Weaning the lone foal

[gotrocks]

I'm going to be gelding my colt in the next few weeks, and then late November, early December I was thinking of weaning him. He is really large, very independent, and eating well. I only have one other alpha homebred mare that I own and keep at home and I worry if I just wean him and leave him next to my mare that he will then get super attached to her and not learn the necessary social skills of herd behavior. I'm in Western Loudoun county and surrounded by other farms, but I'm not familiar with any breeders in the area that might be willing to board a foal. He's been handled daily as I only have two paddocks and a barn, and ideally I would like to find him 24 hour turnout with other young horses in a nice field with a shed. I'm sure I'm not alone....anyone have any thoughts?

[EventerAJ]

I weaned my only-foal this year with an old gelding as a buddy. I added the gelding in with mare & foal for a couple weeks, then took mom away. Old gelding was the perfect friend for my weanling-- taught him manners (mom did not!) but was kind and gentle. Recently, my weanling has transitioned to having a quiet 5 y/o gelding as a temporary pasturemate, and they also get along very well together.

This has been my first only-foal experience; I'm used to having herds of similarly-aged playmates. I must say, though, the adult horses have instilled a level of respect (for me!) in my colt that he would not have achieved from group turnout with other weanlings. If you have a safe older horse to turnout with, I think that can be just as good (or better) than a weanling group.

[VirginiaBred]

Put your weanling with at least two others so you don't create a herd bound situation. Odd numbers are best!

Best weaing days in November:
November 9th - 13th are the good times to wean

Best weaning days in December:
December 6th - 10th are the good days to wean

[half*pass]

Put your weanling with at least two others so you don't create a herd bound situation. Odd numbers are best!

Best weaing days in November:
November 9th - 13th are the good times to wean

Best weaning days in December:
December 6th - 10th are the good days to wean

Can you please explain why those days are the best?

[VirginiaBred]

Sure. I am the one who has the "Weaning By The Signs" information that each year is put in the "Sticky" at the top of this forum. Here is the reasoning behind weaning this way:

This explains how "The Signs" works for those of you who wish to learn how to figure the dates yourself.
Weaning by The Signs

"We wean by The Signs if it's convenient. Many of the farmhands feel better if we do it that way. I guess it's just like walking under stepladder--you may say that you're not superstitious, but you'd just as soon not go under it."
Those comments, made almost 30 years ago by Preston Madden, owner of historic Hamburg Place in central Kentucky, at the time represented a felling prevalent among a sizable number of horsemen that "The Signs" is one thing that should be considered in deciding when to wean a foal. Many horsemen still feel that way, and even the farm managers who won't admit to believing in the theory might steal a glance at a Farmer's Almanac as weaning time approaches in the fall.
But what are "The Signs"? And how does a mare owner decipher those odd-looking zodiac symbols in the almanac if he wants to be certain "The Signs" are "right" for weaning?
The fundamental principle of astrology is that the moon, sun, planets, and stars somehow are able to exert an influence on events in our everyday lives here on earth. How this might happen is anybody's guess, but proponents of the pseudoscience are certain that it does happen, and farm managers who wean by "The Signs" usually have substantial anecdotal evidence; they remember entire foal crops weaned by "The Signs" that turned out well, and individuals weaned when "The Signs" were"wrong" that had nothing but problems.
Valid or not, this is how weaning by "The Signs" works:
It takes the moon a little less than 28 days to complete on orbit around the earth, and on any given night during that lunar cycle, the moon appears to be near on of a dozen groups of fixed stars, or constellations. These are the same constellations that make up the 12 signs of the zodiac familiar to anyone who ever has read a horoscope --Pisces, Aries, Taurus, and so on.
Two thousand years ago, astrologers assigned each sign of the zodiac to a part of the body. Every 28 days or so, as the moon moves from on constellation to the next, it also moves progressively from one part of the body to another, from the head (Aries), to the neck (Taurus), the arms (Gemini), the breast (Cancer), the heart (Leo), the bowels (Virgo), the kidneys (Libra, the loins (Scorpio), the thighs (Sagittarius), the knees (Capricorn), the legs (Aquarius), the feet (Pisces).
The idea is to wait until the moon has moved to a sign (or part of the body) that is below the part of the body you are working on. The thinking gets a little fuzzy here, but the theory says that since you are weaning a foal's body (apparently without his lower legs) it is best to wait until the moon--and therefore "The Signs"-- is below the knee. To do this, locate a calendar for the month in question, find the little diagrams, representing the signs below the knee (Aquarius for the legs and Pisces for the feet), then locate those two signs on the calendar.
The calendar will indicate on which days of the month the mood enters those two signs (although theses dates will differ slightly from the almanac). Weaning supposedly can be done safely on the days when the moon is "in" Aquarius and Pisces (legs and feet).
This works out to a 4-day window for "safe" weaning each month, ending when the moon chugs back up to Aries, sign for the head. The actual dates vary from month to month because of the variance between the moon's regular 28-day cycle and the calendar's 28-day to 31-day months.
The effectiveness of weaning by "The Signs" never can be confirmed.

[gotrocks]

I think the 6th looks great for my schedule...thanks Randee!

[VirginiaBred]

Excellent!

[sporthorsefilly]

I followed VB's suggestion and weaned my foal started on the 13th of October, by the 15th she had totally bonded with my babysitter mare, and two year old. This is the second time that I have weaned by the signs and it is just excellent. I sincerely believe that this is the very best way to weaning. Good Luck with you weaning.

[VirginiaBred]

Great to learn!!! We've done it for over 35 years!!! It works!!!

[fivehorses]

I followed weaning by the signs thanks to VB's post...5 years ago!!!
I also gelded by them as well.

Another thing I did, which I would do again, although this colt was a unplanned pregnancy with a mare I had rescued out of a feedlot. So, I do not plan on anymore foals. That said, what I did was simple.

I put the mare in a separate paddock during the day, and put foal and a senior gelding he knew in their old paddock. They were literally next to each other, so it was not too stressful, although foal wanted momma's milk plus his hay and grain(little piggy). Stall time, same thing, next to each other but no way to connect.
I did this for a good 4-5 months, and have a very happy horse who is not herd bound.