Weaning Beretta

In spite of the fact that it took a couple of extra days to actually get the job done, Beretta's weaning went very smoothly. It never, ever pays to get in a hurry when it comes to babies.

Chunk can be convinced to do pretty much anything if feed is involved...

This poor mare! She is just too darn pretty to be allowed to stay in this ridiculously fat condition. She can be a very nice mare to handle, but horses have a tendency to be belligerant and stupid when they are obese. However, in this case, her gluttonous nature actually came in handy.

Beretta was trying to be very accomodating through the whole process...
Keeping things quiet and as stress free as possible is so important with these little guys. Ramming them around can show up for a long time down the road.

It ended up going just like this...


I simply walked up behind the door, untied it and slowly eased it closed.

We headed to mom's, where these two were unloaded into the barn and allowed to settle for about an hour. Beretta was moved into a stall. I caught Chunk, wormed her, pulled mane hair for her DNA testing, hopped her back on the trailer and away we went. At that point, I was moving too quickly to take the time for pictures.

We are so fortunate to have the means to remove the mare and foal from each other's vicinity. Both get a little anxious as long as they can hear each other, but as soon as they are out of earshot from one another, it really is amazing how quickly they settle down.

I dropped Chunk in the pasture with the rest of the horses... Caught Megan's Strawberry and headed back to town. Ring around the rosie with ponies-Sheez!

Beretta looks very good, but weaning her came none too soon. She has a bit of lumpy joint going on...
Oh yay-yet more pictures of a horse that needs their feet trimmed! Well, little miss is going to have to wait until her training catches up before that gets done.

Most foals will go through a period of lumpy joints and usually come out of it without supplements. We prefer to supplement with Lampley's A-Z and Basic Mineral. That was not possible with feeding Beretta and Chunk together because Chunk is not a "sharer" of feed, even with her own foal. She allowed Beretta in there just enough so she learned how to eat grain, not enough that she ever got a meal. The first order of business will be to get Miss Beretta on her own ration with the supplements she needs.

So far, Beretta seems very sweet. We will have to see how accomodating she is about being haltered tomorrow.