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A foal at about weaning age. A foal is an equine up to one year old; this term is used mainly for horses, but can be used for donkeys. More specific terms are colt for a male foal and filly for a female foal, and are used until the horse is three or four. When the foal is nursing from its dam (mother), it may also be called a "suckling".
A weanling horse is a foal that has been weaned, usually between four and six months old. Once it is a year old, the horse is referred to as a yearling. Weanlings are separated from their dam and often grouped with other weanlings to keep each other company. Weaning is a very stressful time for a foal. [4] [5]: 231
Editor's note: This is an updated version of the original story. Three young foals showed signs of injury prior to the removal last week of seven horses from a Cumberland County horse farm ...
Most mares foal at night or early in the morning, and prefer to give birth alone when possible. Labor is rapid, often no more than 30 minutes, and from the time the feet of the foal appear to full delivery is often only about 15 to 20 minutes. Once the foal is born, the mare will lick the newborn foal to clean it and help blood circulation.
The eyes are blue. A few lethal white foals have been shown to be deaf. [3] [5] Healthy foals pass meconium, the first stool, soon after birth. Some healthy foals may require an enema to assist this process, but the meconium of LWS foals is impacted high in the intestine, and never appears, even with the use of enemas. [3]
Prior to weaning the foal, there is usually a creep feeder set up to allow the foal to begin consuming feed that the mare cannot access. [31] There are two main approaches to weaning foals, abrupt and gradual weaning. [30] Abrupt weaning is when the mare and foal are separated, [30] usually without contact.
Neonatal maladjustment syndrome (NMS) is a syndrome where newborn foals exhibit uncommon behaviors, occurring in three to five percent of live births. These behaviors can include aimless wandering, hypersensitivity to loud sounds and brightness, weakness or coordination issues, and the incapability to nurse.
A filly is a female horse that is too young to be called a mare.There are two specific definitions in use: In most cases, a filly is a female horse under four years old.; In some nations, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, the world of horse racing sets the cutoff age for fillies as five.