New Foal 7 months old NEED ADVICE ASAP!

[Nudibranch]

Just to add to the posts on limb strength and soundness...

I have a yearling who arrived as a weanling with cow hocks and tied in at the front. He'd been deep littered pretty much all his short life. 11 months on and he's pretty straight all round now. Constant turnout on hills and a damned good farrier sorted it.

On a similar subject the big 8yo I lost a few years back wasn't trimmed as a foal. I shared a vet with his breeder and she told me she'd had words with them as he was developing slippers (these were experienced people as well!). He made over 17hh and had issues from 2. I'm convinced his early development was affected.

 

[DabDab]

Y'know, in truly feral herds there is sometimes only one foal born in that year so quite often foals just get on with being part of a herd. We have seen this many, many times and have had our own singleton (not intentionally) in the domestic crew. With appropriate, minimal handling it's fine. No way would I want to be doing a lot with a weanling if there were other horses that could help the little one learn about life...

Absolutely, but foal in with a mixed herd including mostly adult horses of the same sort of breed and type as the foal is massively different to single foal in with a bunch of exclusively 2yo colts/geldings of possibly very different type/size etc to the foal.

All but one of my horses have come from the breeder's field, largely unhandled (they certainly hadn't been troubled with vaccinations or much foot care) and all fairly different in terms of how easy they were to train/handle/introduce to life. Dabs, post gelding as a yearling, spent the next 2.5 years in a bachelor herd with his dad and the other young geldings at the farm, pretty much unhandled, until I bought him. When I got him he was an utter yob, and through his life he had more handling and groundwork training than any other horse I have owned or had anything to do with, and yet to his last days he could still take the odd notion and the manners would spontaneously fall out of his head.

Arty is easy and generally polite but can be a bit in your face (mixed herd, had been haltered but that was about it), Pebbles super easy and quite aloof (mixed herd, zero handling), Hetty somewhere in between and very laid back (out with another filly and an older mare, halter broken and had seen farrier once). And then previous to current bunch - Minty was the easiest horse I've ever owned despite being a big selle francais, as well as being affable and friendly (mixed herd with daily handling), and Missy was easy to handle but tricky to stable, clip, trim, load (mixed herd with zero handling to age 4). None ever went in a stable before I had them.

And in my youth I worked at two big stud operations...One well-known showjumping stud where the yougstock were out on hills in age and sex groups until they were brought in to be backed. They were all fine to be backed and introduced to the stable, but were big, athletic horses and often weren't the easiest to handle, which was just seen as a problem for the groom really so long as they jumped well enough and were fit and healthy. The other bred similar types, but barned and stabled everything for a potion of the time and the youngsters were handled twice a day, every day (just picking out feet and leading), and they were the easiest bunch of youngsters I've ever come across both to back and on the ground. It's not how I would keep a youngsters of mine because I don't think the time in a stable or barn is the healthiest long-term, but manners-wise you couldn't fault them.

I'm not sure I'll ever be convinced that zero handling of youngsters is the best way to raise them. As much as yes, if you sit in the stable with a foal cooing at it and letting it climb all over you I think we can all agree, you will end up with a monster.

Mostly turned out, in a mixed herd, with regular non-idiotic handling, from my experience of young horses from various scenarios, produces the most pleasant young adult horses.

 

[tristars]

as kids we bought many a youngster from the welsh mountains

completely wild, well grown, we would keep them stabled to handle them, when tame we turned them out daytime, stabled at night and corn fed, come spring out to grass, we lead them up the main dual carriage way, with huge lorries wizzing past their ears, they went to the shops saw pretty well everything as babies, when broken they would go anywhere anytime asked and pass everything, even the ones we kept as stallions were ridden out and no problem


i do pretty much the same with the horses i have now, i believe what you put into a horse in time and patience as a youngster pays you back a thousand fold

confidence and trust can be installed and youngsters are curious and enjoy the interaction with those who are going to ride them, it is then is a natural progression onto riding later.

as for gelding the last one gelded was done indoors and stayed indoors for 3 days, some anti biotics no bleeding, no swelling all healed up, others done outdoors have healed in 24 hours, its largely a matter of the vet in general