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Discussion on Good mom instinct/bad mom instinct
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Member:
leslie1
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Posted on Thursday, Apr 26, 2007 - 5:08 pm:
Does a extremely dominate mare make a bad mom? Can one tell if a mare will make a good mother?
Im debating whether or not to breed my mare next year. She is very nice/submissive to people, kind eye etc...but in a herd of 50 she was alpha, she ate first and if one of 'em didnt move fast enough she would lay into them, kicking. She definitely doesn't make a good nanny to my yearling. I keep them separate. The yearling bumped into the fence the other day at feed time and the mare went into full blown rage, lunged at the baby with her mouth wide open, literally trembling in rage for 4 full seconds. Since then Im seriously having second thoughts on breeding her. Have any of you guys had problems with dominate mommys? thx, leslie
https://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o219/leslie645/000_1162_0002.jpg
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Member:
mrose
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Posted on Thursday, Apr 26, 2007 - 7:28 pm:
My best brood mare is my most dominate mare. One of our mares that died of old age a year ago, was also very dominate and a wonderful mother. On the other hand, our most submissive mare is also a great mother and is protective of her foals. So, in my case at least, I don't think dominance is much of an indicator as to how a mare will behave with a foal. Also, a lot of mares dislike foals until they have one. As to her actions regarding the yearling, a lot of horses that are kind to young foals feel that by the time they are yearlings they should be learning their "horse p's and q's." I don't know if your mare would have really done damage to the yearling or not, or was just chasing it away and letting it know in no uncertain terms who is boss.
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New Member:
sduke
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Posted on Thursday, Apr 26, 2007 - 8:57 pm:
We have a thoroughbred mare that foaled 2 weeks ago. She has a colt and every once in a while she kicks him. She has landed a few good ones to his hind legs. We are getting concerned that she might break one of his legs and do not know what to do. Any suggestions? We put her outside all day long if it is not raining but our weather is not very nice yet.}
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Member:
mrose
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Posted on Friday, Apr 27, 2007 - 12:30 am:
Stcay, is your mare a good mother otherwise? Is the foal being kicked only when they are in a stall? How big is your mare and how large is the stall? I'm wondering if the kicks are accidents? Or have you seen it happen and know it's on purpose? How old is the foal? Another thought would be: is the mare sore and is she kicking at the foal while it's nursing? Usually this would happen soon after the foal is born, though if the mare develops mastitis it could happen at any time.
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New Member:
sduke
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Posted on Friday, Apr 27, 2007 - 7:52 am:
The foal is a little over 2 weeks old. The mare and foal are in a stall
12x24'. The mare kicks him when he kicks her. He is playing like foals do.
Not sure if she is playing with him but he is small and she is 16.2HH. The
foal had some problems at birth (deformed legs) and we had surgery on them.
A right front carpus had a valgus deformity and the right hind leg rotated
out a bit. They did periosteal surgery on the foal at 2 weeks old. He is
coming along fine and the legs are much improved. Concern is she kicks him
in the stall, out side and in the arena (60x160') does not matter. She
does not kick him often that we know but we have seen her kick him on three
occasions when we are present. He just gets to where he is walking well on
his good/bad legs and she kicks him and he's gimpy again. This is a nice
sized foal (Thoroughbred/quarter horse cross) and we probably will wean
early. We usually wean at 90-100 days if our foals are healthy. We have
had to wean at 2 months due to a broken leg with one of our foals. Any
suggestions? The mare is a good mother otherwise. Mare is not sore and
does not kick while foal is nursing. Mare like being outside and we put her
out as much as possible. If the weather is OK they are out from 7:30 AM
till 7:30 PM. As soon as the weather gets a bit warmer and our fields dry a
bit we thought we would try leaving them out. Thanks-Stacy
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Member:
paardex
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Posted on Friday, Apr 27, 2007 - 8:00 am:
Stacey,I've had similar problems with a mare who was a bit of a wobbler, I thought perhaps she couldn't dose her kicks as good as others?
Anyway we put them in a big stable with a devider in between through which the foal could nurse and put them like you outdoors as much as possible.Perhaps unnecesary measures but I was afraid she would damage him.
Jos
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Member:
paardex
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Posted on Friday, Apr 27, 2007 - 8:10 am:
Oops sorry forgot Leslie whose post this is in the first place[already the wine! ]
Leslie like Sara I've had dominant good mothers, the only thing I can add[and remember I've had only a few foals a year so no scientific proof] is the horses who behaved 'not social' in a group[kicking a submissive horse or when the horse can't defend itself because of illness for example] were from time to time bad mothers. They either misbehaved towards their foals or defended them very much and didn't give them a chance to 'learn the herd rules' from the other horses.
Jos
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New Member:
sduke
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Posted on Friday, Apr 27, 2007 - 9:14 am:
Very good ideas and yes we have put this mare with other mares and she is not social but we separated them again as the field we put them in was to small. We will be moving them to a much larger field when the weather decides to stay 50 degrees or above at night. We have 3 foals and after a few days of the mares taking their foals to different corners of the fields start grazing closer and closer together. Hopefully this mare will do this. I have to say this in the mares defense our other mares know each other and this mare was brought to our farm just before she foaled. We are expecting another 3 foals in the next few months. So hopefully being outside will help. I have thought of partitioning off part of the stall for the foal. I will discuss that with my partner and see if she likes the idea. She had never heard of that before but it is one solution.
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Member:
mrose
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Posted on Friday, Apr 27, 2007 - 9:32 am:
The divider is what I would suggest also. Just be sure the foal is nursing o.k. and often enough. If it isn't, he will need supervised nursing sessions.
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