The rejective behaviour of mares to their foals occurs relatively rare in breeding. According to the available literature, there is the evidence of this behaviour between 2 to 5 % of cases. In practice, it complicates the life of the foal, mare and breeder. According to available records, there are several forms of rejecting behavior. They have a different ways of preventing and resolving the situation. As a result of the mare's rejective behavior can be the need of human assistance with a care of the foal. In extreme cases, the behavior of the mare can result in orphanshood of the foal. Within the informations from breeders in Czech Republic, the rejective behaviour was manifested in 15 of 344 (4,36 %) of mares. This group was consisted of mares of different ages and breeds. In total these mares gave birth to 48 foals. Twenty of these foals were partly rejected by their mothers. Only 1 foal died. Two foals were not accepted by their mothers after the assistance of breeder which was necessary and these foals had to be bred by human. The most frequent manifestations is unwillingness of nursing the foal. This behaviour occurred in 13 mares. The mare normally tries to protect her foal from various environmental influences. However, in two mares this behavior was not observed. Other form of rejective behaviour is the fearfulness of mare caused by the presence of the foal. This behaviour was manifested in 20 % of them. Two mares were trying to avoid the contact with their foals. In 46,67 % of cases were demonstrated vocalization of mares to their foals. There was the evidence of 3 cases of chasing foals by their mothers. Threat manifestations are made by effort of biting (7) and kicking (4). Two mares did not sniff their foals, another mare did not show interest in licking of the foal. Both of these activities are very important in forming of social bond between mare and foal. Mares rejected the most often their foals at the age of 4 years. The rejection occurred in both primarous and also multiparous mares. Despite the fact that multiparous mares already have an experiences of parturition and maternity care of offspring.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:nusl.cz/oai:invenio.nusl.cz:430271 |
Date | January 2017 |
Creators | Ničová, Klára |
Source Sets | Czech ETDs |
Language | Czech |
Detected Language | English |
Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis |
Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
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