Question: We expect our Appaloosa mare to foal within the next few weeks. We’d like to start getting the mare and foal used to short periods of separation as soon as possible, as the mare will not be rebred. She will be showing this year with our son, who is in 4-H. What’s the earliest we can start separating the mare from her foal, and for how long can we separate them?

Answer: The immediate postpartum period (the first few hours after foaling) are critical for the mare to recognize and accept her foal, as well as to allow the foal to nurse and receive the benefits of precious colostrum. See my previous post: How often will my foal nurse? for more information on nursing bouts. Almost half of foals will nurse within 30 minutes or so of foaling, while the majority nurse within two hours of foaling.

Question: I keep hearing about self-mutilation in stallions, but I’ve never actually seen it. Can you tell me more about it?

Answer:

Is self-mutilation only performed in stallions?

Self-mutilation can be observed in stallions, geldings or mares, and is also seen in species other than horses, including dogs and cats (paw and tail chewing) and humans (pulling out hair, scratching oneself, skin picking, biting of the tongue, lips, or nails, deliberate infliction of cuts, burns, bruises, and other wounds), and others.

 What is self-mutilation?

Question: What’s the difference between a vice and a stereotypie?

Answer: A stereotypical behavior is a stylized, very characteristic, repetitive, apparently functionless behavior, and is normally a very robust behavior (performed often and difficult to inhibit). Examples of common stereotypies are cribbing, weaving and pacing.

Vices are behaviors performed in reaction to handling. For example, a horse that kicks at a person that approaches while carrying a saddle, but does not kick if the person does not have the saddle would be said to have a vice. The horse most likely has a negative association with saddling and is reacting to the stimulus (visual cue of the saddle) in a negative manner.

Question: How soon after birth will my foal nurse? How often will it nurse? Should I be concerned about aggression by my mare?

Answer: Foals generally nurse within two hours of foaling. Nursing is a seeking behavior, and the foal may try and nurse the wrong end, under the belly, the mare’s neck, almost everywhere until it figures out where the teats are located.

Mares may exhibit semi-aggressive behaviors when a foal seeks out the teats, such as ear-pinning or threatening to kick. However, once a foal is nursing, these behaviors rarely stop a nursing bout. Newborn foals will often nurse about four times per hour, while older foals will nurse about once an hour, with longer and longer episodes between nursing bouts as they get older and begin eating solids. When a foal is very young, the mare will stop a nursing bout, while the foal most often stops a nursing bout when it’s a little older.

Question: Can cribbing make a horse lose weight?

Answer: Horses that crib generally only crib for one to two hours per day, total. This does cause wear and tear on the teeth if the horse grips a wooden or other hard surface during cribbing. This could reduce the horse’s ability to chew and taking in enough food to maintain weight, particularly if the horse is being exercised hard. The horse should be checked for physical discomfort such as gastric ulcers first, though. The horse should also receive a full physical to determine other possible causes of weight loss, including parasites. If cribbing is determined to be the cause of a horse’s weight loss, it is most likely because the behavior is being performed to the exclusion of normal eating and grazing, and possibly in combination with inability to eat properly from tooth wear.

Horses will generally not fast (go without feed) for longer than 3 to 4 hours at a time. They have evolved to eat forages in small amounts frequently. Eating grain is not actually natural for a horse in the wild, and some horses are adversely affected by the over-feeding of grain. Excess carbohydrates can change the intestinal microflora of a horse. Although working horses may require the extra calories obtained from grain, high quality hay will often suffice for maintenance of companion or lightly worked horses. Access to free choice salt and water is also recommended. While some individuals prefer to use mineralized salt blocks, some research shows they can cause colic.

Colic is the term for discomfort in the gut due to the intestinal wall being stretched by gas or fluid. The most common sign of colic is a horse’s refusal to eat. Since horses do not generally fast for more than a few hours, this is often the earliest recognized sign. Horses may also show signs of pain, including kicking or biting at their bellies, sweating, refusal to drink, and rolling.

Question: Last year we purchased a mare in foal. She foaled this past weekend and has rejected the foal! She won’t have anything to do with it, she won’t let it nurse and was kicking at it. We had to separate them for fear she would injure the foal. What makes a mare act like this? Could it happen again? We’re trying to decide whether or not to breed her on her foal heat.

Horses have evolved as prey animals that would, under natural circumstances, obtain the majority of their nutrition from forages. While many horses are still maintained on pastureland and derive all or most of their nutrition from forages, many horses are stabled year round and let out to pasture or paddocks primarily for exercise, rather than to obtain nutrition.

As I was reading through some articles about equine feeding behavior and how traditional (and non-traditional) management methods affect equine behavior and equine welfare, I came across a few links you might enjoy.

The first is a link to the Havemeyer Foundation’s workshop held in Holar, Iceland: Horse Behavior and Welfare.

The second link is to an abstract presented by Nell Davidson, The Impact of Nutrition and Feeding Practices on Equine Behaviour and Welfare.

Question: We’ve had a lot of snow recently, and I’ve noticed my horse eats snow. Should I be concerned about this? Can he colic from eating snow?

 Answer: As long as you are providing plenty of water at least twice a day, I wouldn’t be overly concerned about your horse eating some snow. It’s common for horses to play in the snow, paw it, dig through it to see if there’s any grass beneath it, and to eat some of it. Also, if you provide hay or grain outside, some horses will eat the snow or appear to eat the snow as they search for the last morsels. If your horse seems to have an unquenchable thirst, drinking more than about 10-15 gallons a day without being extensively worked, you might want to talk to you vet to see if there are underlying health issues. If his water is always freezing before he drinks it, you might want to invest in a bucket or tank heater for your waterer. I’ve never had a horse colic specifically from eating snow, but if he’s not getting adequate water intake, he could colic from impaction.

Question: We recently purchased a 10 year old Standardbred stallion from a local breeding farm. He retired from the track 4 years ago and since has been used only as a teaser stallion and supposedly had never actually been used for breeding. We bought him hoping to use him as a driving horse. He was gelded two months ago, but still displays very stallion like behavior. We cannot let him out with mares or other geldings. He herds the mares around and will mount if given the opportunity. He cannot even be stalled right next to a gelding. He kicks the stall wall, keeps his ears pinned, and paces around in his stall. Will his aggressiveness toward the other horses go away? Thanks for any help.