AdorableAlice
Well-Known Member
I put my 10 month old filly in with 3 older mares 10 days ago. Each end of the day I go over with haylage for all of them and a small bucket feed for the foal.
The foal is taken out of the field and fed by herself in the adjoining paddock which has dairy cow quality grass on it. I just give her the bucket and take her headcollar off and leave her to it, while I hay the others, check the fencing, change rugs, do feet, check water etc etc.
For the first 3 days of this routine the foal ate her grub and then wandered off to graze. After I finished the other horses I had to go and catch the foal and put her back with the others.
On day 4 the foal came out for her meal but instead of staying on her bucket she left the feed and wandered off to graze, when I finished the others I caught her and she ate her meal with me holding her, then went back with the others, fair enough I thought, the grass is very sweet.
The next day, to my astonishment, the foal grazed immediately, totally ignoring her feed, but she kept watching me do the others and as I started to walk toward the gate to the paddock the foal was in, she went over to her bucket and ate her meal. I would have been a good 50 yards from the gate but she had worked out that she needed to get onto her bucket before I caught her and put her back with the others.
This has gone on every day, but she is now able to time how long it takes me to do everything and as I walk towards her she makes the decision to go to her bucket. I just lean on the tree and watch her eat, she has nothing on her head and could make the decision to bog off for miles, it's a biggish field she is loose in.
I know horses are creatures of routine, but for a 10 month old to have this level of intelligence I find amazing, just hope she does not use it against me in the future, she is going to be a big girly !
The foal is taken out of the field and fed by herself in the adjoining paddock which has dairy cow quality grass on it. I just give her the bucket and take her headcollar off and leave her to it, while I hay the others, check the fencing, change rugs, do feet, check water etc etc.
For the first 3 days of this routine the foal ate her grub and then wandered off to graze. After I finished the other horses I had to go and catch the foal and put her back with the others.
On day 4 the foal came out for her meal but instead of staying on her bucket she left the feed and wandered off to graze, when I finished the others I caught her and she ate her meal with me holding her, then went back with the others, fair enough I thought, the grass is very sweet.
The next day, to my astonishment, the foal grazed immediately, totally ignoring her feed, but she kept watching me do the others and as I started to walk toward the gate to the paddock the foal was in, she went over to her bucket and ate her meal. I would have been a good 50 yards from the gate but she had worked out that she needed to get onto her bucket before I caught her and put her back with the others.
This has gone on every day, but she is now able to time how long it takes me to do everything and as I walk towards her she makes the decision to go to her bucket. I just lean on the tree and watch her eat, she has nothing on her head and could make the decision to bog off for miles, it's a biggish field she is loose in.
I know horses are creatures of routine, but for a 10 month old to have this level of intelligence I find amazing, just hope she does not use it against me in the future, she is going to be a big girly !
