This. Happens with cows too that have a bad or traumatic birth; there’s a video floating around Facebook right now of a Holstein cow having her calf pulled, she turns around to sniff him and just gores him.

Not common, never seen it with my own eyes with a horse, but have seen it with cows. Psychosis, hormones, trauma, stress..

Holsteins are a bit different; they have virtually no maternal instinct and can be really vicious, but we had an auctionmart beef cow kill her calf one day the same way, there was no stopping her.

For horses I make sure I’m right there, especially for maidens, just to make sure baby is born safe, latches, mama isn’t too stressed etc

I mean, as someone whose family had a dairy for 3 generations… sadly it is. There’s a reason no one keeps Holstein bulls around and no one is breeding Holstein mamas specifically to keep their maternal instincts (as we do with beef cows, anything non maternal = cull) because most (commercial) dairy cows never actually need to mother their babies.

Which is sad for the cows and frankly a sign that we are doing the whole commercial dairy production wrong. You’ll find the odd old (eg, 4-5, also sad!) girl who can do a year or two as a nurse cow, but there’s a reason they’re not cheap to find — they’re hard to find! 😅

The less overbred cows, like jerseys, have less problems. We almost always keep a jersey nurse cow around, they’re great mums.

Because she’s worth more alive (and producing) than dead. Total answer.

Specifically talking about the Haygards mare

Exactly. It’s not a good reality, it’s a really sad one

Ah, I was talking about the Haygards mare. In this case… I don’t know why someone would keep a mare like this, or even purchase one in the beginning, other than sheer stubbornness.