Handling your foals - how much contact do you have?

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Poppys Nannan

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Hello again

I have a weaned foal who is doing absolutely great, leads well (not perfect but well) has some manners - moves back, over and forward, can pick front feet up for a few seconds.

Any ideas on handling are greatly received, but my question is how much handling will you be doing over the winter.

many thanks x x
 
All my foals will be caught, headcollar on and off, stand to be wormed, have all 4 feet picked up and stand quietly for farrier and vet and to have rugs on and off. Providing they carry on behaving, they don't have much too handling, they are left to be babies out in a herd.
 
My foals get taught to lead, have a headcollar on and off and pick their feet up. Once weaned they live out and learn to be horses so they don't get too cocky by being handled too much
 
So do you handle them daily, every other day and how long for each time. do you handle once a day, twice a day etc.

As an aside do you feed them hard feed & what
Do they live out or stabled
Rugged or not

thanks x
 
My foals, weanlings, yearlings, 2 year olds, 3 year olds and my mature horses are handled every single day. It is very much in yours and the foal's favour if you continue to handle your foal daily. It can be short sessions of 5 or 10 minutes but some form of handling every day is beneficial to both.
 
Hi, i have had a few foals and i agree with handling them everyday even if its just simple things. if your foal is living out just going up to the field to see them and give them a stroke or brush asking them to move back or over is the foundation building of what is to be expected of them everyday once in their adult life. if he lives in, practising with having the headcollar on and off for a few mins at a time or even just sitting in with them can help build a bond. What is it you are wanting to do with the foal, show?sell on?bring on and keep?
 
My foals live out in fields 24/7 for the most part however they do know and understand stabling as they have to live in stables occasionally when they're travelling. They are fed hard feed as well as hay and grass.
 
Hello

i plan to bring her on, and keep her
My daughter rides going to try cross country with her horse this coming year and i suspect my foal will be shared when she is old enough x

i love her to bits she is just gorgeous x
 
SF - what feed do you give your foal, i have fast fibre and chaff but tbh she is a lovely build and weight i am not sure she needs a complete feed, maybe just a vitamin balancer ??

open to suggestions x:rolleyes:
 
Poppys Nannan said:
SF - what feed do you give your foal, i have fast fibre and chaff but tbh she is a lovely build and weight i am not sure she needs a complete feed, maybe just a vitamin balancer ??

open to suggestions x:rolleyes:
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If she's doing well on grass and hay - then you may not need to feed.

However, if you do - use something like a younstock feed. And never feed chaff to a baby.
 
kelly laird said:
i agree with the youngstock feed, but why not chaff?
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Some people believe that foals will choke on chaff. I don't feed my youngstock chaff not because they might choke but because it isn't particularly nutritional. Once foals get to around 4 months old their mothers milk is not enough to sustain their nutritional requirements so a balancer is a good feed to provide all the minerals and trace elements they do require for healthy muscoskeletal development.
 
Yeah good point but my foal likes his mixed with chaff, must be the mint flavour to it....hes a spoilt baby to be honest haaa.Our pasture is awful at the moment with so many horses on and little rest so i have brought my foal in and hes on BIG nets & BIG feeds to chunk him up for the shows :)
 
kelly laird said:
Yeah good point but my foal likes his mixed with chaff, must be the mint flavour to it....hes a spoilt baby to be honest haaa.Our pasture is awful at the moment with so many horses on and little rest so i have brought my foal in and hes on BIG nets & BIG feeds to chunk him up for the shows :)
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that was a joke..or irony..or something like it.......wasn't it?:confused:
 
kelly laird said:
Yeah good point but my foal likes his mixed with chaff, must be the mint flavour to it....hes a spoilt baby to be honest haaa.Our pasture is awful at the moment with so many horses on and little rest so i have brought my foal in and hes on BIG nets & BIG feeds to chunk him up for the shows :)
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Its half term. Someone obviously has too much time on their hands.
 
I think it's down to personal preferance and the type of foal you have. When I got my weanling she was on stud mix and soaked alph alpha pellets. I kept her on this but soon changed as I found the mix made her a wee bit hyper!

As a chunky native she was also quite rounded so I just kept her on the pellets with some formula 4 feet as it is also a balancer and my other two get this.

As for handling she had already been for some in hand walks but when I got her she went through a feet planting phase!! I worked on her feet, her planting and prepared her for summer shows by getting her to stand square.

She lives out rugless unless its really bad and is used to being stabled before shows. Actually learning to have a bath was probably the most challengin thing for her and I still don't think we're quite there yet! After our last show of the summer I largely left her in her field apart from when I went to check on them. I wanted to give her time to be a baby.

This morning I walked her and my other two horses to their "holiday paddock" as I am going on holiday for 2 weeks. It was a good 20min walk on teh main road and she behaved better than my 10yo and seems all the better for her wee break from education.

Good luck with your new youngster, I don't know why I didnt get one sooner!
 
kelly laird said:
What bit was a joke?the big nets and feeds?
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yes, the BIG nets and Big feeds..well I don't have such an issue with the nets if the hay isn't too good but big feeds to build up a youngster for the show ring is a horrible, horrible mistake and likely to be very damaging....which is quite well known and also gave rise to the half term comment, I imagine
 
Not as in excessivly big, dont be daft.just big boy feeds for the shows.he has a scoop youngstock mix and chop with a splash of show condition balancer, not exactly what I would call a damaging feeding regime is it?slave to magic-just because im only 20 doesn't give you the right to use that ageist comment towards me and saying i 'm trying to get a rise out of people :-/ sorry that my phrasing was taken wrong to you thinking I pump my foals up but I have been brought up in a horse breeding family and work on a breeding stud so I should think I know better by that.
 
kelly laird said:
Not as in excessivly big, dont be daft.just big boy feeds for the shows.he has a scoop youngstock mix and chop with a splash of show condition balancer, not exactly what I would call a damaging feeding regime is it?slave to magic-just because im only 20 doesn't give you the right to use that ageist comment towards me and saying i 'm trying to get a rise out of people :-/ sorry that my phrasing was taken wrong to you thinking I pump my foals up but I have been brought up in a horse breeding family and work on a breeding stud so I should think I know better by that.
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If, perhaps, you'd posted a little more accurately about what you feed, and in a less childish manner, you may have been taken more seriously.....;)
 
I like my foals to be in at night for their first winter. Mine get handled daily, even if it is just to come in & out from the field, if the weather is really bad they don't go out. They get 3 feeds a day, hay & haylage, if they are getting porky they get cut back but foals tend to go out then up. I feed D&H Suregrow all year round to my youngsters regardless of what else goes in their bucket.
 
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