what are Nurse mare foals?
Every year beginning in January a terrible thing happens to thousands of foals. We have to stop this! The “high dollar” horse industry , in order to profit as much as possible in as little time as possible, take mares away from their new born foal immediately after birth to be bred again. This allows them to produce as many foals as possible in short amount of time. Under the Jockey Club rules the mare has to be transported to the Stallion for a live cover. Doing this means the foal has to be nursed by a replacement mare. This opens up a big profitable demand for nurse mares. There are horse farms that are set up just for this reason. The mares are breed to come into milk , then when the foal is born the nurse mare is leased out to the higher dollar horse farm. You ask,” so what is wrong with that?” Nothing. Well …. At least not if you are the foal that receives the nurse mare. If only that was the only thing that happened. Sadly after the nurse mare gives birth her foal is taken away so she can be transported to the high dollar foal. The foal left behind is not as lucky as the others. They are left out in field to starve to death, killed on spot or sent to slaughter at auction. These foals are helpless and no one cares what their fate is. The nurse mare farms are in the business of providing these mares for a great profit to these high dollar foals, the other foals are just unfortunate by products of the industry.