Foals

When Woody and I started plans to build our farm, we designed it knowing that one day, I wanted to have foals. So we chose our fencing and stall designs carefully, so that in the future, the farm would be safe and ready for baby horses. Last week, perhaps a year earlier than I thought we would, we adopted two nurse mare foals.

Nurse mare foals are a bit of a sad thing. Mares are bred every year to produce milk for other, more valuable foals. The foals that these mares give birth to are taken away and often picked up by rescues dedicated to this. Our foals are from Eleventh Hour Foal Haven which is local to us.

We adopted a chestnut pony filly who we are calling Sansa, and a bay colt we named Newsie. Sansa is not quite two weeks old now (born March 3), and Newsie was born late last year. Since he's older and a horse (not a pony like Sansa), he's a lot bigger! Both of these foals are too young to really be away from their mothers, so they eat mostly milk replacer. We mix powdered milk with water and they drink it out of buckets. They also get a little grain and hay!

People have been asking me about the long term plans for these babies. Right now, we are working on getting them used to be handled. Things like halter training, being scratched all over, touching their ears, feet, etc. For the first few years of their life they will just be growing up and learning to trust us. They'll learn to be groomed, learn ground manners, and learn to respect humans. It will be years before they learn how to go under saddle!

That being said, what happens with them when they are older will really depend on how they mature. If they are fancy enough to be show horses, that would be great! Newsie is a cute little mover. Sansa's legs are still pretty crooked (normal for a young foal), so she doesn't run around too much yet. It's very likely that once they are going under saddle, maybe with some show experience, they will be for sale. If Newsie gets big enough, he could be Woody's horse. If Sansa is as fancy as she is flashy, we might lease her out instead of selling her. If they aren't fancy but are calm, they could become lesson horses somewhere. It all just depends! The important thing is that they've found a good home with us where we will love them and train them.

And, of course, I'll be sharing their stories here on my blog. Expect lots of pictures of these two!

 Newsie on the left, Sansa on the right.

 Sansa enjoying a nap in the sun.

Newsie saying hello to his big brother Roanin.