best way to deal with new field foal

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clairefeekerry1

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a lovely colt foal at yard is due to be weaned soon which will involve him joining our guys in the field. he's a big strapping lad,very friendly and interested in humans but a proper cheeky chappy, going thru that nipping kicking stage! i'm after a quiet life so whats the best way to deal with foal when bringing my lad in from field? don't want too much hassle at gateways etc, other geldings do have a habit of playing up a bit when you try to take one out. foals owner is aware he could cause a few issues and is happy for us to take lunge whip/leadrope etc etc
 
I find spinning a lead rope (like a propeller blade) works wonders - keeps neds away without harming them
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I find spinning a lead rope (like a propeller blade) works wonders - keeps neds away without harming them
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I've done that one too. Also cast the rope at quaters a'la monty roberts on occasion for something more direct, doesn't even have to touch them but even it it does a underarm throw isn't going to hurt buy any stretch of the imagination
 
Poor little colt! He's ripped away from his Mum, chucked in with a bunch of bigger older boys he doesn't know and even before it's happened, plans to beat him up are being hatched!!

Weaning will make him nervous and unconfident! If you all start in on him, he'll have ulcers within a month! But if his owner doesn't care ......
 
foal is currently next to geldings and has been since birth, he's being grad introduced to the geldings with him initally being turned out with the really quiet ones, obviously no one wants any harm to come to him and yes indeed it will be stressful for him, but we obviously wan to avoid any accidents/injury to him, us and geldings as much as possible and we have some gelding owners who are novice/nervous so any other thoughts appricated.
 
Well that's a good start! I would say he's unlikely to be a problem to gelding owners as long as they ignore him! The other horses will intimidate him as they're bigger/older/established herd - he WILL be nervous and unconfident. IF he turns bossy, then obviously someone will have to stand their ground and chuck a rubber feed skip at him! But as long as folk don't pet him and fuss him he'll probably find his place near the bottom of the pecking order and behave. Problems rarely occur with weanling colts in a group of boys before they are at LEAST yearlings - I have a 2 year old colt running with 3 two year old geldings of similar size and the colt is no more problem than the others.
 
I back up Janet completely but is it not possible that he can have a playmate of the same age; they get on so much better that way and the old horses could end up bullying him like hell even going so far as to keep him running around and not able to reach the water. It happened with someone I know recently and theirs was a yearling going into an older horse field, you would have thought it would have been able to handle it but within a week it was a hatrack purely because it wasn't allowed to the water source. So I hope the owner is very careful who the colt goes in with and I do hope they don't have shoes on as that is just asking for trouble.
 
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