Introducing a foal to the herd?

[kittiesroxmysox]

Well, after giving it a lot of thought and looking around for a while and deciding how important my mare is to me, I decided it would be best to purchase a quality foal rather than risk my horse. So we've found a little 2 month old that will be ready to come home in 2 to 4 months if we like him.

So my question is, when should I introduce him to the herd and how should I put him with first? We have two thoroughbreds, 4 and 5 years old, a 19 year old mare who's had 3 foals already, a 6 year old mare who's very dominant and a 22 year old gelding with heaves. So, I was thinking put him in with the mare who has already had foals but then I thought that maybe she would harm him because he is still a baby.

We have the herd seperated right now with the 19 year old and 6 year old together then the two geldings with a mare together. Would it be wise to just introduce them together one at a time? Or what? We do have one extra small pasture but it's on the other side of the property towards the house, away from the other horses and we have a roundpen but it has no shade though we could move it.
I'm not really sure how he does he weaning, he just told us he weans all his foals at 4 to 5 months of age, probably because he does showing and such. I don't really have the option of putting him with other foals though since nobody around here is boarding for a reasonable price within a reasonable distance, I have looked for when I've wanted to board for the winter before our barn was built. I'll talk to him and see if he'll keep the foal for the full 6 month.

 

[amz m]

Yeah try and ask the guy if he'll wean as late as possible. 6 months is still quite early to wean, 4-5months is way too early. Put him in a paddock with the 19yo mare that's had foals, she'll act like his adopted mum, teach him his manners and how to be a horse. We have a mare at our stables that had had 2 foals herself, whenever foals came to our stables they got put with her (got to the point where she'd see a foal unload from the trailer and hide in the back of her stable like oohh noooo not another one, she's 'raised' 4 foals that are now all grown up). When he's close to 12months add maybe the least dominant of the 4 or 5yo (one that the mare gets along with). If that works perhaps the next least dominant horse. Just gradually add the horses. I'd wait until around 18months before having the foal in with all of the horses.
Remember, don't feed the foal too much hay (vary the diet with chaff if you need to), you may need to feed the foal and the mare separately. Remember to grab some foal vitamins/supplements and remember to geld! You don't want him running with the mares come breeding age!