Foal training ....

[Obilicious]

Hi all,

I’m just interested for those who have bred horses or had young foals for the first steps such as haltering , learning to lead, picking feet up etc did you do this yourself or did you send it away to be done ?
Just a bit of background info I have trained a quite a foals the last few years I’m just interested to what others do

Thanks

 

[Peter7917]

I absolutely do not recommend securing the foal to halter for the first time, if by that you mean manhandling him.

I have only ever had unhandled yearlings straight off the forest. Never actually bred anything. They are herded straight into a stable and we work from there.

I will assume that you are a step ahead and the foal already accepts being touched all over. I personally use a feed scoop for the first few times haltering. Nose part of the halter surrounding the feed scoop so to get the feed they have to put their nose in the halter. If the foal is handled well enough already then slipping the halter over the ears shouldn't be too difficult.

Halter breaking you need to be spot on with your release. I start by putting the pressure on sideways as it puts them off balance easier so they will step to the side. Release immediately. Then the other side. They normally get it pretty quick. Do not let yourself get caught up in a tug of war, if they run back then let them. They can't go anywhere because they are in a stable. Just start again and put the pressure back on once they have stopped. Sometimes it can just take a minute for the penny to drop.

 

[Equi]

With my two (a colt and a filly) i would already have established a connection, so they would loooove chest rubs etc. i would chest rub and put the head bit of the halter about and do up, then keep rubbing about their face until the nose bit was done up. Im not sure they realized a halter was being put on. Eventually it just progressed to the nose bit being closed and i would face rub them whilst shimmying up the nose. For leading, i would put the rope on and let them walk me about but if they stopped i say stand and when they would walk off i would say walk on. They basically trained themselves. Same princible for lifting feet, run my hand down and when they lifted it id say up. I find being voice trained is a lot better than trying to use physical cues but im probably giving physical ones too without noticing.

 

[cundlegreen]

I get mine into a headcollar within 2 days, before they start to get strong. Arm over the neck, right hand slips the noseband on and do up quickly. They also learn to lead to the field with a loop of rope around them and back to the hand. Still in a headcollar. It's important that they keep going forward and don't get into a tug of war. The mare helps most times to keep them straight. I never turn them out with a headcollar though..

 

[windand rain]

Had to halter mine at 4 days she simply refused to follow mum anywhere and wondered off where ever she felt like and as we had about 200 meters from the stable to the field of open space we taught her to lead very young. I handle all mine my self and even have done the wild herded weanilings myself until recenlty as am now too old for foal wrestling and you have to be able to insist on good behaviour by being firm but fair. Violence is never the answer and before anyone thinks otherwise foal wrestling is a joke