Orphan Foals Part 2

at her head to block her vision of the foal initially and start by washing her teats and hand milking her make sure she is ok with touching around the flank and teat area first of course! Then bring the foal in and guide it up to the rails some padding above where its head will be is helpful as you dont want to put the foal off from going to drink.
Avoid pushing its head down this will cause a reaction against the pressure get it sucking your fingers which should have milk on them from milking the mare to get the flow going and guide its head towards the udder. It shouldnt take long for the foal to figure out how to get to the udder after a few goes we had to hold this colt back in the beginning as his running towards the mare for his drink would upset her! Once the mare accepts the foal drinking while her vision is restricted start to give her view of the foal while it is drinking and then as you approach with the foal. When she readily accepts the foal through the panel you can start opening up the panel and allowing the foal to feed with her tied up. If shes kicking at the foal this may not be possible so be patient and possibly consider teaching her to hobble by the back legs if you are an experienced handler or if not get someone who is able to help with this.
You could also strap up a front leg with a stirrup leather so shes standing on one leg on the same side the foal is feeding. Be sure to encourage her with kind words and rewards such as food when she does the right thing and try to make progress with each feeding session theres an example of this in the readers story below. W hen it comes time to leaving the mare and foal together you may want to muzzle the mare if shes a biter to ensure the foal is not hurt. This can be done for short periods and should always be under supervision.
We used clicker training to teach this very aggressive mare to accept her foal by teaching her to target the foal touch it with her nose to get a treat. The photo shows us at the stage where she was ready