Ask The Experts #10

Q:

I have a question about the colts and fillies that are newly weaned. I understand that 12Z is in with a group of buddies right now and that one of them is a filly. Yet I thought colts got put with colts and fillies were kept separate, so there are no rivalries. My guess is that much like kids, at very young ages they don’t really “recognize” the difference. Am I right, and when does that start to change? Or does it completely depend on the personalities of the individual horses? And for that matter, when do the colts have to be in separate paddocks? At what ages do those separations need to start happening?

Julie Malida

Arlington Heights, IL

A:At this stage, the weanlings are mixed and not separated by gender. We will not separate them until later in the year. They don’t have a real understanding of their sex yet and mix well together at this point. Although you will see stronger tendencies of gender in some of them, to be honest some of the girls can be tougher than the boys at this stage!

Once we separate them they will stay in large groups until next spring when we start prepping for the yearling sales. The yearling fillies are always able to stay in a group, as they tend to be less boisterous with each other. The colts that are to be sale prepped are separated into individual paddocks at the start of the preparation period. Their paddocks are all adjacent to one another so this doesn’t really bother them too much. The “keeper” yearling colts will stay together, albeit in smaller groups, until they are shipped to the training farms where they will be broken in prior to joining their prospective trainers. This tends to be in the fall of their yearling year.

Our Expert

Alys Emson

Client Management, Lane’s End

Alys has been at Lane’s End for fourteen years. She has worked in every division of the farm and is now in charge of client management, keeping owners up to speed about the lives of their horses.