They may have evolved a stoic appearance to make them less appealing to predators in the wild (as scientists suspect), but horses have complex emotions that extend beyond happy and sad, including deep feelings of warmth and love for their young foals.
A mother's natural ability to nurture, protect, and teach their young. A mare (mother horse) forms a unique bond with her foal (baby horse) as part of the birth process, and this bond remains strong no matter how many other mares and foals are nearby.
This finding suggests that horses form strong memories of conspecifics, able to recognise them even after a long period of separation. This finding also indicates that the mare-foal bond remains strong even when foals reach one year of age and when they have not seen their dam for a long time.
A mare's affiliation with others in her group certainly changes after foaling, with her own foal, as well as her older foals if they are still in the group, generally becoming her closest frequent companions. Mares in a natural breeding group don't usually change their dominance status by virtue of having a foal.
A mare that has a normal, complication-free birth (and the large majority of mares do) usually experiences some vaginal bruising, minor tears and abrasions, which heal within about a week. Any more serious foaling complications -- bleeding, breaches of the vaginal canal or rectum, ruptured internal organs, etc.
Fear of the newborn foal occurs when the mare does not recognize the foal as her own baby. Instead of the normal bonding behavior, the mare tries to get away from her own foal, as if it is an intruder. The mare will eventually acclimate to her foal, but may not bond very well to this foal.
It doesn't happen very often, but sometimes a mare will refuse to care for her newborn foal. Walking away and ignoring the foal is a mild form of rejection; not allowing the baby to nurse is more serious; and in the worst cases, some mares kick, bite, and have even been known to kill their foals.
Oxytocin levels in the mare normally fluctuate with a circadian rhythm that peaks at night. This way, uterine contractions will often not start in force until the time when the mare's natural daily production of oxytocin rises – between the hours of 8pm and 1am.
An ideal age to breed is from 4 to 12, but this does not mean you can't breed older mares – some mares still conceive and carry healthy foals into their mid twenties!
Mares reject foals for a variety of reasons including excessive stress around foaling time and separation during the early formative period. In some cases, there is no obvious reason. Foal rejection is more common in mares with their first foal (maiden mares).
Horses generally love children: most horses are a much gentler and nicer version of themselves as soon as a child is around. Horses usually take good care of the children — they just sense that someone in need of protection is standing in front of them.
Not only is the research robust that horses will remember us, it is also the case that they probably like us and possibly miss us when we are not there. Horses, as herd animals, are evolutionarily designed to be social, to form bonds with herdmates, and to form particular attachments to specific others.
In the wild, herd stallions recognize and protect their offspring, and observers have often seen dad babysitting the kid while mom takes a well-earned break.
As a result, stallions have evolved strategies to safeguard against raising other stallions' offspring. And one of these instincts is to kill young foals – especially males – that are probably not their own, if the opportunity arises.
Horses are more attentive and aroused when “baby talk” is used – study. Horses seem to respond better to the upbeat tone adults often use when talking to young children. Researchers, in a fresh study, have shown that this “baby talk” attracts the attention of horses and has an arousing effect.
While many mares whicker softly to their newborns, other mares may squeal upon being touched, nudged or butted by their babies the first few times. They may be expressing discomfort, or reacting like they might when meeting another strange horse.
You can comfortably continue to ride your mare until she is about 8 months into her pregnancy and even compete safely, however after about 6 months you may just want to reduce her workload and slow things down a bit. Watch her closely and adjust her exercise accordingly.
When a mare is approaching her foaling date it is best to disturb her as little as possible, especially during the night. Most mares will foal between the hours of 10pm and 2am, but parturition (aka birthing) can occur at any time of day.
Weaning is usually done somewhere between 4 and 7 months of age, although some ranches leave their foals on the mares a bit longer. After 4 months of age, the foal's nutritional requirements exceed that provided by the mare's milk, and most foals are eating grain and forage on their own.
If it's extremely cold or a drafty barn, a blanket may be beneficial but then we have to make sure the foal is adapting to the blanket and able to get up and down and move normally,” Sheerin says. We don't want the blanket to inhibit the foal's movement or entangle his legs.
Continue to worm the foal every 4-6 weeks alternating between pyrantel and fenbendazole until the foal is six months old, monitoring with worm counts when worming is due for best practice.
Mares are driven to protect their foals from following other animals, including humans, that may try to “steal” their foals away. If a mare is not vigilant during this time, a phenomenon known as mismothering might occur in which another animal successfully adopts and attempts to raise her foal.
Remember the 1-2-3 rule.
1: Foals should stand by one hour of age. 2: Foals should successfully nurse by two hours of age. 3: Mares should pass her fetal membranes within three hours of delivery.
Being able to touch your foal all over at liberty is an important pre-requisite to training to lead. In those first few days and week, spending short periods with the foal many times a day, just being friendly and finding all their 'itchy' spots will encourage their natural curiosity.