Mare and Foal Behavior

Inadequate maternal behavior of mares and mare and foal bonding problems are rare in natural social environments. Management that best accommodates natural behavior can help avoid or overcome problems in domestically managed horses.

1. Introduction

A basic understanding of normal and problem mare and foal behavior under natural and domestic social conditions can be valuable to the veterinary practitioner for (1) education of clients to manage foaling to best support normal mare and foal bonding and foal development, for (2) providing professional assistance in instances of inadequate or aberrant maternal behavior or mare and foal bonding problems, as well as for (3) advising on common questions concerning normal and abnormal foal behavior during development, early intensive handling, and least-stress weaning of foals.

Parental Behavior in Horses

Studies of mare and foal behavior under natural social and environmental conditions as observed in various free-roaming and semiferal populations with original references have been summarized elsewhere.¹  In brief, care and protection of the neonate and developing foal involves principally the dam and her harem stallion but also includes some contributions as needed from other adults and even older juveniles within the natal band in the form of assisting with retrieval of a lost or stranded foal or directing a neonate to the dam, should it attempt to nurse a herd mate. 

Normal maternal behavior includes attention to fetal fluids and membranes during and immediately after parturition and positive attention to the neonate, including olfactory investigation and Flehmen response, licking, nuzzling, avoiding walking on, keeping intruders from approaching or interacting, allowing and facilitating sucking, and standing guard near or with head and neck over the foal whenever it is recumbent. Attention to the fetal membranes and fluids is common, but ingestion of the afterbirth as is common in some species is rare.² Under natural conditions, the strategy of horses for dealing with the predator-attracting birth fluids and membranes is to move away from the birth site as soon as possible. The harem stallion can often be seen encouraging the foal and mare to move on to a fresh site as soon as the foal stands, even before nursing.

The foal’s behavior appears to play a role in stimulating the dam’s response and vice versa. In its first coordinated movements immediately after birth, even before standing, the foal appears to orient toward the dam, reaching for her head and appearing to seek nose-to-nose contact at first. Upon standing, the foal appears to be instinctively attracted visually to follow horizontal edges at nose height, which in nature is usually only the dam’s abdomen. Along with assistance of the dam’s reverse parallel orientation to the foal and likely olfactory cues as the foal approaches the udder, this instinctive behavior brings the foal’s lips to the flank and udder.

Under domestic management, care of the foal is generally limited to the dam. Detailed descriptions of mare and foal behavior under domestic conditions can be found in publications of Dr. Katherine Houpt³ and her student Dr. Sharon Crowell-Davis.⁴ When isolated or when housed or pastured with unfamiliar horses, some individual dams appear hypervigilant and demonstrative in their role of protection of the neonate, perhaps due to lack of the social support for this role within a band under natural social conditions. In pasture groups of domestically managed horses, the behavior of other mares is typically either ambivalent or positive toward a dam and neonate. Gelding herd mates may show protective behavior of the dam and/or foal, as under natural social conditions a harem stallion would guard and protect his band. Most geldings, like stallions, are especially protective and tolerant of foals.

Mare and foal bonding problems have been detailed in Grogan and McDonnell.⁵ Briefly, there are at least six distinct types of problem.

1. Good maternal protectiveness misunderstood as aggression toward foal. Probably because of the domestic practices of isolation and confinement for foaling, some dams appear especially stressed concerning foal protection and care. When confined in small or “trapping” spaces with poor footing and obstacles, foals can easily be injured by a mare trying to position herself between her foal and a threat. For example, if her hay is fed at the rear of a stall, a dam with strong instantaneous reaction to threats may inadvertently trample or bump a foal into an object in the process of responding to a threat at the front of the stall. Adequate space and facilities with minimal provocation of protective behavior is recommended until protectiveness usually naturally wanes over the period of 3 days to 2 weeks.
2. Ambivalence. Primiparous mares, as well as weak or painful mares, may have delayed interest and response to the foal. The onset of intensely protective behavior is typically not immediate and may be first seen as late as 18 to 36 hours after parturition. Under natural conditions, other adults, including the harem stallion, appear to assist such dams with protection of the foal and with keeping the foal with the dam. Support of the foal in staying near the dam and supervised nursing is recommended, with typically a good prognosis for onset of adequate to excellent maternal behavior and bonding with the foal within 2 to 5 days.
3. Fear of the foal. Some mares, almost always primiparous, react to their neonate with fear behavior as some horses may react to species such as swine or camelids, with which they have not been exposed. Positive reinforcement–based systematic acclimation, similar to what is effective in helping a horse overcome fear of other new objects, procedures, or situations, is recommended, with typically a good prognosis for eventual acceptance of the foal adequate for maintenance of the pair.
4. Nursing only avoidance or aggression toward foal. Most often this is judged to be due to sensitivity at the flank or udder, sometimes in association with obvious udder discomfort. Relief of udder discomfort and positive reinforcement–based acclimation to touch of the flank and udder as well as supervised nursing or milking and bottle-feeding at the udder are recommended until the foal is accepted.
5. Savage attack. Just as some stallions intermittently attack people, some mares that show otherwise good maternal behavior, intermittently attack their foal. Attacks can involve biting, kicking, thrashing by the crest of the neck, and stomping in a sustained manner similar to that of a horse killing a small mammal. If the foal survives, the mare typically returns to good maternal behavior and then repeats at some later date. In confirmed cases of savage attack, immediate separation is recommended. It can be expected that the mare may repeat with subsequent foals.
6. Foal stealing. A near-term pregnant mare may steal a neonate from a weaker mare. When the thief mare foals, she typically abandons the stolen foal in favor of her own. Foal stealing is rarely observed in horses, except under crowded conditions and synchronization of foaling, for example, induced parturition in feed-lot conditions.

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