bolshy colt, travelling and weaning advice pls!

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sarah and hatty

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Hi all,

would be good to get some thoughts/advice.

My mare and foal now finally out 24 hours after having to deal with colic surgery a week after foal born. All seems fine now (touch wood) Foal had lots of handling at beginning obviously and has no fear whatsoever, also always been very brave/bold. In some areas i feel like we are coming on leaps and bounds, and others going completely backwards! Hes so agressive in field, constantly wanting to bite and be in my face, if i push him out of my space or send him off he thinks its a great game and comes back for more, usually with teeth and feet! He is on his own with mum so concious a playmate is needed which am looking in to for a months or so time, but we are on a bit of a vicious cycle with me having to tell him off and him getting worse! Shoud i just leave him to be a foal in the field or perservere? I try to go in at mo in an eve and give them little brush, picking feet up etc.

Also, was planning to go to futurity in my trailer with them this week but is an hour and half to get there, had a few people warn me off going so am now thinking won't, what are peoples experiences of travelling mare and foal in trailers?

Last question promise... weaning.... my options are find other foals and a field to rent and winter foals out (weaning in winter), or find a stud, or keep with my mare till spring and wean then? Maybe a stud would be good for handling? but will be far from me :-(, barn or out?

Thanks xx
 
Hi well youv had your hands full.! The traveling thing..with a week old foal... I d not bother if it so far away... Hour and half in horse box.. May be bit to soon to do for foal. I used to leave mares and foals in fields for as long as possible till weather was to bad then took them in .if was ok weather some days i d let them out for while. And your doing well with foal handling as every little counts! The mare will put manners on foal!!its .fun to watch
 
If he was mine, I'd wean him and promptly put him in with some older male company, either geldings or a stallion.

My two yearling colts were put in with the stallion (who is a sweetie) and they are the nicest mannered I have ever met. No biting, no kicking and no turning their backsides when they don't get their own way! They won't be castrated now until the autumn. Usually, we can't get them gelded soon enough because of the behaviour.

I'm not saying I'm right or it will work for everyone, but I shall certainly be doing this in the future.
 
Okay well at almost 3 months old I wouldn't want to be putting up with such bad behaviour. I'd be having a rubber skip bucket close to hand and be whopping his little ass for that sort of naughtiness I'm afraid, actually I'd have done it a long time ago tbh. Does your mare not tell him off or is he not like this with her? I have to say the very best teachers of my foals are the mothers of the other foals. My mares are good at reprimanding other mares foals. I expect to be able to go in with all of my foals and do whatever I want to do with them and have them enjoy and accept what I do. Biggest problem I have with all of mine is that they swamp me when I go in but they're all very gentle and there's never any naughtiness.

I trailer my foals often at 2 or 3 weeks old if the mares are being bred off the farm. The foals are never any trouble trailering with their mothers and by the time their warmblood foal inspections come around they are usually pros at travelling.

I wouldn't wean in the middle of winter, my preference, others do things differently. I would either wean early before winter or wait until early spring. Mine are all weaned around October time and they're all weaned together at the same time so it's much easier for me with a number of foals. I wean in fields with an adjoining fenceline for the first two weeks and then move the foals to one of the back fields to be with the old nanny horses until they are sold and move on to their new homes. My youngsters all live out 24/7 with full access to a large barn if they wish to go inside.
 
Hi thanks for response, he is nearly 3 months now I thought I should add. Have decided not to go to futurity as they haven't had enought loading practice and is a long way to go with him still needing his naps etc.

Re weaning, I could leave him with my mare in a barn area and turn him out during the day through the winter with my 2 small ponies, one 20 year old mare, one 16 year old grumpy gelding, would that work or is it better to keep with brood mares and youngsters? I was just thinking then I could wean in the early spring?

P.s How much does gelding them calm them down????
 
I think you need to be careful not to confuse his behaviour with being a colt. Fillies can be just as naughty, if not worse than, colts. I have had two colts and neither have been aggressive. Also, don't confuse aggressive with dominant. Watching foals play with each other they play rough and try to dominate each other, but it isn't aggression.

I agree with Spring Feather, you need to really growl at him and lob a skip at his bum if he won't listen to you sending him away. If he comes back at you growl louder and send him off with your body language. He isn't too big for that and he should listen. It usually doesn't take much, he just needs to know you mean it. when my latest baby was about the same age he went to double barrel at me in the field, nothing major, just pure exhuberance, but it isn't allowed and I threw the skip at him and growled and chased him off. He never ever did it again and is an absolute cuddle bug. I always carry a skip with me when I am in the field with youngsters, you never know when you may need to use it. Just make sure you aim at a big part like his bum, not a leg or head.

If he comes back at you nicely, and respectfully, make big of him, give him lots of praise and scratches. He will get the idea that being a lover is much more fun than being a fighter.
 
Yep the partial weaning would work too if you go about it in a gradual way. I've done it that way too long ago when I only had single foals but I did it that they went out with the mare through the day and then went into an adjoining stable overnight, but it would work the way round you are doing it too I imagine. He already knows the other two? Does he live with them now? If so then I don't see there would be a problem there.

Don't bank on castration doing anything at this age. As HBM says some youngsters are just exuberant, however it often doesn't hurt to have them gelded sooner rather than later.

If you change your mind about going to the futurity don't worry about travelling them an hour and a half at that age, he'll be fine. My foals travel longer than that just to get to the repro clinic when they're just a couple of weeks old and for some of the inspections I take mine to the venues are 3 and 4 hours drive each way and mine all travel fine.
 
Thanks,

yes i have indeed been growling at him and sending him away and waving whatever i have in my hand at him at the time but good idea to take skip bucket which could make contact without hurting, thanks. Mum doesn't tell him off at all really, i think partly because she was feeling so sore up until the last few weeks or so.

Spring Feather, thanks for your advice, i did mean turn mum out with him and 2 ponies during winter. They haven't met him yet as I moved them to another field but mum has known them for a few years and has always been turned out with them so i would intorduce over electric fencing first! Bit worried though the grumpy gelding will either teach him how to be grumpy or hurt him?!
 
Grumpy pony may well love him in the end. Foals are often intrigued by miserable horses! And they often have a slow calm way of befriending them eventually. I don't worry about my foals, they are quick as anything when a new horse comes into my herd. They're quite used to having to whiz off at a moments notice if one of the other mothers takes a bit of a irritation of them.

Yes I thought mama maybe wasn't telling him off :smile3:
 
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