Foals are the baby stage of all equines. There are gender-specific names given to the male and female - colts for males and fillies for females - but all youngsters are technically foals. A young equine is considered a foal or suckling, until about six months of age, or until it is weaned. Then the term weanling is applied. The young weanling remains as such until the January following its birth (for registered animals) or until it is actually 12 months old. At that time, it then becomes a Yearling.

Gestation (the length of time a mare is pregnant) varies in equines. Horses carry for approximately eleven months. Donkeys carry twelve. Mares carrying mule foals may go for 11 months, or 12 months, or they may split the difference.

Foals are born relatively mature - able to stand within 20 minutes of birth, and gallop alongside their dam an hour or so later. However, it will be several days before the foal reaches a fairly stable stance and gait. Newborn foals have soft, fuzzy coats, long chin-whiskers, and a perpetual look of surprise. The eyes are a milky purple shade, darkening over the next few months.

The foal usually reaches some indication of what it will look like as an adult by two months of age. Foals go through a stage for about two weeks where they resemble perfectly proportioned small horses. Then they quickly outgrow this and go immediately into a gawky or awkward stage. The foal will continue to put on height until at least age three, although others can continue to grow right up to age five.

In the past, it was common to break horses at age two, but most modern breeders today wait until the colt is three or older. Racehorses are still routinely started in their teen months, to be ready for two-year-old racing, but one should remember that this horse is still truly a baby and has much growing and maturing left to do.

What Color is That Baby?!

A "Foal coat” is the fur the baby equine is born with. It is usually fuzzy to some extent even in foals born in summer. Foals born in winter have heavier, woollier foal coats. Also, spring and summer born foals will show more complete darker coat colors, especially on their points, while winter foals tend to have lighter-shaded coats.

Not all foal coats are the same color the animal will be when mature. Many will shed out of the foal coat in the spring of their first year while others might shed twice, starting between the ages of two and four months. The shed begins with the face and neck areas, then the legs, with the rest of the body (especially the belly line) shedding last.

All foals change hue somewhat before reaching adulthood, but the most dramatic can be seen in breeds where grays are common. These horses or mules are born with dark coats and continuously change color with every change of coat.

Born with dark or black foal coats, the young brown donkey will show the redder color as they mature into their first summer coat. They do not usually show the bleaching effect on the legs and back as horse foals will. The checking of the edge of the muzzle and eyes (edge of white area) will sometimes show the browner hairs, as compared to the black.

Roans and Appaloosas can also exhibit extreme changes. The roan foal will be born with a normal solid-colored coat, with only a few white hairs sprinkled throughout the coat indicating the possibility of change. (Of course, genetics can also be a good indicator - if one parent is a roan, it is likely the foal will be also). Appaloosa horses can also be born with solid-colored coats that later change into loud leopard patterns. Appaloosa enthusiasts say that if you look at the first shed coat around the eyes, if the eyes are outlined in white hairs then a drastic change will occur.

Point colors are unreliable indications of adult color as many foals are born with almost colorless mane & tails. Many foals will not show signs of their adult color until after the first shed. Lower leg colors on horse foals are almost always lighter, generally ranging from silver to beige. Bay, black, buckskin, and dun foals will often have a light silvery mix of hairs on the lower leg. These may be joined with a few dark hairs in the mane and tail, with a smudge of darker hairs on the joints of the lower leg. In addition, the inside of the legs and belly may be a silvery or flaxen color. Black horse foals are a wolfish-gray color at birth, shedding to true black in their first summer coat. The first winter coat on a black foal may be rusty (red tinted) black.

In contrast, mule or donkey foals may be born solid black (with the exception of mealy areas) all over the body and bay mule foals may be solid black down the leg. Mule foals also show “primitive markings” - that is shoulder crosses and leg barring - right from birth.

In horses, parent color can often help in determining a foal’s color, but in the mule and hinny, things are not as well planned. Part of this is due simply to the nature of the hybrid. Other contributions to unusual color and patterning in mules is the unique donkey-spot pattern, and the gray-dun (or slate-gray) donkey color with its distinct dorsal/shoulder cross.

The cross seen in the donkey will appear in many mules. In horses, this would be considered a dun factor, and indeed, this does stem from the DUN part of gray-dun. Mule foals will reflect the cross color and any other marks (such as leg barring) right from birth. The markings may also grow bolder, more numerous, or more distinct as the foal matures.

Among exotics, newborn zebras are certainly not limited to just the black-and-white color pattern. Most zebra foals are born with reddish or light brown stripes. Just as in black horse foals, the black color will be shed into later. The zebra foal often has mane hair (called an “extended mane”) all the way down the dorsal line from neck to tail. The actual mane on the neck is usually very long and fine. Buff coloration on foal stripes is not uncommon, with baby zebra acquiring more “normal” coloration as it grows. The stripe patterns are “set” on the foal, and will not change except in color.

Zebra hybrids will usually show their striping at birth. The dark color of the stripes is overlaid on the coat color. The foal coats in these foals are usually a close reflections of what the adult version will look like.

Since zebra hybrids are just coming into popularity again, the possibilities of colors are endless. Gray mares can transmit the gray gene to their hybrid foals, resulting in a striped animal that will later gray out in the body and/or stripes. Appaloosa cross foals may also gain the Appaloosa pattern over the body color and stripes in later sheds.

(This Page last updated: February 15, 2002)