Just been double barrelled by my week old foal!!

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Beatrice5

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There I was mucking out by hand ( no dangerous utensils around my cutie pie) one minute her little nose was by my head the next minute I hear an almighty crack then the pain hit me and I dropped like a stone. Thought I was gonna throw up! Just hauled myself up and got out of the corral until I stoped feeling hot and dizzy. I now have a lovely swelling on my thigh and it is throbbing. As I was bending down at the time poo picking I am bloody lucky it wasn't my head or even my lower leg which I suspect would have broken. Do you wear a hat to muck out your foals?

Any tips on being around these unpredictable creatures and safety measures. Do they grow out of this? Is this normal? I want to be able to handle her safely without worrying everytime she comes near me that I'm gonna get a kick. Oh the joys!!
 
I would never have done that around Jupi when he was that young, foals are very unpredictable. Any mucking out was done when they were somewhere else (ie in stable field done and in field stable done).
 
Well at least you know she is healthy and happy.I am sure it was not aimed at you but as said they are unpredictable and foals can do more damage than big horses with a kick as all the force is concentrated on a tiny hoof instead of a large one.
I would move them to another box or turnout if you can and do the box while they are out.Or if you have help have someone hold the foal in the box while you do what you need to do.That way it will be a learning experience as well.
 
i agree with the above, foals are such loose cannons, so unpredictable, they have no manners instilled yet and just go ka-pow in any direction any time they feel like it, just for fun (as you discovered, ouch.) lots of arnica, ice, and ibuprofen. and sympathy.
i watch foals like a hawk any time i'm around them and don't ever trust them. i'll cuddle and fuss them but i stay very alert - i hate seeing people photographing them while sitting on the ground in their paddock... jeeez, just asking for a hoof in the teeth, or being reared on, imho.
i saw a very experienced horsewoman and stud owner get double-barrelled in the stomach and laid out by a day old foal years ago. it wouldn't follow its mum out of the yard and she went behind it and went "shoo!" - both hindlegs, instantaneously, straight in the gut. she was lucky it didn't kill her.
hope your girl never does it again, for your sake.
 
Beatrice5 said:
There I was mucking out by hand ( no dangerous utensils around my cutie pie) one minute her little nose was by my head the next minute I hear an almighty crack then the pain hit me and I dropped like a stone. Thought I was gonna throw up! Just hauled myself up and got out of the corral until I stoped feeling hot and dizzy. I now have a lovely swelling on my thigh and it is throbbing. As I was bending down at the time poo picking I am bloody lucky it wasn't my head or even my lower leg which I suspect would have broken. Do you wear a hat to muck out your foals?

Any tips on being around these unpredictable creatures and safety measures. Do they grow out of this? Is this normal? I want to be able to handle her safely without worrying everytime she comes near me that I'm gonna get a kick. Oh the joys!!
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Hey I totally can relate to you,mine is exactly the same she thinks its a game soo naughty! And she gets very excited at mucking out time ! if you can put them out then great other wise watch your back is the only advice i can give! Have to laugh tho as I think i expected my mare to dicipline her more but she seems glad of the peace while 'Lottie' is tormenting me!! And you muck out by hand ??? would take me forever if i had to do that as my mare and foal are filthy every day !!!
Glad im not the only one with an unruly foal !! But Its also great that they are so full and are healthy !!
 
Naughty Little fox!!!

Yes this is what they do - some more than others. I have had angels and demons. One demon thought he was hilarious and would double barrel for pure devilment. When he was older, he got the naughty stick cracked across his backside just the once, and never did it again.

A current filly bunny hops with her back end with excitement when you go in the box. As the boxes are so big there is great scope for them to frolic and canter. I find colts worse because they want to play fight and rough and tumble.

All you can do is stay alert and try to do the mucking out when they are turned out for an hour. Discipline when the time is right.

I'm not surprised you are in pain they have some power. Another of my foals rearing up at his mum, came down on her coronet band injuring it quite badly and leaving quite a scar and now her hoof grows a bit wonky. SO they are not all sugar and spice!!!!!
 
don't just watch your back! Never turn your back on them OR take your eyes off them, even in the field. Apart from "playing" they will react to any noise or fright they have very unpredictably - which will include charging through you to get to mum. You really are lucky it was not your head.
 
LynneB said:
don't just watch your back! Never turn your back on them OR take your eyes off them, even in the field. Apart from "playing" they will react to any noise or fright they have very unpredictably - which will include charging through you to get to mum. You really are lucky it was not your head.
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Agreed. I'm usually very alert, but when leading mare and (v well grown 6 month old foal) through a gateway once, with foal safely on the other side of the mare (or so i thought!) the foal suddenly darted round to my side, shot down the side of the mare and absolutely flattened me from behind, it was like being steamrollered, i was very bruised and battered, and lucky she didn't tread on my head.
i love having foals around, but i don't trust them an inch!
 
IrishLife you have just given me some more name suggestions :) Sugar and Spice or the Flying Fox !

I am also glad I am not the only one with an explosive foal. I have a lovely hoof print on my thigh and am lovely limp too! I am also very wary of her in my personal space when I need to enter the corral and field shelter now and she is learning to back away and not be all over me. We still have a wither scratch and I do the touching all over to get her used to people handling her but it is very much on my terms and not when she comes and stands on my foot!

She has cracked her mum a few times too and the mare is starting to be very aware of little ones dashing and leaping and had threatened her a few times so between us we'll let her know it's not on.

I was scanning all my foal books lastnight and not one warned of the power and danger posed by young foals kicking out and as a newcomer to foals I wish someone had warned me of this. Oh well I live and learn ( the hard way as usual) :)
 
They are really nice names actually!!

I have been mown down more times than I care to remember by foals assorted. The worst one of all was a colt I bred a lot of years ago who made it near impossible from day one to catch his mum in the field as he would go into stealth mode and it did not matter where you had him in your eyeline, you would suddenly get a pair of front legs over your shoulders and it was scary. He was an angel in the stable and in every way but he was obsessed with chasing and decking you was even better. One day he decked my ex husband (good boy!) and then went down on his knees and half rolled on him. He was truly satan in the form of a foal.

He was always a playful sort.
 
My friend's filly was a livewire in the stable for the first few weeks of her life, she was born in January so had very limited turnout due to everywhere being a sea of mud. She got a lot better once she was turned out every day in the paddock. As people have said they are unpredictable but sometimes they just have way too much energy to contain themselves. Said filly is just over 2 months old now and is much better behaved in the stable though you still need to keep an eye on her and where her bum is facing!!
 
I was told by a stud owner that the boys bite and the girls kick.

The little one due next month will be foal No6 for me and I apparently were very lucky as with foals No1 to 4 neither boys nor girls left any visible marks :-) - used to handling a lot of very difficult and sometimes devious horses, I am naturally very vigilant around horses so I always thought I could be quicker than them and for a while, it worked!

Foal No5, however, was a different kettle of fish... she's a girl, and boy, does she kick! She kicked me in the ring at the Norfolk show when she was just 6 weeks old, and I swear she was aiming! She double barrelled me in the thigh, as a sizeable 3 1/2 month old who should have known better after the amount of handling I had done with her, as we were practising for another show and I made the mistake of falling slightly back so that she could show off her impressive trot... Ouch. It was nearly 2 years ago and the dent in my thigh muscle is still really visible.... That'll teach me to believe I'm invincible!!! :-)
 
Ouch, I feel for you.
I got it right in the middle of the back by my filly, I turned my back on her for a second and in high jinx got it good whack!
 
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