chev said:
Foals achieve around 90% of their adult height by twelve months, on average. Bear in mind that these grpwth charts have been based heavily on TB derived horses; natives, drafts and cobs tend to gain more height later while QH types often reach mature height slightly earlier, so it's not a hard and fast rule.
Weaning at 3.5 months is not ideal at all. Yes it can be done, and yes, in parts of Europe it's standard in some places to wean at 4 months, but that does not make it the best thing to do. Foals can suffer growth retardation if they're not carefully fed when weaned early and it can affect mature height.
By far the most serious implications however are the results of several independant studies that have shown without doubt that early weaning (before the age of 5.5 to 6 months old) significantly increases the risks of the development of gastric ulcers in foals, and of 'vices' like windsucking and cribbing in adult horses.
Remember that a foal left to wean in a feral herd would usually be weaned when his mother drove him away, any time between 8 and 12 months old. Often the youngster wouldn't be weaned until the birth of his mother's next foal was iminent. Now in domesticated situations that's neither neccessary nor truly desirable; but when you consider the enormous stress that weaning causes (whether visible to us or not) it is a shame that so many people are in such a hurry to wean so early.
One independant study of foals artificially weaned at 3 - 4 months old showed that 90% suffered gastric ulcers post weaning, as opposed to less than 10% of foals weaned at six months old. None of these foals would have been diagnosed or treated for ulcers under normal circumstances; the ulcers were noted as a result of the studies. I find that really worrying.
Haha, Chev, we have this argument again
I would never let a horse stay on the mare longer then 4.5 months or so (unless there were odd circumstances), and I'll tell you why.
First of all, the foals should already be eating hay/grain with their mothers. They are less dependent on their mothers for nutrition. Peak producution for a mare's milk is 2 1/2 months, and gradually begind to decrease from that point on, losing all nutritional value between the time of 3 1/2 months-4 1/2 months. Secondly, I have never once heard of growth retardation occuring because the foals were weaned too soon-in fact, I've heard the exact opposite. Once weaning occurs, they start getting the nutritional values that they need for a healthy growth that is no longer provided by the mare by eating full rations of hay/roughage instead of depending on the dam.
M. Phyllis Lose, VMD, author of the book, Blessed Are The Foals, takes it a step further. She cbelieves that it would be of benefit to the youngsters if all foals were weaned at 9 weeks of age, providing that they were placed on an appropriate milk sub-stitute and a balanced hay and grain diet. She contends that with today's milk substitutes, along with feeds that are produced precisely for foals, the hand-raised foal often surpasses those raised by mares as to size and development at equal ages, with much stronger bone density.
"Natural" weaning in humans at age two or three, sometimes older, has been proven to slow down mental development. It's possible the same is true for horses, IMO.
In all honesty, I don't think there is a true answer. I know that the equine studies / vetrinarian programs around here are no longer advocating letting a foal stay on the mare longer then 5-6 months max, and instead are pushing weaning between the ages of 3-4 months.
I think the best advice is to take a look at the foal's development, both physically and mentally. If he's growing well and is able to handle weaning, there is no reason why you can't wean early. But if he is not physically developed or is extremely dependent on his dam, there is also no reason not to wait another more or so and make it as stress free as possible
