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mind that your stepping in must occur within the first
twelve hours of the foal’s life to ensure that its
nutritional needs are met. Another option is to find a nurse
mare that could take on the foal as her own. Draft breeds
are generally known for their willingness to raise orphaned
foals.
Of course, once you choose to step in yourself, you will
take on a commitment that last several weeks, and which must
be carried out with great attention to detail. You may use a
commercially prepared horse milk replacement. If all else
fails, you can use cow’s or even goat’s milk until you have
a chance to stock up your stable with the appropriate
supplement. Obviously, whenever you are using a milk
replacement you will need to ensure that you follow all of
the manufacturer’s directions since failure to do so will
result in the foal’s experiencing diarrhea or other signs of
stomach upset. Usually it is a good idea to begin by getting
an accurate weight of the foal as soon as possible. A scale
is preferred to a weight tape simply because the latter
gives way to overestimations while the former will provide
you with the accurate figure you need to come up with a
correct weight on which you can base the amount of milk
supplement to use.
Another aspect that adds to the cumbersome task of nursing a
foal by hand is the enormous frequency of feedings. For
example, a healthy foal will nurse as often as eight times
an hour in the first month of life. The quantity ingested at
each feeding is relatively small – usually only 50
milliliters. Therefore, it is wise to begin feeding your
foal every two hours and then training it to accept milk
replacement from a bucket or other sturdy container. If you
are persistent, you will be able to successfully teach the
foal and ease your job, since you will only need to
replenish the milk replacement once every day.
After the foal has mastered the skill of drinking from a
bucket, you will be able to introduce it to solid feed, such
as hay or simply grass. Usually, this will be most
successful during the foal’s second week of life. Keep in
mind that there are commercially available grains that are
formulated specifically for foals, yet it is important not
to overfeed the animal, otherwise you may have to deal with
scours as well as onset of obesity.
Last but not least on your to-do list for hand-rearing a
foal is the necessity of ascertaining the animal’s
developmental rate. Keep a close eye on rationing its milk
replacements as well as grain so that you will not overfeed
the foal. Do not worry about stunting the animal’s growth!
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