NH video - training a foal...

I thinks it's quite cute... For all the foal cares he's having alot of fun and games but benefiting at the same time! No ropes or being pressured into anything.
:)
 
I stopped watching at when just before she rode the mare over the bridge.
I wouldn't personally ride a mare with a 3 week old foal, let alone over a wooden bridge with no side rails.
 
Cute little one. Can't see any harm as long as sessions are brief as he's so young. Would prefer to see him in a field playing with other babies and their dams but better than sticking him in a tiny paddock with just his mother or worse, being stabled for hours as so many babies are.
Don't think it will give him an advantage over more traditionally kept babies out in a herd though. Babyhood is short enough.
 
I would say leave the poor little chap alone to be a foal, there's plenty of time for stuff like that later on. Put the pair of them out in a nice field with other foals to play with . . . . but, to say, the least, I have NO time for Parelli.
 
The vast majority of it is no different to what the foal would be doing out in a herd situation - following mom, investigating new objects, interacting with other people and animals. I wasn't too keen on the bridge bit - would let one our babies do that - and I think a smaller exercise ball might have been a bit easier to play with.
It's very cute, but our babies play just as sweetly in the pasture without mom being ridden!
 
Jade&Syrah said:
I stopped watching at when just before she rode the mare over the bridge.
I wouldn't personally ride a mare with a 3 week old foal, let alone over a wooden bridge with no side rails.
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Same with me, I was waiting for it to all go horribly wrong. Nice to see no whips or halter on the baby but I think it should be left to play in its herd.
 
Walking it over an open sided bridge is incredibly irresponsible.

Encouraging it to jump a large solid object is despicable, I hate to see foals being made to jump. People will argue the foal isn't being made to jump but taking it's mother over the obstacle (a large tree that made a very wide x-country style jump) is going to make the foal jump it to get to her. Foals don't think I'll go out of my way around the object to get back to my mummy, instead they think my Mums there I better leap of this tree to get to her.

It could easily break a leg jumping on that stupid green ball, luckily it slipped sideways instead of straight down.

I also pity the poor mare, being ridden 3 weeks after foaling can't be fun.

I saw a picture of a 2 day old foal being Parelli-ized a few weeks ago. They had ropes around the tiny thing and were even picking it's feet up.

Call me old fashioned but I think foals should have time to learn to be horses before they have to learn to be a humans plaything.

Why can't people just let the foals have a few months freedom before they have to fit the constraints of humanity.

But then again Parelli recommends you geld your colts before they are even 2 weeks old.

**** what hope do these poor horses have :(
 
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I am not a Parelli fan at all, but I and couldnt help but quite enjoy that video.

It looked more like he was trying to mount that green ball!
 
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Americans (and possibly Australians, I'm not sure) use 'colt' as a generic term for 'young horse'. It also means 'filly' oddly enough. When I rode in the States at a reining/WP barn all young horses male/female/gelding were referred to as colts which I found really really weird, especially the girls. So 'colt-starting' is just young horse starting or breaking.
 
team barney said:
They say everything is a colt. They claim the horse that bucked pat parelli off a RTTH is a colt (see http://youtu.be/b56JdzaTLHk ) but if you read the below link it clearly states the horses used in the event were geldings.

http://www.roadtothehorse.com/horses.html

I am under the impression Parelli think it makes it look more difficult to say that they dealing with a colt.
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As far as i am aware, most horse trainers in america call any young horse a colt, whether its a colt, gelding or filly. It doesnt actually mean that its a uncastrated colt, unless it actually is.

I think the video is cute, i dont see a problem with getting a foal use to seeing things and being allowed to use its curiosity.

Plus i dont really see anything wrong with doing this sort of riding with the mare. It doesnt look that strenuos for her, just walking about. obviously its a bit soon to reintroduce work for the mare.

I also doubt that many parelli people castrate there colts at 2 weeks of age. Im not sure how many vets would approve of it. I stand to be corrected tho.
 
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Jennyharvey said:
I also doubt that many parelli people castrate there colts at 2 weeks of age. Im not sure how many vets would approve of it. I stand to be corrected tho.
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To quote directly from the Parelli website "Pat Parelli recommends gelding colts within the first two weeks of birth"

If you wish to verify this information read paragraph 5 of 'Understanding Stallion Behavior'... http://www.parellinaturalhorsetraining.com/video/stallion-behavior/

Parelli's are all gelded at the appallingly young age of 10 days.
 
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team barney said:
To quote directly from the Parelli website "Pat Parelli recommends gelding colts within the first two weeks of birth"

If you wish to verify this information read paragraph 5 of 'Understanding Stallion Behavior'... http://www.parellinaturalhorsetraining.com/video/stallion-behavior/

Parelli's are all gelded at the appallingly young age of 10 days.
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I have to agree with you, its far too young and im suprised that a vet would be happy to geld a colt this young.
 
I too thought it was cute. I don't follow NH, then again, I don't particularly agree with some things the so called Traditionalists do either.

Riding a healthy mare 3 weeks after foaling is ok in my eyes. It was hardly a ODE. What's wrong with going over a bridge too?
 
I enjoyed it :D

Mum and baby look happy and healthy and the foal looks to be having a great time with mum nice and relaxed and happy to let baby play. I think some people are just parelli bashing as usual.

Different people do things differently. Build a bridge and get over it :p
 
I love it in principle. Really like the tunnel thing and the flappy arch. Mum & foal look great & he's loving the stimulation. Would worry about the ball in case foal did the splits or whatever. Think foal charged off and jumped the log of his own volition so can't criticise that.

We used to take foals to the local housing estate with mum. They would get fussed & crowded round by all the locals and mum would stand & love the attention, buses would go past and general kerfuffle would make them very bombproof.
 
Cringeworthy.....absolutely awful. I had to shut my eyes when the foal was going over the bridge and again when he almost went over the ball.
Absolute muppets.
 
Mounting behaviour in young colts (male foals) may be related to a testosterone surge that happens post-natally, long before the onset of puberty. I would not be surprised if it paralleled the incidence of flehmen behaviour, which is mainly seen in stallions, but also occurs in male foals - most frequently at a couple of weeks of age and then declines to the same low level as fillies over the next 12-16 weeks (Crowell-Davies & Houpt, 1985).

But then, if the foal was male and already gelded, that may not be the explanation. I didn't know Parelli encouraged such early gelding - what's wrong with it being done at the usual age? :confused:

As for the video clip, I actually didn't mind what was shown. I've seen a lot worse, including the horrid and unnecessary 'imprint training' procedure that Robert Miller advocates.

I wouldn't try the log-jumping or bridge-crossing myself, but I also can't help thinking that some native pony foals who have been born and grow up in rugged terrains would be likely to meet similar hazards from time to time and in any case would possess an innate wariness of precipitous drops.
 
Faithkat said:
I would say leave the poor little chap alone to be a foal, there's plenty of time for stuff like that later on. Put the pair of them out in a nice field with other foals to play with . . . . but, to say, the least, I have NO time for Parelli.
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^^^^^^^^^ Echo this completely!
 
Originally Posted by Faithkat
I would say leave the poor little chap alone to be a foal, there's plenty of time for stuff like that later on. Put the pair of them out in a nice field with other foals to play with . . . . but, to say, the least, I have NO time for Parelli

What makes you think the foals don't go out with other mares and foals?!
I have miniture donkeys and we are advised to castrate at a few days if possible,maybe its an American thing?
 
I am not a huge parelli fan but you know what? I liked it, they were in great condition, the mum looked fab and chilled ambling along and the little chap looked like he was having a fun. He could just as easily break a leg looning around a field. In the wild they amble over logs, up hills throuh shady glens so why not? Nobody forced him to do anything, he had no restraints just the instinct to follow mum and be curious. He could have easily gone round the tunnel or the log - he chose not to!

Even if they did it for an hour every day (which I would really hope not!!!) then he has 23 hrs a day to just be a foal. My only concern is that it might make him too bold and overconfident and I dont particularly like the pushing the big ball thing as that could encourage him to barge humans / other objects.
 
Nothing wrong with getting a foal used to the world around it from the beginning, and I doubt mum would have suffered from such gentle exercise tbh. In some countries, still lactating mares will be harnessed to carts and working in the fields and on the roads with their foals at foot - now I'm not in any way suggesting that's ok, but it does put this into perspective.
 
I don't see anything wrong with it. I like it in fact. I think its a very good idea to get the foal used to as many different things as possible while it is still with its mum. As long as the area the foal is in is secure and it can't just shoot off into the sunset. Mum is very relaxed and calm and is setting a good example. It seems a very professional parelli place though so my only worry would be that this is the 'start' and the foal will soon have ropes belted in its face etc.

On a slightly different note, we are really nice to our horses these days. Here in Hungary in more rural areas mum is back to work pretty sharpish with foal at foot - proper work pulling carts etc. Not what I would do but seems to do mare and foal no harm.

My only real criticism is the mare (and foal) look to have slightly wonkey front legs. Just saw a glimpse but thought, oh dear

your typing fingers are quicker than mine spud :D
 
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