Wild foal

Question
Help!! Me and a friend are planning on going to the auction in Nov. We are planning on going a getting a foal each that we will bring up and train trouble is that the foals will prob. be very skinny ect... (they are foals vrought for sluaghter) they ae perfectly good too the buy that brings them just donest have time for them and leaves them out on the range . What will be the best grain and hay?I was thinking alfalfa(round bale for free feeding) and cob or crushed oats I just dont know and also the foals will range for 6mnths to 2 years i will be getting 1 that is 6mnths or arount there? And the foals have no handling what so ever :(

Answer
Kimberley,

I am sorry but I can't tell you what the age of the foals might be as I don't know how the auction is going to be held.  If you are doing the bidding you'll have to rely on yourselves as to what you chose to bid on.  I sort of assume they are weanling age which would put them around 6 mos.  

As far as feeding goes.  The alfalfa hay will be fine.  Don't worry about grain for a little while.  ou don't want to colic them.  You will want to worm them as soon as you can but you'll have to do some work with them first.

I would bring them home and put them in a stall.  You may have to simply back the trailer up to the barn and figure out how to get them off the trailer and into a stall.  You want a relatively small area to work with them at first.  A round pen would also work but they will need shelter which was why I suggested a stall to start.  It won't hurt them to be in for a little while to get acquainted with you.

Start out by just encouraging them to get to know you.  I usually sit on a bucket and read a magazine or something aloud so they can observe me, listen to my voice and get used to my presence.

As far as grain goes I would go easy with that to start so that their systems get a chance to adapt to it.  Rather than a straight grain look for one of the commercial mixes that is designed for youngsters.  It will have the right balance of carbohydrates/protein and necessary vitamins and minerals for them.  There are a lot of them out there, I would look for one that has a fat content of at least 6% fat; 10% would be better.  Start slow with the grain.  If they are interested in it then that may well be a good way to get them to warm up to you.  If they don't know what it is try sprinkling it on the hay so they get to eat it.  It won't take long for them to look for it, trust me.  They will get up to 3-4 lbs. of grain a day fairly quickly once they do start eating it.  Just increase it slowly.  Give them only as much as they will clean up in a reasonable time.  Good alfalfa hay will supply much of what they need although a little short on calories.  That's why you want to add the grain.  They will gradually lose whatever ribbiness they have over several months.  Slow gain is better for them.  

When you can get them to trust you enough to touch them, if they are that unhandled, try starting with grooming.  I hope they will have at least gotten halters on them, or neck straps or something!  Biggest thing you have to do is simply get them to trust you.  The rest will come with time as you build on that trust.  When you can worm them make sure it's a wormer effective against ascarids as well as other worms.  Ascarids are only a problem in youngsters.  By the time they are 3 most horses have developed an immunity to the ascarids and they are no longer a problem.  Until them it's recommended you worm them once a month until they are a year old.  


You've set yourself a big task here.  It takes and enormous amount of love and patience to get essentially feral horses to trust you.  But they will come around.  A round pen is helpful at this stage but the work can also be done in a stall.  If you aren't familiar with working with a horse in a round pen do a little research either with a book or a video from the likes of John Lyons, Pat Parelli, Richard Shrake, Kurt Pate, etc.  Mainly have patience, that's the key.  These babies will be traumatized by all that they have been subjected to in order to get them to auction so it will take some time to get them over that.  But, they are babies and will come around, usually pretty quickly.  

Good luck with this venture.  If I can be of any help once you get them home let me know.

Lyn