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We often turn out mares with foals that have previously been
together. We separate the mare just befire she is do, and give her 2
weeks or so in a maternity stall with small paddock adjacent to the
stallion and other mares from her 'herd".
I'm not surprised that one mare might be protective, and this has
never been a problem for us. The situation you describe about one
mare really injuring another's foal seems really unusual. Where was
the dam when this was going on. I'm suprised she didn't respond by
defending her foal.
Our experience has been that after a while, the defensive mom
realizes that these other mares are no threat, and will "chill out".
eventually, she will be happy that baby is off playing with other
siblings or mares, giving her a little break from the little (milk)
sucker.
As we saw from the interesting post yesterday, folas that are out on
pasture do better in many ways, so we are much more comfortable with
some testy interactions given the overall benefit to the young
(obviously, assuming they are not seriously injured by some other
mare.)
