in the pain and get right to work raising that foal, but what where do you start.

Food

The foal first and foremost needs to be fed. Depending on the age of the foal is depending on where you start. 0-24 hours Colostrum is a very important concern. You can either use a frozen horse colostrum or powdered (brands and availability vary and dose rates, follow labels and consult your vet). We used MannaPro Colostrum Supplement (lime green bag for foals). We also used frozen that we banked from previous years and plasma transfusions. You can also milk out the mare that had the foal and use that (as long as not NI, see NI post) It's also very important to get an IgG test done on that foal to make sure they got enough of the colostrum. If there is a poor result It's possible to give them a plasma infusion. If your foal is orphaned after that point you'll have to have an idea of how much hay and milk they are consuming for their age. Our new born orphan foals get min. 250 ml of banked colostrum ideally we try for 500-750 ml. The Unipro label says 6 feedings of 8-10oz so 48-60 oz. but in reality the first few feedings may only be 1 oz. so try for the full volume over the first 12 hours for best absorption by increasing the frequency. Foals sleep about 30-45 min between feedings so let them or they will hot be hungry. Let them work up the volume. High frequency low volume. Don't squirt colostrum or milk in their mouth. Make sure that they feel your finger or the nipple and start to wrap around it so you don't aspirate them. You can put a drop or so on their tongue so they start to want it but volumes will risk pneumonia. Our 3 week old orphan was not eating more than a leaf or two randomly of the hay and grass so was on full milk rations and our 2 month old was eating a bit of hay and grass but supplementation was very necessary. Always provide free choice water 24/7 even if they are fully on milk water is crucial. 

Milk



Teddy with Dolly his companion

You'll need to research the brands in your area (your vet and forums such as facebook might help with your specific area) Foals have different needs from calves so don't just run out and buy a calf milk replacer. Goat milk or goat milk replacer is great for foals and many species and has become our first choice for raising foals. . In the US we used MannaPro Uni Milk multi Species (light blue bag) and We have used Dumor goat kid milk replacer with great success. Make sure it's Whey protein. You might have to hunt and call on some of the brands but make sure it says specifically that it for foals. And get the rations for the foals because they will usually also mark the bag with calf rations as the powder base is almost 99.9% likely from cow milk anyways. But horses mineral and digestive needs are not the same as a ruminant. So read your labels. Volume will also depend on the estimated full maturity size of the horse. The standard horse, like a 1000 lb quarter horse is usually what they calculate for but if you have a mini or a draft or in this case a Friesian you will have to adjust accordingly. Unipro states Day 2-7 (post colostrum) do 1-1.5 pint (pint is 2 cups) 6x a day for 6-9 pint/day. by now you'll know the volume your foal can handle from the colostrum so you may need to increase the frequency to get the full volume into the foal. We usually are at every 3 hours for the first week. if we cut back to 2 hours they are not as hungry. We also watch them on the cameras and when they get up we offer them food. They are still very young so expecting them to wait seems cruel to us and natural foals will suckle every time they get up. and every other time they will poop and pee during the first week. We try to replicate the natural foals routine. Unipro said 2-4 weeks 4 feedings/day and 2-3 pint per serving, 8-12 pt. We try to work the foal up a Friesian foal to 1 liter. once they are on a liter per feeding then we go to the 4 feedings a day. Up till they can drink a liter we go 6-8 times a day for feeding. Unipro for 5 week -weaning (Assuming on reasonable amount of hay) 3 feedings 2-3 pint/feeding or 6-9 pint. At this point we feed till they are a min. 4mo and eating good quality hay or 6mo if they look a little small. They can be drinking 1.5-2 liters a feeding and that doesn't bother us. The Friesians are a bit of a bigger foal and they do better with higher fat in their diet so making sure they are getting plenty of milk is important. 



Soft and best so far
 (can buy an attachment to
put it on any size bucket) if you google
lamb feeder you'll see 100's of ways to
mount this type of nipple

Some foals will need to drink out of a bottle for a few days or weeks. We have found that lamb/goat nipples are the best. the soft nipples are good for when they are young and the thicker rubber one's are good when they get older .
A normal baby bottle the nipples tend to be a bit small for the suckling lips of a foal. If the foal is very young then the largest human one may work for a short time but it's better to get either a sheep pig or cattle nipple.

Can fit on a standard coke bottle or
 water bottle but is a bit harder in the
foals mouth

This nipple fits this bottle specifically
I find the older foals pull it off so make
sure you get the wall hanger also
or hold it for them

I personally find the cattle/pig one a bit large but because it's sturdy and slightly rigid I find it easier for me to handle getting it in a foals mouth when they are not wanting to eat. The sheep one being smaller is good for the very young ones but the holes will need to be made a bit bigger so the foal doesn't loose interest because they are not getting enough food for their efforts. Once they get used to the taste of the milk they will likely come looking for the nipple and you won't have as much hassle trying to get it in their mouth but at first you might have a challenge. If the foal is drinking water out of a trough and they are ok with the taste of the "fake" milk you should try to bucket feed them. The smaller the bucket the better for them to get that last drop and don't leave milk un attended for flies to get in or the foal to tip it or worse for it to spoil in the sun. You will want to know how much they are drinking and how often. The
sooner you can get to the bucket feeding the quicker your life will get easier.

Teddy

The 3 week old was on the bucket on his second day because he already drank out of the water trough, and liked the taste of the milk and was a pig. The bag said 12lt, 3 feedings of 4 lt. We had a discussion with the manufacturer, not the sales rep, but their true feed specialist. and for his age that was too far apart and for his future size it was not the right volume.  I fed him every 4 hours for the first 3 weeks then went to every 5 then every 6 and so on. Of the feed that we had available in our area he drank 15 leters a day in even volume feedings. The volume will decrease as he gets older tapering down so that he is weaned off milk between 4.5 -6 months depending on condition of the foal and the amount of hay that they eat. If you don't taper down the milk they will not have the incentive to eat the hay if their belly is always full. You'll also want to return to normal sleep patterns.

We have also found a way to rig up a sprinkler system to time the release of certain volumes of feed. Make sure you get a gravity one because there will be no water pressure (usually rain barrel version works) . The sprinkler could then be set to turn on/open and let the milk out on a schedule and drop it into the bucket for the foal to eat.


There are also ways in hotter environments to attach the nipple to an insulated water cooler so that the heat doesn't ruin the milk and the bugs can't get in. The photo to the left shows the cooler, with a rain barrel hose adapter fitted to the bottom of the bucket (home depot $3-7) we did have to drill a hole in the bucket so any bucket will work. Then below the adapter is a sprinkler timer (gravity Zero pressure, Amazon $25) below that is a food/human water grade hose (you don't want led in your foals milk) and it dumps into the foal feeding bucket. Just make sure that you check the timer feeder regularly so that the foal is not ingesting all of it's daily rations at one time and then starving the rest of the day. And because you are feeding a dairy product make sure the units are cleaned regularly. This is great for getting a bit of sleep or running errands. For every 4 hrs we did 2,6,10 round the clock. So we could feed at 10, fill the time bucket for 2am feeding and then feed at 6am and get some rest. or go to the store after 10, and have it feed 2pm and be home by 6. That way the foal was not risking missing a meal and it was not so much time that if the machine failed the foal would get too hungry.

We started from birth on a bottle every 30 min, then at 24 hr every 1 hr, then 48 hrs when the foal was up to 1 pt - 2pt of feed we could move to 3 hrs. we left it at every 3 hrs till the foal was 1 mo, then did every 4 hrs. and then at 2 mo every 6 hrs. increasing the volume to make sure the consumption met the milk label requirements and making sure that the foal could consume that volume. for example our Dumor goat milk was 1 full cup (in the bag) per 2 Quart. the foal was drinking 2 qt every 3 hrs at 2 weeks old then moved to 1.25 qt every 4 hrs, and will evntually be moved to 2 qt every 6 hrs.

Hay and grains

 Even if your foal is not ready for hay or is not eating much of it you need to offer good quality dust free hay free choice to them at all times. Unless there is sufficient pasture, but even then we still offer a bucket of hay for the foal to pick at. Unless you have a very large round bald for the group or the foal is alone you will want to set up a spot where the foal can get in to eat without having the older horses eat the food from them. You can do this with a partially open stall, door tied part open, or bottom section open top closed. Or you can set up a temporary box that is only tall enough or wide enough for the foal to get in and eat but the adults can't. This is also something to consider with the grain/hard feed commonly called creep feeding. Basically you'll find a brand of feed and type of feed best suited for the age of the foal and for your area and then ration out either portion of a ration at a time if they eat fast or a day ration if they eat slow. Keeping that feed available to them around the clock will make up for the fact that you can't be standing there 24/7 with them like their mom would have been.  DO NOT feed senior feed to a foal. SO many vets tell you to, but the reality is that seinor feed is a complete feed that is mineral and protein/fat balanced for a fully grown/geriatric horse. Foals have much different mineral needs for growing. Yes the would survive on senior feed... but ideally for optimal growth and development you will want a feed that is ration balanced for a growing horse. Low sugar and starch is important also, but minerals are key.

Companion horse or Surrogate mare

It's very important that your foal not grow up to think it is a person. Hand raised foals can be very

Teaching to lay down where I am
the teacher and the foal submisses

dangerous when they get large and don't know their boundaries and size.  There is no better teacher of horse behavior than a horse itself. In some cases you can use social media to find a surrogate mare that will take on your foal as if it was their own. That is a dream situation and gets your foal fed without having to go down the path of bottles and buckets and round the clock feedings. The risk to that is that usually the mare owners want the foal to go to the mare and that can put you out of your comfort level. We have raised a foal from day one without a companion mare. We made sure that we

Teaching them to stand on a block
or in this case straw bale.
Reward the task not any bad
behavior or dominance

taught him respect of space as well as introducing some training with him that would support him being submissive. We taught him to lay down, sit down and to stand on blocks. The blocks were less of a submissive thing but his aptitude once he started learning was amazing and his respect for space and humans as boss was incredible. He was put with the first group of weanlings when he was about 2 months old and he was gently schooled by them on how to be a horse. Reports from his current home, where he lives with other horses is that he has learned very quickly and injury free how to be a horse, but still comes quickly to his human when they come to visit him. That is not unique to him as an orphan but seems normal for the Friesian foals that we sell. So we are glad that he's adjusted to being a horse despite being raised by a human.

I had a rare situation where a mare who had not had a foal in a few years, bagged up and nursed a 2 month old orphaned foal and we just supplemented the milk for that foal for the transition time and to help supplement if the surrogate didn't have enough

Orphan Betty nursing on her Grandmother

milk. We bottled for the first few days, then the foal liked the fake milk and we just filled a 1 lt container when she was standing there asking for milk and she drank it up right away. She was also nursing off the surrogate mare, who happened to be her grandmother. The first few days we kept a gate between them so that the foal didn't get hurt and so the mare could adapt to the foal being around. When we could supervise them we had them together. It only took about 2 days for them to work out the routine. There was some squeeling and nipping because a 2 month old came with teeth and was eagar, but there had to be some rules not just a baby torturing the surrogate. We got lucky that we had an on property mare but most of the time you can't get one of your mares or even a surrogate to feed the foal.

Another option is just a kind companion babysitter horse, mare or gelding, or even donkey that will take on the companion and socializing of that foal. If you have other mares with foals then the interaction with those foals will also help develop your orphan's horse behavior. (Donkey in this photo is wearing a sun veil on her nose, pink nose, high altitude)

Easter with her "mom" donkey Daisy and the dog helping out

For any horse that takes on raising (feeding or just companion) the orphan you should expect some amount of behavior training. That can mean ears pinning, a bit of squeeling, even a slight kick or bite from the surrogate. There is a level where it's unsafe for the foal and that horse doesn't want that foal within it's area, but there is also a level of educating that foal on how to act and not act in the surrogates space. Mares who birth their own foals will bite, kick squeal to some extent to make sure that their offspring respect them.  Just think of how 2 adult horses act when they meat for the first time, then how they are 2 days later. But you do have to have some amount of caution even if it means a small fence between the two for a few days till the get to know each other. It might be that the surrogate is only mean when there is food around so eating separate might be safer. That is horse acceptable behavior but don't put your foal at risk if the surrogate crosses the line from nice to mean.

Our 3 week old orphan was out of the mare that fostered the above 2 month old granddaughter, so we had lost our surrogate. We didn't have any other mothers that would feed a foal that was not theirs, not even during weaning when they had a HUGE bag. Other mares that were offered the chance

Teddy

to raise him would get right to ears back squeal kick in less than the time he would be able to react or get out of the way (luckily fence was in the way), obviously not safe for him to stay with them. We did have an Arab mare that was kind enough to hang out with him and teach him manors in a polite way that would not get him hurt. We knew she was right for the job because at the beginning she went through the normal horse communication to tell him when he was out of line, not strait to mean angry. Normal ears back, if that didn't work she turned her teeth at him (not biting), a swish of the tail and if that didn't work she lifted a leg (but not kick). Even if she did get to the level of having to kick, after 5 other warnings, she gently would extend the leg to him. She was a natural born teacher and mom. She knew him because she lived next to him  when he was born. When he was born she was not nice to him, only after he lost his mom, she just knew. To date he's not missing any skin and has no bumps so he either learned quickly or she never hurt him. Heck I have more foals with missing patches of fur from their biological dams telling them to straiten up. and he is very respectful when he's around me, which is good considering he will stay a stallion. If you are a breeder and come across a mare like this you have landed a pot of gold.

We have seen situations where a horse could not be used so a goat or sheep or other similar farm animal is used. This is good for the very young foals that are too fragile to endure a horse initiation or where no horse will be kind to it. But horses should still be along the fence line for them to have contact of some sort. A farm animal is a companion they can touch but it's not a substitute for that horse learning to be a horse so trying to get another weanling at the time of weaning or get them in with a safe horse as soon as possible is the best thing for that horse to learn proper horse behavior.

They need all the love in the world but remember over handling incorrectly can cause them to think they are people and when that cute little baby becomes a giant 1200+ lb horse it can be a very dangerous situation for humans.

Health

At the beginning check their temperature to make sure they are not getting an infection from their surroundings. Also consider putting them on an ulcer prevention program because the stress of loosing their mom and replacement feeds ect will cause ulceration and once a horse is prone to ulcers they will have lifetime issues with ulcers. You'll also need to get them vaccinated accordingly to your area as soon as they reach the age when the vaccination can be safely given because they are not protected by mom. Take regular photos in intervals to track the progress of the foal so you know if you are on the right track with feed. Keep them on a regular worming schedule even if that is monthly or more to make sure that everything they get is going towards growth not worms.

Hopefully you will have great success with your hand raised foal. Losing mom is not always and end, sometimes it's the beginning of a new adventure.

Betty at 2.5 yo

Here are photos of the filly at 2.5 yo that was raised by her grandmother. As of March 2014 she was doing fantastic, 3.5 yo, pregnant with her first foal and getting started under saddle. as of 2017 she just had her 2nd filly and is an amazing mom to both her foals.

Betty at 2.5 yo

Teddy 5 mo with

Companion Wynnar 

Theodoor, the 3 wk foal that was orphaned and raised (not fed) by the Arabian flew from Australia to the US, then met his best friend Gypsy Vanner (Cookie Monster) He is still a stud colt at 3 yo in 2017 and has no behavior issues. He is in driving training and still lives happily with Cookie (stud also)

Teddy 6 mo after flying from AU to the US

Teddy 1 yo with his now friend for life Cookie



2016 - Dec Teddy and Cookie playing

William at almost 2 years old and doing great with his groundwork and tricks! He is a gelding and is doing well with his training.