Foal turning bum on me ?

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Lill

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And he also threatened to kick last night in the stable... ashamed to say i did nothing probably as i was so shocked by him!

He actually did kick the stable door as i was leaning over scratching his back.
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What should i do, if he does it again tonight?
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Yes said baby is 7 months old so at a similar age, our other baby is much more friendly and we thought it would be the other way around oh how wrong we were.
 
I think it is a phase they go through, I posted about mine doing just this too.
Basic advice was to be a horse back to her! My girl got a knee in the backside and was so startled at being told off that she has never tried it again.
 
i use tubtrugs (soft rubber buckets) for feeding, and if a youngster swings its bum on me and threatens to kick, it gets a tubtrug thrown at it's back legs. they lash out against it the first few times (i make sure i'm out of range!) but they soon think better of their naughty thought... anything's better than hooves in your face.
btw, i saw someone laid out by a day-old foal once, when it kicked her in the stomach after she stupidly tried to shoo it after its mum. so, although they look spindly, they still pack one hell of a punch!
 
Yes i was a bit wary of him after he did that.

I may throw the 'poo bucket' at him then if he does it again.... thing is i don't want to make him nervous i just don't want him to get in to the way of thinking that it is acceptable!
 
You won't make him nervous by disciplining him! Once he has his front end facing you make a fuss of him and he'll talk to you again.

My 8 year old was given to me as he was so dangerous as a foal he would kick all the grooms out of the stable - and this was a professional stud! They had tried to tell him off as I did with my arab and it hadn't worked as Beemer was such a little monster. I decided the best approach was to simply not give him chance to kick anybody, to tie him up if I wanted to do anything with him in the stable, to be firm and not take any nonsense from him but at the same time not put anyone at risk. When he did kick out he was really quick with it too & had put a couple of grooms at the stud in hospital! It took a while but this approach did work and now I completely trust him, walk all round his back legs etc and he is fine. He is recovering from fracturing a splint bone on his near hind at the moment and had to have huge dressings on - for 2 months I was having to put my hand INSIDE an open wound on his back leg & he was fine about it. I think most foals go through this phase at some point, they just need to learn that it is not acceptable!
 
My Prospective weanling did this to me in the field the other day so I used a bit of 'Natural Horsemanship' on her and it did the trick - hands on hips a stamp of the feet and agressive lurch forward, sent her skitting away across the field. Only kept her away for a few minutes but when she was allowed back she was a bit more wary and a lot more respectful of me.

You can do the same by sending your boy to the back of his box...

I wouldn't advocate throwing objects around as they might develop a fear of said object in later life which might prove more problematic than it is worth...
 
Never had kicker, Thank God. But my mare's filly tried to bite me once. Her mama spotted that misbehavior; pinned her ears, and bit baby's ear something fierce. "There will be NO nasty rude behavior in OUR family, Young Lady!" It was so funny.
 
Like Goodking_Enfyslas says, be a horse back. My foal likes having her bum scratched but one day, some time ago now when she was only about 2/3 months, she was scouring rather badly so had a filthy back end. Consequently I was rather loathe to scratch her bum that day! She got a bit annoyed and tried to kick me, I immediately turned round and kicked her back, exactly as a horse would and she's never tried it since.
 
have to say i agree ,throw something so long as it wont hurt them .my wellie has proved useful a time or two ,trouble is you have to hop to retrieve it. never had one develop a fear of said object though but rarely do they try that bad behaviour again.
 
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