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Answer In the wild, horses live in herds. There are bachelor groups of stallions that are young or old or timid, and do not have any mares of their own. They have little contact with foals.

Then there are herds made up of a stallion and the harem of mares he has collected. He will take good care of his mares, grooming them even when they are not in season. When their foals are born, the stallion is generally welcoming towards them, provided he knows they are his. However, a stallion may kill another stallion's foal. Most mares are fairly good mothers. For at least a month before they give birth their udders start to fill with milk. By the time a foal is born, the mare already has plenty of milk for it. When it is born, she will lick away the blood and membranes and help the foal stand up. There have been many accounts of predators finding a mare in labour and attempting to kill the foal as soon as it is born. In this case the mare will stand with her foal between her legs and attack the predators by kicking and biting.

Foals are born with very long legs, and within a few hours of birth the newborn can run almost as fast as its mother. After this time, horses prefer to run instead of fighting and at the first sign of danger, the mare will flee with her foal at foot. Mares will feed their foals on milk until they are around six months old. By this time, a wild mare will be quite heavily pregnant, as most mares become pregnant again within six weeks of foaling. In captivity, the foals are often weaned at this point so that they can be sold or begin training. In the wild, fillies will often remain with the mother's herd. When colt foals reach about two years of age the stallion will drive them away; they must now join a batchelor group or attempt to accumulate some mares.

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8y ago

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