# info on nurse mare foals



## lamoncha lover (Mar 1, 2009)

anyone have info or personal experience with raising or locating a nurse mare foal? I have kind of been thinking about it for awhile and think I am going to research whats out there. Any info appreciated.


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## Rogo (Jan 1, 2006)

I've raised a lot of foals out of my broodmares, but I have no idea what you mean by a 'nurse mare foal.'


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

Rogo said:


> I've raised a lot of foals out of my broodmares, but I have no idea what you mean by a 'nurse mare foal.'


Me three.

Do you mean a urine collection mare?


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## malinda (May 12, 2002)

A nurse mare is a mare who takes on an orphan foal that does not belong to her.

I've heard from some animal welfare groups that the mare's own foal is taken from her so she can be a nurse mare to another foal, but that doesn't really make any sense. Why make an orphan foal, just so another orphan foal can have a mom? Some mares can/will raise two foals anyway.


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## SFM in KY (May 11, 2002)

I'm told (but can't tell you for sure if it's the 'true story' or not) that there are some owners who breed mares that will accept another foal and in the KY racehorse business where the foals are potentially worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, those owners will take the foal off a surrogate mare and send the mare to the TB farm to 'adopt' the TB foal. I expect the age the mare's actual foal is would determine what happens to the foal.

I don't know anyone who does this or anyone who uses this option ... but I have heard that it is done. It does seem to be (as far as I've heard at least) rather specific to the TB racing industry.


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## DamnearaFarm (Sep 27, 2007)

SFM has it, sorta. 
Typically nurse mares are used when the mother of an expensive foal is unable to feed it's foal, due to death or hospitalization. And yep, it's primarily done in the TB industry.


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

Might be a good idea to get a milking doe got to foster the nurse foal on to.


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## Rogo (Jan 1, 2006)

Had a friend whose mare hadn't been bred for years, but when a foal was near the mare's milk would come in and she'd push the foal to her teats. No introduction was needed.

Vets from all over the state would send folks to this mare if their foal was orphaned or rejected by its mom.

I've also seen many goats take on all kinds of critters and save them. The goat owners built an area with a ramp that was added to as needed, that raised the goat up as the foal, or whatever, grew.


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## kotapony (Apr 17, 2010)

This group has been around for years. I've never dealt with them so can't say much about them other than I've browsed their web site for a long time. They're in Ohio but could probably provide some good first hand info if you gave them a call.

http://www.lastchancecorral.org/foal-rescue

~Katie


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## RLStewart (Sep 10, 2006)

My dh said one of his customers had a couple of foals that she got really cheap because their mothers were nurse mares. I'll try to remember to ask him if he knows anymore about it. I know he said they were having trouble with keeping them healthy and that they looked pretty rough. Not sure how old they were.


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## TRAILRIDER (Apr 16, 2007)

I bought a foal from a nurse mare about 12 yrs ago. he came from KY, the mare was a percheron, the sire a TW teaser. The man who sold him to me kept mares for just this reason. But her foal was not "made an orphan" he was ready to be weaned when she was taken away from him. That day he was put on a van up to me in VA. He was the best horse I ever owned. (Not because of him being from a nurse mare, he was just a wonderful horse.) Down here in Lexington KY area where I live, alot of people breed mares to be used as nurse mares. They are usually very good to accept any foal.


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## TRAILRIDER (Apr 16, 2007)

And BTW I don't agree with the PMU mare thing at all. The way those mares are treated is appalling. I would never use premarine for that reason alone. However, if the mares were bred, foaled and treated right from the get go, I would have nothing against women taking it (if they wanted to.)


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## jill.costello (Aug 18, 2004)

My mom "ordered" a nurse mare for a foal of her's who's dam died 24 hours after foaling. The nurse mare's name was Spider and she was a big motherly TWH. She came from a farm where there were about 30 mares, all trained to accept any foal. They were bred on a schedule that would allow for a mare to be available from Feb-July, i.e. they were each bred a week or two apart so that their foals would be at weaning age staggered throughout the foaling season. The beauty of it was, if they did have to send a mare off to save an orphan, and her foal wasn't _quite_ ready to be weaned, they had plenty of mares at the home farm willing to take her foal. It was a nice setup and "Spider" was a good momma and saved our foal. The only requirement from us was the 4-month lease price (I think $1800.00) and that we send her home pregnant. Imagine their surprise when the TWH/Hanoverian foal was born the next spring! OMG!!! ;-)


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## malinda (May 12, 2002)

jill.costello said:


> My mom "ordered" a nurse mare for a foal of her's who's dam died 24 hours after foaling. The nurse mare's name was Spider and she was a big motherly TWH. She came from a farm where there were about 30 mares, all trained to accept any foal. They were bred on a schedule that would allow for a mare to be available from Feb-July, i.e. they were each bred a week or two apart so that their foals would be at weaning age staggered throughout the foaling season. The beauty of it was, if they did have to send a mare off to save an orphan, and her foal wasn't _quite_ ready to be weaned, they had plenty of mares at the home farm willing to take her foal. It was a nice setup and "Spider" was a good momma and saved our foal. The only requirement from us was the 4-month lease price (I think $1800.00) and that we send her home pregnant. Imagine their surprise when the TWH/Hanoverian foal was born the next spring! OMG!!! ;-)


Wow, Jill, that's a really neat story!

I once suggested a nurse mare for a an orphan foal on the Wisconsin Horses BB, and got totally blasted for even thinking of suggesting such a thing! I was told that nurse mares' foals were ripped from them at only a few days old or killed at birth - of course this made no sense to me, and by "nurse mare" I really just meant a mare who would adopt the foal, as there are plenty of mares who are just so motherly they will take almost anything. At that time I didn't know that there were "nurse mare" farms that a person could lease a mare from.


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## SFM in KY (May 11, 2002)

malinda said:


> I once suggested a nurse mare for a an orphan foal on the Wisconsin Horses BB, and got totally blasted for even thinking of suggesting such a thing! I was told that nurse mares' foals were ripped from them at only a few days old or killed at birth - of course this made no sense to me, and by "nurse mare" I really just meant a mare who would adopt the foal, as there are plenty of mares who are just so motherly they will take almost anything. At that time I didn't know that there were "nurse mare" farms that a person could lease a mare from.


The Animal Rights/ PETA/ HSUS people and individuals with that kind of mindset seem to delight in making things sound horrible even when they aren't. "Good stories" like Jill's DON'T BRING IN DONATIONS.

It's easier for them because most of the people they are pitching to aren't horse people themselves. They don't understand that if you are in the 'nurse mare' business, you keep mares that will accept foals that are not theirs, you breed them successively so that you have mares in milk longer than the usual 4 or 5 months ... and that if you send a mare out on lease, her foal will be the oldest, can certainly be switched to another mare. It would be very rare for a mare to need to go out on lease with her foal only days old, with no other mare available. It would be totally counterproductive to take a foal from a nurse mare if she wasn't going out on lease ... with no foal to nurse and stimulate milk production, she would dry up so you wouldn't have a milking nurse mare available if it was needed. 

But try to convince someone who is convinced that the propaganda put out by the AR groups is wrong! :hair


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## mamahen (May 11, 2002)

Search for orphan foals Ohio. The rescue is Last Chance Corral.

http://www.lastchancecorral.org/foal-rescue

They take in many, many foals every spring. I don't believe they have any right now. But they are all tiny babies. Like a week old when they get them (sometimes less). They are adopted out once they are taking nurishment well and are stable. Still only weeks old.


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

I thought that generally when a valuable mare is bred and the foal is to be raised on another mare, they transfer the embryo into the surrogate mother and she foals and raises the baby. Didn't know that there was an industry to hand over newborns and rebreed the mother. Seems harder on all involved, nor does it give you more than one foal per year for the TB mother, like using surrogates.


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## jennigrey (Jan 27, 2005)

The Jockey Club does not allow egg or embryo transfers (or AI or cloning for that matter).


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## jill.costello (Aug 18, 2004)

GrannyCarol said:


> I thought that generally when a valuable mare is bred and the foal is to be raised on another mare, they transfer the embryo into the surrogate mother and she foals and raises the baby. Didn't know that there was an industry to hand over newborns and rebreed the mother. Seems harder on all involved, nor does it give you more than one foal per year for the TB mother, like using surrogates.


No, I don't think you are understanding: The "nurse mares" are available for emergencies, not for raising a foal while the expensive dam quickly gets re-bred... we do THAT all the time, lol! (re-breed a mare while her newborn is just 3 weeks old)

No, the nurse mares are sent back to their owner's when the emergency foal is weaned, and need to come home already pregnant because it would be too late in the year to breed her for a foal that would arrive "on time" for her to be ready for the very next spring season. Mare gestation is 11 months & 2 weeks, so all mares need to be re-bred quickly if you want a springtime foal each year (or, a mare in milk in the springtime of every year.)


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## jamo (Jun 6, 2002)

I didn't have much luck with it. I had a mare that began nursing my 7 yr old mini donk. I checked around and the only luck I had was at the race track. They wanted to take her away. A no go for me!


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