horse drying up

Question
I have just seperate a mother and her yearling(she is almost 2).  How long will it take the mother to dry up.  Should she not be eating certain things. like grass, hay or grain.  Thanks Don

Answer
Dear Don

If your mare is still nursing an almost 2 year old, she is one of those extremely tolerant mares.  You'll want to remove all concentrates and grain from the mare's diet for at least ten days.  Alfalfa is also a bit rich and if you can find some good grass hay that will help. Once you separate the mare and filly and reduce the richness of the mares diet she should dry up within a month. Exercise seems to help also. Some mares will continue to ooze a bit of fluid for months after weaning. This is normal and as long as she isn't nursing the filly it will eventually go away.  Chances are the filly isn't nursing terribly often now and your mare probably isn't producing a lot of milk.  You will want to keep an eye on her teats for the first couple of weeks to make sure you notice any problems like mastitis.

Are your horses in pasture?  If you put them back together and the filly begins to suckle again, the mare may begin to produce.  I had one mare who flatly refused to self-wean.  I separated them the first time for a month.  Put the colt back in the pasture, he began to suckle and she was back to lactating.  Tried it for six weeks, same problem.  I finally cut a deal with one of my neighbors and sent the colt over there for the summer.  When he returned he wasn't interested in nursing and she wasn't offering.  This was a somewhat odd circumstance as most of mine will self-wean as yearnings.

Good luck.
Lynne Curtis Gudes
"Common sense isn't."