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Disgusting Situation and abuse of Arabian foal.

9K views 45 replies 26 participants last post by  Super Nova 
#1 ·
Since yesterday, thousands across the world, have watched this Arabian mare, savage her baby. The owner has had phone calls and emails, yet stands by and does nothing. She is THE perfect example of someone who should NOT be breeding horses. At this point, I consider the owner an abuser.

http://www.marestare.com/fcam.php?alias=acorn

If anyone knows this woman or lives close by, please do try to do something. This baby will die soon if it doesn't stop. The mare has kicked, chased and bitten this baby savagely since yesterday.

Lizzie
 
#16 · (Edited)
I haven't seen the video on mare stare, but the descriptions sound like classic foal rejection, where the mare just refuses to accept the foal. Somewhat common in Arabs, and more common in maiden mares. It is absolutely possible for the mare to kill the foal, and more commonly, for the foal to fail to thrive because it's not getting the food it needs.

You try a bunch of different things to get the mare to accept the foal, but really, I never found any of them to work for long.

Conventionial treatment is to restrain the mare so the foal can nurse for the first 24 hours or so; then remove the foal and either find a nurse mare for it or raise it as orphan.

I'm assuming these people got advice for a knowledable breeder or vet and separated them.

ETA: I have a little problem with calling this abuse. If this mare foaled in the pasture or completely unsupervised, the foal would die from hypothermia or a failed immune system since it wouldn't get adquate colostrum. The worst thing that can be said about the owners or caretakers would be they didn't know how to handle the situation and didn't act immediately. That doesn't even meet my standard for neglect, let alone abuse. If failing to act immediately when faced with an unknown situation is the standard for abuse, lots and lots of us are guilty.
 
#17 ·
I haven't seen the video on mare stare, but the descriptions sound like classic foal rejection, where the mare just refuses to accept the foal. ..

ETA: I have a little problem with calling this abuse. If this mare foaled in the pasture or completely unsupervised, the foal would die from hypothermia or a failed immune system since it wouldn't get adquate colostrum. The worst thing that can be said about the owners or caretakers would be they didn't know how to handle the situation and didn't act immediately. That doesn't even meet my standard for neglect, let alone abuse. If failing to act immediately when faced with an unknown situation is the standard for abuse, lots and lots of us are guilty
.
THIS

I am just seeing an empty stall also, but from the sounds of it, the mare rejected the foal. That is just one of the risks of breeding horses. It's not abuse, it's just how nature works sometimes.

From the comments, it sounds like mare and foal are still together, but who knows...
 
#19 ·
Thank you, Maura. As usual, you're the voice of reason in a sea of hysteria and hyperbole. :wink:

I've seen mares reject foals. It happens more often than people might think.

The owners might be noobs who think if they just left the foal with mamma, maybe she'd finally accept it. Lord knows, if ignorance were a death sentence, plenty of people on this very BB would be dead. :-p
 
#21 ·
A very common practice is to sedate the mare. Then she might make grinchy faces at the foal when it approaches, but will still let it nurse. Rather than outright attacking it as would be the case if the mare was not sedated.

In the absence of hard evidence or any back story or history what so ever, I'm going to assume that the poor mare owners didn't have information about mares rejecting foals and were taken aback by this development. Once they did have the correct info, it appears they took appropriate action.
 
#22 ·
A very common practice is to sedate the mare. Then she might make grinchy faces at the foal when it approaches, but will still let it nurse. Rather than outright attacking it as would be the case if the mare was not sedated.

In the absence of hard evidence or any back story or history what so ever, I'm going to assume that the poor mare owners didn't have information about mares rejecting foals and were taken aback by this development. Once they did have the correct info, it appears they took appropriate action.
I did read on another forum that the owners had never had to deal with this type of behavior before. I am just relieved to see that the mare is much calmer now and allowing the foal to nurse and sleep.
 
#23 ·
I see a foal laying there. I agree with the ridiculous notion of calling this abuse.

When Zierra was born, Zena wouldn't let her nurse. She was a maiden Arab mare, and she kept kicking and biting at her. My grandpa has bred Arabians for decades and said it was common in maiden mares, the teats hurt and they just don't understand. We ended up having to twitch her hard, and my grandpa crawled underneath carrying a rather weak Zierra and helped her nurse. After that, we had zero problems and Zena was a dedicated mother.

Sometimes it's not always what you think. The vast majority of people would have assumed Zena was rejecting her foal, and we avoided crisis.


 
#28 ·
I see a foal laying there. I agree with the ridiculous notion of calling this abuse.

When Zierra was born, Zena wouldn't let her nurse. She was a maiden Arab mare, and she kept kicking and biting at her. My grandpa has bred Arabians for decades and said it was common in maiden mares, the teats hurt and they just don't understand. We ended up having to twitch her hard, and my grandpa crawled underneath carrying a rather weak Zierra and helped her nurse. After that, we had zero problems and Zena was a dedicated mother.

Sometimes it's not always what you think. The vast majority of people would have assumed Zena was rejecting her foal, and we avoided crisis.

That's a beautiful story, and picture :)

I fully agree, There's a mare that's kind of "mine", she's a project horse. Anyway, she was a WONDERFUL mom, she would nicker all the time to her foals, clean them really gently, and just be great... But her very first foal, she rejected. She pinned her ears back, and even lunged at the poor creature with her teeth bared. But after a while of human intervention, Silver finally accepted the foal, and turned into the wonderful mommy she was with all her other foals.

(I didn't witness any of this, just what I've been told and seen on her birthing videos)
 
#26 ·
Sorry to disagree with some here, but I do think it is a form of abuse, for the owner to watch two full days, as a baby is savaged by the mare. At the very least, it is abject irresponsibility.

I gather they finally sedated the mare, which seemed to have helped. The cameras are now turned off and many/most of the tweets etc., made private. I do know many offered advice and help, but it was ignored. At one point this morning, the owner apparently told a caller she thought everything would be ok and that she was going off to work.

I hope the little filly has survived and the dam eventually accepts her.

Lizzie
 
#29 ·
I am with you on this one. These people obviously had enough sense to put the camara in their to watch the mare foal in the first place. Now that the foal is out, if there are any other reasons for concern it should be taken care of. I think I read earlier that they thought the mare was biting at her baby because it wasn't nursing ENOUGH. That sounds like they were trying to pass off her aggressive behaviour as her being a good mom. They were just trying to explain it away and make excuses. It sounds like they might be doing something about it now though, so that's good.
 
#27 ·
I don't believe "letting nature take its course" should be done in this case. Especially just sitting back if the mare is intentionally trying to kill the foal. She was purposely bred and the owners should be responsible for what she produces...

Anyways, not my foal, not my horse, not my call
 
#30 ·
Sorry, I am just not as eager to pass judgement on these mare owners.

One, we're working with extremely limited information - just the mare stare video. We have no idea what was taking place behind the scenes, what advice they were being given, etc.

Two, dealing with a mare attempting to reject is incredibly frustrating and time consuming. It's difficult to balance the conflicting needs - of course it's best for the foal to stay with it's birth mother for a half dozen reasons, but at some point the risk of staying in with the agressive mare outweights the benefit. We don't know if these owners have a 1.) a nurse mare 2.) the ability to bottle feed (these is brutal - foals nurse every 2 - 3 hours round the clock.) 3.) the ability to separate the mare and foal. I suspect the folks rushing to judgemnt have never to deal with this type of issue or decision.

It's very easy to second guess the decision after the fact and from a distance.
 
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