Production of mare´s milk and horse keeping

Our Haflinger mares and their foals live in very spacious stalls. Throughout the year they spend a good part of the day out in the pasture. At the Wegwartehof all the foals can play together at the “kindergarten”. This exercise yard is next to the stalls of their mothers. Here, the foals can let off steam together while their mothers are hand milked multiple times. The foals spend the afternoon out in the pasture together with their mother mares and spend the night with the entire herd. We only start milking the mares once their foals are old enough to ingest solid foods independently. The production of mare’s milk is extremely costly. An average mare can only give two litres of milk per day despite repeated milking. Should there be no daily contact to their foals, the mares would quit milk production in a very short time.