Need Some Horse Help

So I have been watching Dixie and Luna in the field for a few days. Yesterday I spent almost an hour watching them. I do it from a distance so they have no idea I'm there.

Luna 'runs' off and does her own thing 95% of the time. She spends more time walking with our other mare than she does walking with her mom. I have only seen her nurse about 2-3 times a day max and they are all for very short times and only if Dixie allows it. She has been kicking her away and biting at her to quite. But every once in a while she will let her nurse for minute or so. Luna has scabs all over from Dixie biting her. Also Luna is eating feed, hay and grass and is drinking out of the trough.

Now every time that we pull Luna out of the pasture it takes Dixie about 5-10 minutes to even realize she is gone. She calls for Luna and on the first day Luna called back. But for the past week she hasn't called back. The funny thing is she calls to the other horses when they neigh. Dixie gets all worked up over Luna being gone but Luna could care less. When we put Luna back in the pasture with Dixie she follows Luna everywhere and wont let her walk away. Luna seems annoyed by it and really doesn't understand why Dixie comes charging after her when she tries to walk away. And then again after a few minutes things go back to how they were before Luna left.

Me and my husband have been reading ALOT and have read multiple times that when you have a difficult Mare you want to wean as soon as you notice the foal eating on its own and leaving mom in the field to be on its own. And the reason it gives is so the foal doesn't learn the bad habits its mother has. The thing that has me confused is that she is only 2 months old. It does say some foal mature faster than others and some can be weaned as early as 2 months. But...

The guy at the farm doesn't wean his horses he says he just lets things go. So he doesn't really know what to do. Dixie has to go up for sale as soon as possible cause we cant afford all the horses, we were only expecting 2 not 4. LOL. But I want to make sure I don't mess Luna up. You know what I mean??

I sent this to Bajaluna in a pm and she told me to make a thread of it (after giving her advice of course ) and see what y'all think.

so what was Bajaluna advice.....going back SO many years when my Gran had them, she was abit like your Farmer friend and left it to themselves....think that's the old way. She used to let nature take it course, and if I can remember back that far, I'm sure she would of left it a couple more weeks before moving them on to go thier own way.
Mind you we are taking over 40 years ago.........hope it works out. Fingers XXXXXXXX

I told her the earliest I would consider weaning would be 4 months xx

yeah - id leave it to 5 months at least tbh....

Ok what I read was that weaning should start around 3-5 months and depending on the mares and the foals depends on when its best. This whole thing is confusing to me. I don't want Luna to continue getting 'beat up' in a sense from Dixie and I don't want Dixie to 'rub off' on her. But at the same time I don't want to wean Luna too early and cause her unnecessary problems.

The other thing that I asked Bajaluna was is all this normal. Dixie has just come of 3 and is very young herself. I know instincts generally take over but could she be trying to wean Luna early herself?? Is that behavior weaning behavior?? Like I said I am very confused. LOL

I've never had mares and foals myself, only bolshy geldings, but I have seen a lot of breeding going on at yards where I've stayed with my horses.

When you put up those gorgeous pics the other day of them both, the first thing that quite shocked me actually, was the fact that Luna was lying under that tree on her own away from her mother It really shocked me considering she was so young, as I know from my own experience that this didn't happen with any of the mares with foals at foot up at the stables at such an early stage I've got plenty of friends who would know and I will try and ring one of them later for you who is very experienced in all of this, her mares were always having foals, but then of course bajaluna is very experienced anyway, so I'd also take her word as gospel!

My gut instinct would be that this mother is not a very good mother, Luna has sussed that out herself probably, and that's why she's trying to latch on to the other mare, who's probably had her own in the past and could also realise this is not quite right? Either that or, Luna herself is thinking to herself, because of the way her mother is towards her, that this is it, she's got to fend for herself, go it alone, find some food etc. etc. I really don't know, I'm not very clued up on this, I've not had any dogs who've had puppies, nor horses, nor even myself with kids! I'm just giving you my gut instinct on all of this, but if it were me, I think my first port of call would be to my vet and ask him if this is normal behaviour with a foal so young?

All the best, it must be quite frustrating for you, but I would never have thought in a million years that a mare would actually physically hurt her foal by biting it, unless it had done something terribly wrong? They're usually so very gentle with them aren't they. All very strange, but as I said, my first thoughts on those pictures was that it WAS very strange to see such a young foal fending for itself under that tree with the hay! All the best, I hope you come to some conclusion with all of this.

Have you considered hand rearing her 'til she is a bit older?

I have never had horses myself but my auntie had to hand rear her boy from 4 weeks as his mother would not accept him at all, his temperament was lovely as an adult, no probs at all and he was kept with another mare and an OAP shetland pony!

Best of luck with her. x

I would never consider weaning a foal at 2 month's unless the momma dies, you can't give the anibodies that luna's mom is providing through mares milk, do you know how much milk intake the baby is sucking in each feed? And unless you are with her 24/7 you can only go by what you see in the wee while in the 24 hours in the day/night, also if you don't want the momma, why when you found out that she was in foal, did you not give her to someone more knowledgable, Bajaluna and myself are from families who have bred horses and the only time as I said is a baby taken from it's momma was when a mare died of a broke leg and the baby was 2months old.
Can you teach the baby herd behaviour? Can you teach the baby how to play.Can you also teach the baby how to defend herself against coyotes like the momma can, her momma might not be a good one but she is still her momma, let her be for a few more month's then sell the momma if you dont want her, but give the baby the best chance, you can and IMO is by leaving her with the momma.JMO

I've been wondering, and as I said before, I don't have any experience with this, but I wonder if the mare has kind of ignored her baby because you might have been handling her and taking her away from her too much too soon? I saw the pics where you had taken her away etc. etc. and I do remember that when my friends were handling these babies they always, always had the mother with them? Just a thought?

Bang on I had a mare that foundered and the foal was 2 months he didnt do well,it was very expensive for the special feed and milk replacer

valid point, in a herd situation the babies learn from all the other horses to and a young mare will leave her baby to the older ones only feeding it,kinda like a teenage mom leaving it with grandma