Mare rejection of newborn foals is an emergency requiring immediate intervention to ensure foal survival and welfare, with causes ranging from pain to inadequate maternal bonding during the critical period.
Foal rejection creates immediate welfare emergencies for both foal and potentially mare. The foal faces starvation, hypothermia, and disease from colostrum deprivation within hours. Physical attacks by rejecting mares cause traumatic injuries. Management requires protecting the foal from injury while working to establish nursing. The long-term welfare of hand-reared foals is compromised by the absence of normal species-specific socialization, creating horses that may have difficulty integrating normally with conspecifics and that sometimes show problematic behavior toward humans from imprinting. Prevention through maintaining the post-birth bonding window is far preferable to managing established rejection.