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Orphan Weanling Care? 5-6mo.

2K views 24 replies 5 participants last post by  secuono 
#1 ·
Hello, I'm not sure if this is in the right place, admins, please move if it's not. Thanks.

I am wondering what the proper care would be for a colt that is 5-6mo old, as in an actual intact male horse?

With baby missies, there was no extra special care or consideration for me, since my boy is a gelding with absolutely zero interest in the ladies. ;)

I may be getting one and it would be my first colt, and second weanling that is slightly older. He will be castrated once both drop, as I have ZERO interest in keeping a stallion. I do not know if I will get him yet or another horse, so this is moreso just for me to be fully educated.

If he takes a long time to drop or not, is it best he has his own pasture and/can he slowly make friends with my mellow-jello gelding?

If not the gelding, I have 2 mini mares, both young and friendly. But I do NOT want any breeding to take place, so fence line or supervised time only. I worke from home, so I have a ton of time to be right next to them in small pens and watch them.

I will Google typical ages for dropping and will have my large animal/horse vet aware and ready. But for a small horse or large pony, what are the typical drop times?

Is there anything I need to be extra careful of or aware of?

I plan to treat him like an adult horse, no getting away with being pushy or showing me his bum or other such things, as my other three know not to.

He would be a riding horse in 4-5 years, so just leading, hoof trimming, worming, general ground work for years. Lunging at about 3yrs, unless he happens to be too desensitized, like my pinto is, then I'd use my other horse or mini to show him the ropes of move off and lunging then back off for months.

He is bucket fed and loved on, so I know he may be a snot to some extent and if I can use my herd, they will be good for him to teach basic good manners. Pinto needed a bit more refinement, but it wasn't bad and has only needes one refresher. =)

So, any tips, tricks, extra insights, please let me know them!

Thanks!

I will keep you posted about a possible colt coming home or not.

=)
 
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#3 ·
As long as your gelding is a good babysitter, there is no reason why you can't put the weanling colt in with him, assuming you have good fences. My 3/4 Arabian gelding, who was also my hunter/jumper show horse, was the best babysitter for weanlings since he loved to play and kept them out of trouble by showing them the ropes but also taught them horsey manners.
 
#4 ·
I don't see why he couldn't go in with your gelding. If your gelding is such a good baby sitter he will be perfect. He's just a baby, not a bloodthirsty social wreck stud!

I would personally never put a full sized horse in with minis, ESPECIALLY not a young one (more playful and less social skills= more likely to get hurt badly), so that alone would be out. As far as young mares, he may be fine he may not. If you are concerned about breeding then I would never have them in a situation they could possibly breed in, supervised or not...what are you going to do, run and jump in between them?:eek_color: lol.

He has the potential to breed at some point yes, but other than that he's just a little baby, so don't overthink it. You have foal experience and you sound like you've thought this out well so that's that.

I do think it's better for a foal to have an actual herd as opposed to one friend, but obviously that is often easier said then done!

Good luck, let us know!
 
#5 ·
My gelding is the same breed the baby is and he is 13h. They are saing the baby will grow to 13-14h, or hopefully will. Gelding is super mellow and lets the mini mares boss him around. No idea what the baby's personality will be like, but if it ends up similar to my boy and baby seems to get along individually with each horse, then I may one day put them in a large pasture and see if they will all become a herd or if issues crop up and I'll have to have 2 herds with my gelding flip flopping between the two, since the girls adore him too much.

I'm going to see the baby in a couple weeks, so I'll post a picture.
 
#9 ·
Hurricane Matthew caused such a mess! Even in southern Virginia. Tons of flooding, half of towns without power, huge trees down everywhere. =/ The waves were up to the boardwalk at VA Beach, water in hotels. It had taken a hard right turn, but still nailed Va. A tree fell across the highway, stopping traffic dead for 45-55min, on our way down. Then flooding forced us to take another tunnel, then zig zag around closed roads. Many cars abandoned where they got stuck in flood waters, backwards at sides of roads, in people's yards, center curbs.
Crews are working as fast as they can to clear roads and get power back.

After sleeping on a rock of a bed and getting 3hrs sleep, we carefully made our way to meet the little guy. We are approved if we decide to take him.

Lady that got cut off in the pics is the one who came out in the middle of the night to take him to her center and care for him.

I forgot my boots and DH forgot his sandals...sorry. We were at the beach before. I watched my feet and them, no issues with close calls, they are well behaved horses.

He's got plenty of itchy spots to rub!
 

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#11 ·
So it looks like we are getting him!
DH let me know days that will work so we can make another trip down. Will contact CWHF and see if the pickup date will work for them.
I am so excited!!!! ♡☆♡☆♡☆♡☆♡

He has lots of itchy spots to use for positive reinforcement training, so I used them for getting him to let me rub on his face, ears, pole and then to let me rub down to his front knees. He might need an elbow block or two as well for the knee issue, but seems to be smart and mellow enough. Had no issues with back legs, butt, tail, flank and belly rubbed and messed with.

Surrogate momma threatened the dog that was there twice, but he pretty much was clueless over it. So that's good.

I'm now trying to figure out how to trailer him home comfortably. Our trailer is a stock/horse with no divider, but has a chest bar. I was thinking of securing thick plywood to keep him away from the chest bar. He would be loose in the trailer. But I am wondering if I should get some good square hay bales and secure them along one or both side walls to limit his possible tumbling space in there and so he has something soft to lean on instead of the hard metal. It would also be his first trailering experience and I don't want him slipping, tripping, rolling and slamming around in that big space. Floor has good rubber mats and will have shavings on top.
 
#14 ·
Oh, I am queen of pic spamming!! I will post before loading, right after loading, during transit, unloading, several as he's getting used to life here before dark, next morning pics and then zillions all the time until he starts to become a 'regular' and then every few days or if something new happens. I also take tons of videos!!! Will link those as well!!

It will be about 4wks before we will pick him up. =/

Still super excited!!!!
 
#18 ·
Finally got in contact with the foster to answer some questions I had.
Picking up hay he is on this weekend to help wean him onto my hay. Then will pick up the hard feed he is on this weekend as well once the hay is in place.
Adjusting the barn and pen he will be in this week.
He has been around hot wire, but it is not always on, so since he knows the general idea of it, I'll be adding hotwire to his pen without worrying too much of him freaking out over it.
And lastly, cleaning up the dusty trailer, putting on new tires and getting it inspected.
13 days! Yippy!
 
#22 ·
String & leg tested at 12h. Does it work the same for ponies or horses from the wild on a scarce diet & get a bit taller once on good diet? Seems like an odd stunted reversal thing.
 

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#23 ·
More pictures of the greatest money pit I've ever had! Hahaha. But he's a good boy, can't wait for autumn so he can be gelded!
Still hoping he grows taller, but ehhh. He'll make a kid a great pony if he doesn't grow up, up, up! Lol
 

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