Swinging a Foal?!

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Possibly a dumb question, but the breeder of my foal has talked about swinging her foals.
Whats all that about then?! How do you swing a foal? and how is this benificial to them?
Thanks in advance
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I'm ready to be controversial, and say it's not benificial in any way!
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You can easily teach a foal to yeild to pressure and tie up well with out risking at best, a traumatic experence and, at worst, a broken neck.

I'm of the opininon that the practice is now out dated, and anyone who keeps up to date with modern training practices/ research etc would not be suggesting this
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Correct me if I'm wrong anyone, but my understnding is that you tie a foal up, short, to an inmovable object and wait and see what happens.

If the foal panics in anyway he has no way out, and many have seriously hurt themselves during the process.

Just think, if your horse has a bad slip in the field, we all get the 'back man' to give him a check up in case he's put something out. So, imagine the damage a young horse can do to his spine/poll using all his body weight pulling back against a wall etc
 
the breeder of my two foals had some very outdated methods, I moved them!! I bought foals so I knew exactly how they had been treated etc, so I wanted all their experiences to be good ones.
 
Lol! Now I am having second thoughts about what "swinging a foal" is, after reading Air's version of it
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. I've never heard of tying a foal up being called "swinging" but perhaps this is just a cultural/language difference?

What I know of as "swinging a foal", is teaching them basic spacial manners. Like when you want to lead them, or have them stand for basic handling etc. Some people will use the lead rope to swing in a circle in front of them to stop them barging and to teach the foal personal space.
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I suspect this breeder IS talking about teaching to tie up - it's the only use I've heard of this expression (and it's an abomination!!)

You TEACH a foal to yield to pressure when you teach it to lead. You then TEACH it to tie up by putting the leadrope through a tie ring and holding the end while you faff around the foal. You DON'T need to use an unbreakable tie up and watch it try to hang itself!!
 
Not a dumb question but its a DUMB thing to do , they tie them up to something like a tree for hours where they struggle and get in a hellova state freaking out , injuring or even hanging themselves , until they give up basically so when they lead them they wont resist.
Totally Wrong & Totally Barbaric
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definitely find out quick and move them if your foal is being raised this way. Definitely do not think that just because a breeder has been doing it for years and breeds good foals they are good "parents". Apart from the physical damage what the hell does it do emotionally. WHY would anyone "train" any animal by use of fear and pain, especially a baby just weaned from the protection of their mother!!
 
Tying foal with a strong rope and heacollar to a solid post or tree or wall and letting it panic and fight and pull until it gives in.

There is also - and I think its an american term - sacking out - where you actively cause the above by waving a sack at the foal causing it to panic and pull back etc.

Has absolutely no place in modern yards IMO.

My dad, years ago, was told I should do this to my foal by a horsey bloke he knew - I nearly took his head off with my reply!!!!

I'm with the others, you teach them resistance and reward for giving by leading them in hand, then intruduce them to tying up through a ring, then with say a bandage tied to the ring and the rope tied to that so it stretches - and gradually get them tied up.

Swinging and sacking out are barbaric and can often result in broken necks and legs.
 
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Correct me if I'm wrong anyone, but my understnding is that you tie a foal up, short, to an inmovable object and wait and see what happens.

If the foal panics in anyway he has no way out, and many have seriously hurt themselves during the process.


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Ah well, the version I've heard of does involve tying a foal to an immovable object, BUT with a rope taut around its bottom and attached to the headcollar and leadrope so it isn't putting pressure on the head/neck.
Not a method I've used myself though.
 
But how would you know if this had happened to your horse or not?.....Years ago, we bought a weaned fell pony, she had been swung, we were told it was common practice. The pony is now in her late teens and has always been a very submissive animal.don't know if this had anything to do with the swinging or not..

I didn't see this done, was just told about it after we had bought her. Don't know if it would have stopped me from buying her as she is such a sweetie and has been such a good pony.
 
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