Talk:Foal

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I question the statement "A foal may start to eat solids from ten days of age". I've always heard (and seen in our own foals) that it is more like 4 weeks before most foals regularly eat feed. T-bonham 06:57, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Also, I removed the age part of the statement "A colt can be castrated and then when it is 4 it would be called a gelding." As far as I know, a colt becomes a gelding immediately upon being castrated, regardless of age. We once castrated a foal at 2 days of age (due to medical problems); he was listed as a gelding on his registration papers. In Wiki itself, in the Gelding article, it refers to a 3-year-old gelding winning the 2003 Kentucky Derby.T-bonham 07:04, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

The link in regards to Information on foals, foal care and foaling midway down (external links) is to a commercial breeding operation and has VERY LITTLE information on caring for foals and foaling. Going to remove it if I can. Cornishr 13:57, 11 April 2007 (UTC) Ray Cornish (CornishR)

I'm going to remove both links-- one is defunct, the other is a horse classified site. Cantras 17:07, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Categories

Any reason this is in Category:Types of horses? Ealdgyth | Talk 19:15, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

Stallion and Mare are, so this fits --Rumping (talk) 01:01, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Pony v Foal

On the wiki for Pony, we're talking about adding a blurb to help clear up the misconception that ponies are juvinile horses, rather than specific types of horses. It might be worth adding a similar blurb here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bartholomewklick (talk • contribs) 21:13, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

Have to think this over. You make a good point that those who are completely ignorant about horses may have this confusion. But it is also one of those things that is so blatently obvious to people familiar with horses, so we need to figure out a way to phrase it that doesn't get horse people coming in and saying, "do you think we are stupid?" Or, worse yet, what I got with a similar issue in another article, the wikigods coming in and saying, "please provide a source for this information" (sigh...). Montanabw^(talk) 04:00, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

A source wouldn't be too hard; the dictionary would work. You're right though, we could easily offend the sensibilities of equine enthusiasts. I'll read through and see if there isn't natural looking place for the blurb. Bartholomewklick (talk) 09:27, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

::How about, "A foal is an equine, particularly a horse, that is one year old or younger. More specific terms are colt for a male foal and filly for a female foal, but these terms are used until the horse is age three or four. When the foal is nursing from its dam (mother), it may also be called a suckling. After the young horse has been weaned from its dam, it may be called a weanling. Juvinile horses are sometimes incorrectly referred to as ponies [Link to Pony wiki], a term dealing with the height of an equine." There's room for improvement, of course (It's late)-but I think this paragraph is the ideal spot for the blurb, since it's explaining vocabulary. Would this work as a source? http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_a_pony_a_young_horse - or is it too much like a self published page? Bartholomewklick (talk) 09:38, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Actually, I just had a better idea. On the top of the pony article, we could just have: "For the word referring to young horses, see foal," exactly as in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foals_(band). I think this is a far better solution, and doesn't require an intrusive and possibly demeaning edit. Bartholomewklick (talk) 09:41, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

See the edits I made yesterday. I hope this is good enough. I see no need for a disambiguation tag at the top. While some people do probably confuse ponies and foals, I suppose some people probably also think a Shetland sheepdog is a baby collie too. Yet no one disambiguates those... I don't think. Montanabw^(talk) 05:49, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

Foal anatomy

Hi. I am opening this discussion trend because I do not understand why Montanabw has unilaterally decided to eliminate from the entry on foals one of the sole images the community has on foal anatomy, File:Technique of dehydration applied in a foal.jpg. This seems to be a topic that should be covered on this entry, as well as on the entry on equine anatomy. This picture is currently nominated to become a featured image and was supported to become a valued image. It was uploaded to the Commons as part of a GLAM initiative with the Museum of Veterinary Anatomy. I understand the user who decided to erase this picture from the entry was unhappy with the picture description, so I suggest we change it to: "Foal anatomy". I look forward to hearing from the community. --Joalpe (talk) 12:54, 6 September 2016 (UTC)

There is nothing particularly useful for this image for this article. We have anatomy covered at Equine anatomy, where an argument could be made for its inclusion. Also, the proportions of the animal don't look like a foal, they look like a mature miniature horse, possibly one with dwarfism (the head is too big and the legs too short to be a normal foal). Can we prove that this was an animal less than one year of age? Montanabw^(talk) 03:28, 14 September 2016 (UTC)

I agree that the picture appears to be of a Mini horse, or possibly of a deformed foal. It definitely does not look like a normal foal; the body proportions are all wrong. A normal foal would have legs nearly twice that long, and a leaner body. I don't think the picture belongs here unless we can prove that it is a foal, and we'd probably have to have a caption saying whatever was wrong with it that made its proportions off. I think it would be good for the equine anatomy article, though. White Arabian Filly ^Neigh 15:22, 14 September 2016 (UTC)

Hi, Montanabw and White Arabian Filly. Thank you for your considerations. I will check with the museum scientific board so that they can provide better information on the animal. In the museum, the piece is presented as a foal. I will let you know how it goes. --Joalpe (talk) 15:23, 16 September 2016 (UTC)

Might be a mini foal, dwarfism is a problem for them, and this one does have really weird proportions. Compare, as an example, the living horse Thumbelina (horse). Montanabw^(talk) 20:46, 16 September 2016 (UTC)

Hello. I just got an official statement from Francisco Blazquez, scientific director of the Brazilian Museum of Veterinary Anatomy. According to him, this is indeed a minihorse foal, that was born at the University of São Paulo Veterinary Hospital and died. It was donated to the museum, where a technique of dehydration was done. Main educational value of the image is the visualization of the thorax and some organs.--Joalpe (talk) 12:18, 19 September 2016 (UTC)

Then I think it is most appropriate to be placed at Horse anatomy and maybe Skeletal system of the horse, noting that it is a mini. Montanabw^(talk) 21:59, 19 September 2016 (UTC)