At 19:32:36 on 26.04.11, zoelovesanimals wrote:
I am currently reading a fascinating book about the healing of horses, and what horses say by Julie Dicker and am finding each case study amazing as the next, but one that really stood out was a mare grieving over her foal which was stillborn. The foal was left with the mare for a few days so that she could grieve and on the day that the mares owner had arranged for the foals body to be taken, it say: 'I noticed there were already a few hummocks of grass over the little filly, i think Becca had tried to bury it herself. Mares will very often do this if they get the chance' I had never heard of this and i found it quite interesting, and i wanted to know if anybody else had heard of a mare doing this. And also wondered whether you think a mare that has lost their foal should have a certain amount of time with the foal to grieve

At 23:43:30 on 27.04.11, JessAndGrenville123 wrote:
i hadn't heard of that but when a mare lost a foal where i used to ride they took away pretty soon and gave her an abandoned foal to look after, this foal would have died witout her and if she had been given more time with the dead foal she probably would have rejected the abandoned foal so it all depends on the situation i think :) here is a pic of a orphan shire and his new mum

At 23:48:07 on 27.04.11, JessAndGrenville123 wrote:
some mares even accept a orphaned foal in addition to their own if adde in at the right time, like here the foals are different ages but the orphan was introduced when the mare gave birth to her own so she thought they were both hers

At 10:02:19 on 28.04.11, Em28 wrote:
Aww that's very sad Ive never heard of mare's trying to bury a foal, although I am very glad Ive never had to experience that it would be heart breaking. I know in the UK there is the National Foaling Bank. I think it would be important to try and replace the dead foal with an orphaned one asap to help in the chance of them bonding. I remember watching a video at College of a dead foal being skinned and put over an orphan foal to help the mare bond. Pretty hardcore stuff but if it works!
http://www.nationalfoalingbank.com/

At 10:30:19 on 30.04.11, luvponies16 wrote:
I think a mare should have time to grieve over her foal. Any animal can experience grief and I think that the mare could actually feel better if she had this time with her foal. I've never heard of the burying thing though!

At 12:52:38 on 30.04.11, crazycowgirl99 wrote:
At a stud where I used to work we had a mare abort a dead foal. Im not sure how far along she was but the baby was fully formed but had no hair yet & its skin was almost transluscent. It was so sad. We left Sasha with the foal, she kept trying to get it to stand up but because its skin was so soft she kept biting holes in it. It was heartbreaking to watch. She didnt try to bury it but Im not sure she really had the chance, as soon as she stopped standing over it & trying to get it to respond & seemed to accept that it was gone we took it away. It probably took about a day & a half. But I guess, like people, every animal deals in their own way in their own time....

At 14:39:53 on 05.05.11, canter wrote:
Again people put human emotions onto their pets. In the wild horses would leave their dead offspring shortly after they got no response from the new born. Dead animals attract predators and as we all now horses are prey animals. I have had one still born foal born in the stable. The mare tried to get her foal up and the vet came and checked the mare as she had a red bag delivery and it was quite difficult for her. The vet told me to give her a feed. I opened the door and let her out of the stable. She whinnied to her friends in the field, ate her food and then went to the gate without even looking back. She trotted over to her friends ears forward and pleased to be back outside. Dead foals left with their mothers forcefully eg. Locked in a stable or small paddock will become distressed as dead animals attract predators. How unsafe does that make them feel!!! This nervousness is often sadly mistaken for grieving.

At 14:44:52 on 05.05.11, canter wrote:
Its not surprising the mother left with her foal tried to bury it. As i said earlier dead animals will attract a predator of some kind. Maybe a whole family of hungry predators will turn up. Mum could be petrified they will eat her next!

At 22:06:21 on 01.06.11, Montezzy wrote:
I've not seen anything with a mare and foal but i've seen it with my pony. She used to share a field with another pony and they shared a field for years and had a very strong bond and one day i went down to my yard to ride her on a day course and i went up to get her to find her partner had passed away in the night and she had popped hay on top of him and didnt want to leave his side. she seemed very down and didnt want to do anything for the next week or so.

At 04:31:18 on 02.06.11, SonicGirl94 wrote:
my gelding grew really close to this one mare and she recently moved barns. he was very depressed for a little over a week he began to lose weight and i got really scared for a while, but soon enough he got over it and now hes totally fine. I think it was different with him because the mare was actually alive compared to a Canters mare and the stillborn foal