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Mares carry their young (called foals) for approximately 11 months from conception to birth. (Average range 320–370 days.) [2] Usually just one young is born; twins are rare. When a domesticated mare foals, she nurses the foal for at least four to six months before it is weaned, though mares in the wild may allow a foal to nurse for up to a year.
A foal will begin to eat hay, grass and grain alongside the mare at about 4 weeks old; by 10–12 weeks the foal requires more nutrition than the mare's milk can supply. Foals are typically weaned at 4–8 months of age, although in the wild a foal may nurse for a year.
Some foals can nurse for up to three years in domesticity because the mare is less likely to conceive another foetus. A foal that has been weaned but is less than one year old is called a weanling . Mare's milk is not a significant source of nutrients for the foal after about four months, though it does no harm to a healthy mare for a foal to ...
Maybe the horse was also checking to see if the foal was real because he was sniffing around the animal, trying to take the baby in. Something tells us that this horse is going to love this baby ...
Although known only from Roman contexts, the name Epona ('Great Mare') is from the Gaulish language; it is derived from the inferred Proto-Celtic *ekĘ·os 'horse', [5] which gives rise to modern Welsh ebol 'foal', together with the augmentative suffix-on frequently, although not exclusively, found in theonyms (for example Sirona, Matrona) and the usual Gaulish feminine singular -a. [6]
A foal with wry nose may have poor alignment (malocclusion) of the teeth, [2] although foals can usually still nurse and in most cases are bright and active. [4] Affected horses may have difficulty prehending food (taking food up into their mouth) and difficulty chewing food, which can lead to uneven wearing of the cheek teeth. [5]
Small numbers of stallions are allowed to join the mares for a few weeks in spring or early summer. Each stallion then gathers a harem of mares and their foals to form a larger group of 20 or so. The foals and mares are rounded up in autumn, when the colts and some of the fillies are removed for sale.
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