Orphan foal care is time consuming, but with a little effort on your part, your motherless foal can grow and develop just as normally as a foal staying with its dam. While foals may be orphaned permanently, due to dam death, foal rejection, critical illness of the mare or foal immediately following birth, or insufficient milk supply, foals may also be temporary orphans (for a few hours or a few days) if their dams are shipped off to be rebred without them. Most mare owners will try to avoid this situation by taking the mare with the foal for breeding or using shipped cooled or frozen semen if allowed by their breed’s registry.
Alternative colostrum (such as high quality colostrum from another mare or from a colostrum bank) is often administered to orphaned foals at the rate of 250 ml every hour for the first six hours of life. Fresh or frozen plasma (20-40 mg plasma/kg foal) may be given instead of colostrum. As standard care for foals (orphaned or not), most veterinarians recommend checking immunoglobulin status 12 to 24 hours post-foaling. An IgG level of 400-800 mg/dl or greater indicates passive transfer of immunity has occurred and the foal does not require extra colostrum, colostrum replacer, or plasma. There are several commercially available tests that are easy to use and provide accurate, quick results.
Nurse Mare vs. Milk Replacer
Nurse mares are usually seen as the ideal replacement for an orphaned foal’s dam because the foal will be able to nurse however often it wishes and will learn to interact with the mare normally, and will probably be turned out with other mares and foals if possible. However, it is not always possible to obtain a nurse mare, as they can be quite expensive to lease or may not be available when needed. 
Most mares will accept a foal after about 12 - 72 hours of fostering. She will usually nicker and allow the foal to nurse easily. The owner of the foal generally does not have additional feeding costs (such as for milk replacer) than are normally associated with raising a foal after the foal and nurse mare bond, but the cost of obtaining the nurse mare may be more than the expected value of the foal.
Mare milk replacer is different from cow milk replacer, and may cause gastric problems ranging from gas and diarrhea to constipation. Foals may be raised on 2% cows milk fortified with 20 gm dextrose per liter. Fresh water, hay, and good-quality creep feed with at least an 18 percent crude protein should be offered from 2 weeks of age (Naylor and Bell, 1985). Bottle fed foals are also prone to tossing their heads, pawing the ground, and kicking if frustrated, which can be dangerous for the handler. Bonding between to orphan foal handlers can be reduced by feeding the foal from a bucket. While it may take several tries to teach a foal to drink from a bucket instead of nursing a bottle, it will reduce the time needed to feed a foal from a bottle and the potential for bonding to the handler or injury of the handler by a frustrated foal. Foals are generally weaned from milk replacer at 3-4 months of age onto solid foods.
Orphan foals also need to be socialized properly or may show fear, nurse themselves (suck on their sides or legs, etc.) or nurse other horses, or may even lose their ability to communicate with other horses. A pony is often used as a role model for an orphaned foal, although other horses (non-lactating mare or gelding) may accept the foal as a “foster foal” as well. Nanny goats have also been used for socialization and nursing of orphaned foals, but may not provide adequate quantities of milk.
Additional Resources:
Naylor, J.M. and Bell, R. Raising the orphan foal. Vet Clin North Am Equine Pract. 1985 Apr;1(1):169-78.
E. Grogan, S. McDonnell. Sept. 2005. Mare and Foal Bonding and Problems. Clinical Techniques in Equine Practice, Vol. 4, Issue 3:228-237.
Knottenblet, D., et. al. 2004. Equine Neonatal Medicine and Surgery.
While many of us have horses, they may lead different lifestyles. While I might have a broodmare, three yearlings and seven performance horses, someone else might have pasture companions who just need enough nutrition for maintenance without becoming overweight. Here’s a link to the list of articles provided by Purina Mills regarding nutrition of horses of all different types of lifestyles. I hope you find this link interesting and useful, as there are a wide variety of articles for you to peruse.
Horses with limited turn out time may try to make up their forage intake during turn out, especially if they clean up their hay shortly after receiving it in the stall. Horses will not naturally fast for more than 3-4 hours, and it has been suggested that more stereotypies (cribbing, weaving, stall pacing) are seen in horses that are fed rations high in concentrates (grain) and/or small amounts of very high quality forage. Horses tend to move more in the summer than in the winter.
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