From The T I A Newsletter, October, 1992.

It's Weaning Time Again

    Horses have been weaned since horses began, and we're still trying to get it right. The latest chapter in the never-ending tale is a survey in the September 18 issue of the Thoroughbred Times on weaning methods used at various Thoroughbred farms. 
    Among other reports, the article tells of a study done at Texas A. & M. of two groups of foals weaned by two different methods. 
    According to the Times story, "One group was completely isolated from the mares [who were] taken far away out of sight and sound . . . the other group merely separated from their mothers by a safe fence. . . . The foals selected for the gradual-separation process were put into a weaning pen with safe, wire mesh fencing. Their mothers were in an adjoining pen where the foals could see, smell, touch and hear them, but could not nurse." 
    The study recorded that the nine foals in the gradual-separation group whinnied 87 times during the first hour compared with 850 times by the total-separation group. During the fifth hour, the score was 22 to 409. A measurement of stress hormones found that the total-separation group showed significantly higher levels. 
    I relay this report because my own experience with weaning by the gradual-separation method [and the experience of our clients, too] has been identical. It's simple, it's virtually stress-free, and injury to foals is just about unknown. 
    The method is especially useful for breeders whose farms are so small that they can't move mares out of earshot. 
    Weaning without stress or injury. Try it; you'll like it. 
    We have to add a disclaimer that we aren't responsible for injury or anything else bad that happens if you follow that recommendation, but if you do have such problems, you'll be the first that we've heard of. 
 

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