Foal
26/08/2010
by GSS Equestrian
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.
After a horse is one year old, it is no longer a foal, and is called a yearling. There are no special age-related terms for young horses older than yearlings. When young horses reach breeding maturity, the terms change: a filly over the age of three (four in horse racing) is called a mare and a colt over the age of three is called a stallion. A castrated male horse is called a gelding, regardless of age. (There is no specific term for a spayed female horse, they are simply "spayed mares".)
Ref. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foal
Picture Ref. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mare_and_foal_(Kvetina-Marie).jpg
