Am I doing too much? Teaching youngsters manners?

Pale Rider said:
Horses are full faculty learners from birth, they like lots of other species have to be. If they cannot gallop for a distance within an hour or so of birth they wouldn't last long.

They should be taught what you want them to know as soon as possible.

Ours stand to have a head collar on and off, can be tied, lead, give up their feet, bathed, wormed, whatever. Bought in foals at weaning, we have found a lot of bought in ones are not touched from birth! Home breds prior to weaning.

Leaving them, is I feel, plain irresponsible, asking for trouble and putting them at risk.
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I entirely agree that babies need to be taught lots of stuff, and early on, BUT he is a baby who's probabaly not had much experience of life. He's unlikely to ever had had a bath before, still won't have learnt to read humans in general particularly well, nor to trust his new owner: she's had him just ONE day! It's that which makes it risky, not the fact he's a baby. Not a 'hurting himself' risk but a 'frightening him and making it into an issue' way

It's not much different from taking a new-to-you and novice young horse out XC the day after you got it: it will probably work out fine but it's risky and a silly thing to do.

Mine's the same age and had his first bath too not long ago (and hated it!) but I'd had him a good few months and he trusts me and understands how I work. Didn't stop him having a melt down but I knew him well enough to deal correctly with him, and for him to trust me when I said it was actually OK and he wasn't going to dissolve. :rolleyes:

OP, it a slightly silly thing you did but it worked out fine in the end. We all do silly things with our horses occasionally. It's character building ;)

And as for the tug, it was an automatic reaction because he was bunnyhopping and I guess old habits stick because when I had lessons once upon a time, if a horse was to start acting a prat on the ground, a short sharp tug (Well timed) would tell them whatever it was they were doing was something bad, and they would think twice before doing it again.
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Many things do come automatically esp if you've been round horses a long time. It's what helps us be good at timing (if we had to stop and think before giving them a slap it would be too late!). But yanking the headcollar is still a very ineffective way of punishing them as it's so ambigous to them. An older horse who is used it (usually followed by a slap) will have learnt what it means but a young horse will just find it frighening and confusing. It's why i hate it so much.

How many times do you see people a shows yelling 'Stand STILL!!!!' at their horse, whilst yanking it's leadrope. The poor horse is dancing about with it's head in the air and no real idea of what they're meant to do, then gets a second yank and a yell a split second later when it doesn't comply! It takes a long time of that kind of treatment before they finally guess how to respond in the correct manner to avoid it (i.e standing still) :( Much better to hold its head still, place it in the correct position, say 'Stand' firmly, wait a few seconds to give it a chance to comply then praise.

the bath took nearly an hour in total just to put the shampoo on as I took it very slow...
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EEP! My 2yr can only concentrate for 15mins max. He'd have started to fidget out of bordum by half an hour! After 45mins he'd have finished eating his leadrope :rolleyes:

I do suspect he was still nervous and worried about it. Laid-back horses show nerves in a very stoic way. Fire-breathing idiots have a melt down the second the hose touches them (that would be Roo :rolleyes: ) but sensible quiet babies try really hard to tolerate it for as long as possible (usually a couple of minutes) until they con't contain themselves anymore and start to make a fuss. After one day you can't possibly know what kind of horse he is!
 
Take no notice of the silly woman OP.

Handle the young horse and teach it manners, you will look back and be relieved you did, because at some point the horse will need to be sensible and trusting when you have to deal with an injury or incident.

I have 2 young horses, a yearling I bred and taught the basic manners to. My efforts were duly rewarded when she injured herself 3 weeks ago. I was very pleased with her when she stood rock still for hind leg xrays and the application of a Robert Jones. She has stood in since and apart from being a bit fresh she has been a super patient.

On the other hand is a 9 month old, bought in youngster, already 15.2h and untouched except for weaning, forcing a halter on and travelling to me.
He is a nervous, dangerous wreck with feet like shoeboxes. I am making good progress with him but it is very difficult dealing with a horse his size and level of fear.

In my view handle young horses, no titbits, no fannying about and be consistent, do not move the goal posts. I read your comment about 'never hurting him'. Don't be afraid of discipline, he will push boundaries and you will have to deliver a smack at some point. Good luck with him.
 
I think you're very mean. Expecting youngsters to behave and have respect?! Whatever next? :0)

Ignore the silly woman - good on you for starting as you mean to go on, far less confusing for him than making allowances then moving the goalposts. Sounds like you're going to have a very lovely young man :0)
 
I am not perfect and I will always accept constructive criticism and good advice, I totally appreciate what Kalli has said. Although it takes a long time for a horse to trust and this really was necessary having a bath and he should be used to having to stand for longer than 15 minutes. As a youngster he was tied up for alot longer and coped fine so I don't think that 45 mins or so is that bad. He was not tied and was eating most of the time anyway. I adore him I honestly do and I don't want to do anything that could possibly cause harm or scare him but at the same time I have to remember he is a horse and has the potential too kill me so boundaries are desperately needed!
 
Sounds to me like you have good instincts and should stick to your guns. I imagine your youngster is much happier now he has a clear view of his place in the grand scheme of things and you have quite quickly given him some boundaries which will help him to relax and trust you.
 
This will probably sound really patronising, and I promise you it's not meant to, but you have such a great attitude OP! Please keep posting on HHO, I like you :D It's not all that often people have been able to understand different opinions on recent threads.

I don't think you did anything 'wrong' either, though I like to do the 'make it easy to do the right thing and difficult to do the wrong thing' at first, to really give them a chance to find their feet.

With regard to the behaving for a few minutes and then acting up, it may well be different for your youngster but I know with mine he could cope with being clipped for a certain amount of time, then he'd flip out, for no apparent reason. He'd then settle again, but would repeatedly have 'moments'. He's not the sort to push boundaries at any time so I'm absolutely convinced it was a fear response.
 
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