Hi Help...
Congratulations on rescuing these horses!
Could you build a chute, where mother and foal fit and cannot escape?
When you have them in together, you can start with "advance and retreat", always retreating as soon as the foal relaxes at your touch. Please watch the lessons on wild horses and the chute here on this Uni, so you'll have the best possible start.
Let us know how you progress,
Miriam

Hi helpIlovehorses,
I read your post a few time over the last few days and have been thinking how the foal must be thinking with it's new circumstances. she's abviously seen what human interaction can do from the condition the other ponies were in, she would have know the fear and pain that they would have exhibited whist they were with the other ponies. this will make her more weary than a foal that had been looked after properly.
If I was in your situation, I would make a small pen about 20x20 feet, with a little shelter just for the mum and her foal. Nothing elaborate, just to give them some shelter they need from the weather. Put the two of them in there and do not enter that space except for any feed you take to them and cleaning the pen. when you enter the pen do not have any contact with either of them, this will make a safe haven for them both so the mum can relax more and for the foal to start to feel safe.
visit the pen as often as possible outside of normal feed times, but do not enter the pen. Have a bench just outside of the pen for you to go and sit and relax and I mean relax, practice some yoga breathing with long deep breathing. don't look directly at the ponies, but every now and then glance at the mum, not the foal, and smile with your eyes and mouth with a nod of the head. the mare should respond with a blink back! when she does this smile and turn 45% away and continue to relax. the mum will come to trust you much quicker as she realises you are different and will come to you first. keep repeating this as often as you can until the mum comes over to you, she will come over when she is ready and will mouth you. Let her do this and don't make any sudden moves, just look to her with a smile and acknowledge her action. If she'll let you stroke her, give a short stroke, then slowly move away.
once the mum starts to accept you in this way continue the friendship but now within the pen but avoiding contact with the foal. quietly make a fuss of the mum as she'll let you each time you go in the pen, then have the relax time inside the pen. you'll be able to do this now with watching them both, but avoid watching the foal too much or touching the foal. The foal will learn from it's mother that it is good to come to you which will help it to forget what it might have seen or felt in past experiences.
If you think of it like a wild herd, the mum is lead mare, her foal is her herd and you are the stranger horse that wishes to be part of the herd. First the lead mare must come to fully trust you before being accepted in the herd, once this happens more training can begin for both the mum and foal.
It won't happen overnight, but it will happen as the the mum builds her trust in you, the foal will follow....
Post how you get on, will watch with interest and well done for saving them!

Mel
x

The same advice from me: First approach the mother and then the foal. It will take time (probably weeks), there is no hurry.
Rudi

Wow Mel, your right! The mum started to trust us a lot more, and actually let us catch her! She was definatly abused by the past owner though, it is hard to gain her trust, but I put the mare and foal in a mini round yard made out of float yards, and the foal was skittish at the start, but after a while she was curious about me and like sniffing me :) then she let me pat her and rub her all over, she thought it was so good that she thought it was her mum grooming her so she was grooming her mum ahaha then I brushed her with brushes. After I spent time with her, I put a soft rope gently around her neck just to keep her from walking away and to get used to ropes around her. She then let me slip the halter on and off and on and off and so on. After that, she loved having the halter on, so I left it on her :) she was fine with it :) also I taught her a little bit of leading with the rope still around her neck and clipped to the hater, then I went on to do the foal handler and she didn't mind it :) so it was an awesome day for me :)

Wonderful news, fantastic progress!

Now we are able to scratch her and she loves it! She finds it great fun and now her coat is shedding and she looks a brilliant liver chestnut and white :) the mare is getting bigger and bigger is there any way of telling how far along she is?

Hi help,
So happy to read you're progressing beautifully with her!
Since your foal was 4 months old in December, the mare can't be further along then 5 or 6 months now. When her time is due, she will show filled udder and later a relaxation of the ligaments of the hindquarters. Waxing-up of the teats might indicate an imminent parturition,
but sometimes nature is good for a surprise....
There's a lot of good books on gestation and foalcare in horses, use the time she still has to prepare yourself for this very special event!
Keep the good work going!
Miriam

Fantastic news and very well done!!!! Can we know your first name so we can stop calling you help? :D

Thanks Mel, we are thinking the foal was actually around 6 months when we got her as she has big teeth and seems a bit big for 4 months but she still hasnt naturally weaned from her mum yet, but her mum is starting to tell her off when she drinks aha oh and Mel, yeah sorry my name is Lani Ahahaha