7month old weanling.. Where to start

[allaboutponies]

Hi everyone, hope you're all well.

I have a 7 month old colt arriving early next week. I have had youngsters before but never this young! I have a whole yard of experienced breeders/youngstock handlers ect to help me

My question is.. Apart from a leather foal headcollar What else might I need? I have other horses so have grooming kits ect.

And where to start!! He is not well handled but will have had halter training before arriving. Any step by step advice of what to start with first and what to teach him would be much appreciated!!

He is on no feed at the moment, and our grass and hat is good quality at the yard so I won't be giving a hard feed either apart from maybe a handful of speedi beet when the rest of the yard is fed!

Thankyou ?

 

[ihatework]

You don’t need much in terms of ‘stuff’ but what you need more than anything is the correct set up. The right field companions and introductions. Suitable shelter from the elements. What you want to avoid is trying to slot a weanling into a typical livery yard, it’a unclear if that’s your intention.

All you need to teach them at that age is to be comfortable being touched all over, able to pick up all feet and to lead. That’s it.

 

[daydreamer]

The only thing I got for my 6 mo was a leather head collar. I had to punch extra holes in it as he was a bit dinky and I used it for him until he was 2. Out 24/7 with no rugs, grass and ad-lib hay in winter. Plus in winter I give him Suregrow. If I ignore the livery costs he’s been pretty cheap so far! (Now 2 1/2)

 

[Cortez]

He will need some/a same age companions, they will teach everything he needs to know about being a horse. All you need to teach him is to be caught, handled, lift feet, to lead and tie up. Then pretty much leave him alone apart from routine handling, worming, farrier, shots, etc. until he's old enough to start training under saddle.

 

[Sprig]

I have just bought a brilliant book called 'No Fear, No Force'by Sarah Weston. It's really brilliant. It's a guide to handling and training unhandled and semi-feral foals in an ethical and gentle way. Lots of it is just good horse sense but she explains everything really clearly and explains the reasons behind the method too.

 

[allaboutponies]

At what age would you start introducing him to tying up? And how?

 

[daydreamer]

I only taught mine the other month, he was over 2! Maybe I should have done it earlier but he is mainly just out in a field and I hold him for foot trimming/vaccinations. I used an idolo tie and the YourHorsemanship/JasonWeb method. If you aren't very experienced with youngsters (I've never had one before!) I can't recommend a subscription to YourHorsemanship enough. There are short videos that take you from the first steps of groundwork all the way to riding away. It is all very methodical and easy to follow. There is also a group forum where you can pose a question and often Jason answers. All I taught mine at 6/7 months was pretty much to move his quarters and to pick his feet out and to let me brush him. I did find I was tempted to do more with him so I set myself a time limit of 1 min for every month of his age. He is a fairly laid back fellow though so most things so far have been pretty low drama. Then most of the time I just leave him in the field. Sometimes I'll have 2 or 3 weeks of doing a small bit of something (e.g. going for short walks, teaching backwards, practicing leading) with him for 10-20 min then leave him again.