Dear Friend and Horseman,
Welcome to another Horse Training Tips Newsletter.
If you’ve been a reader
of my Horse Training Tips Newsletter for a while, you’re
aware some of my newsletters have really stirred up some controversy.
Especially concerning the handling and training of foals and young
horses.
In case you missed those newsletters, one of the controversies was that I
basically discourage the “Imprint Training” of newborn foals.
The reason is because a lot of people turn the foal into a horse that
becomes belligerent, disrespectful towards humans and difficult to train…
Actually HURTING the colt’s chances of becoming a good performance
horse.
I receive a ton of emails asking me what I suggest, as an alternative,
to get the foal off to a good start.
I also get a lot of email from people who own yearlings they hope will develop into good performance horses. They want to know what they can do to prepare their baby and give him a head start.
Training Foals and Weanlings
Here are a
few suggestions that have worked well for me…
First off, let the foal be a horse!
I know that sounds like a smart-aleck remark but in reality, many people
treat their foal like another human or their pet dog. That is a recipe for
trouble. For any horse to be mentally and emotionally BALANCED, he needs to know he’s a horse.
And, he needs to be handled like a horse using “horse” psychology NOT “human” psychology.
When a mare is in the process of giving birth, don’t mess with her or the foal until they have strongly bonded as mother and baby.
Here is where the “Imprint” fanatics go crazy. They want to get their hands on the foal “immediately”, before it has had a chance to bond with its mother.
Let me warn you, intervening this way, can and sometimes does lead to problems.
I would suggest waiting a day after the birth before doing much with the
baby.
After a day, then it’s perfectly fine to introduce yourself or do whatever you want with the foal.
Always keep in mind though, that this cute little baby is still a horse and should be treated like a horse.
The baby needs to learn that you are his “leader” not his “playmate”.
It’s good to teach the foal that you are there to care for him and protect him but that you also expect him to “behave” in a certain way.
All horses need to know that when a human is handling them, there are rules, boundaries and limitations. Horses NEED and EXPECT this guidance.
Their mother sets the rules when they are interacting with her. They expect you to set the rules when they are interacting with you. If you fail to do this, you’ll create a juvenile delinquent that is disrespectful and pushes you around.
Ideally, by the time the baby is a yearling, you should have taught him to lead well and stand tied to be groomed. He should know how to be lunged on a lunge-line.
He should be good about having his feet trimmed and so on.
When its time to start the colt under saddle as a 2-year-old, things will go much better if he is well mannered and respects people but is not afraid of them.
Sending a colt that is afraid of people to a professional trainer, will be more stressful for the colt and will take the trainer more time to get the colt started.
On the other side of that coin, sending a colt to the trainer that is bad mannered and disrespectful will also slow down the training process.
These are just a few of the things I recommend for your baby.
If you would like to see how to do this training, I strongly recommend getting my video, “Training the Foal and Weanling“.
Take care and good luck with your babies.
Well, this wraps it up for this newsletter. I hope you liked it.
Until next time, have fun training your horse.
Larry Trocha
www.HorseTrainingVideos.com
www.HorseTrainingTack.com
Hi Larry,
Just had my first foal (bought a riding mare in July that wasn’t supposed to be pregnant). I didn’t do imprinting but held him & rubbed him all over at about 2 days old. He is still a little wary of me touching him but will come up & sniff me when I’m in the barn looking after his mother. Today at 4 days old he started treating me like another foal, rearing up, pinning his ears, kicking out with both barrels. I didn’t have a stick with me in the barn so I couldn’t reach to smack him when he kicked out but when he was rearing up, pinning his ears, or pushing into me I sharply whopped him on the neck with my finger tips. After that he settled down but I’m sure he will try this with me again. What else can you suggest to stop this behavior before he gets bigger & stronger?
I can suggest getting the DVD that is recommended on this very page.
It shows you exactly what to do.
Larry T
Hello Sylvia
I have 4 foals and all of them did behave the same as your and that is normal. They are playing. Is up to you to teach him not to do that with you, from the first try. He/she will try few time to play with you this way but if you gently smack his/her but, nose or push away, foal will soon learn not to do that. My first foals , fillies are now raising to two years of age and they has never kick me or bite me or rear at me or do anything bad to me. They did learn how to lead in 5 min without any problem. What I want them to do they do. My second pare of foals, now 9 months old, is filly and a colt. The same. With colt only difference is he did like nibbling. His mouth was always working on other fillies.. and he tried on me but he did learn he can’t do that with me.
I am not calling my contact with foals from their birth “imprinting”. I am just introducing myself to them so they know from the start who is the boss without a fear. So they can trust me and respect me. And that is what they do. It is a wonderful time for you to be with a little one and teach him trust you and respect you. You know last winter one night I went out to check my horses, 7 of them. Two mares, stallion and 4 young ones. Everybody was at the barn but two older fillies and young colt were missing. I went into dark and start calling them by names and they answer from the dark. Yes when I call my horses they answer and they come to me… I found them in the dark stuck on the side of the long dip ditch with bushes on the side. Pilled in a group they were looking how to go through the bush brunches..didn’t want to jump over . I told them lets go, come on, wave my hand and they started following me lined up behind me. It was so nice feeling walking in the dark with flashlight in hands followed by young horses behind, trusting you that you will take them out. We came to the area where they could jump over the ditch and they did runing to the barn and waited there for me with the rest of the heard to let them in.
That’s my horses. It is easy and fast to get their trust and respect when they are properly handled early and daily. No problem with leading, halter, picking their feet, touching them all over. This is my experience. I did hear lots of advise but I just went with the flow of a parent. How you said to your kid,: “you can’t do that”, you say that to the young foal too. I say that to my stallion waiving my finger in front of his nose and he listen. Don’t fear, enjoy time with your foal. You can’t treat the foal like a puppy simply because horse is not a puppy. You don’t play with the foal you only teach him.
Branka
Hi Branka,
Thank you for the information. I think it will be O.K. to treat the little man like another member of the herd would when he
gets too roudy. He may be a little worse with me because he has no other babies to play with, only his mother and an older
gelding. Do you think I should use a stick & string to tap his rump when he kicks out? I can’t reach with my hand because when
he is kicking he is also running away. When he was rearing up & getting pushy I just popped him on the side of the neck
with my fingertips & that worked for the time being. When he reared & I tried just pushing him he thought I was playing & kept
doing it so I had to get a little more assertive. I would buy Larry’s video but by the time it gets to Canada he will be too far gone if I don’t do something right away. Plus I don’t know what I’d do with the video when I was done with it because I don’t have any more foals in my future.
I usually like to leave the training to someone else & buy them when they’re saddle broke but this was an oops & I want to give
him the best start possible whether I end up keeping him or selling him.
I also have a large light toy plastic bat that I use with my Belgian gelding when he is getting pushy. It doesn’t hurt them but the sound it makes when it hits makes them pay attention. I plan to start halter training him this weekend, then pick up his feet, yield fore & hindquarters, lower his head, flex, back, etc. in short sessions. Hopefully that will help his manners a little also.
Anyway, thanks again for your input & I welcome any & all feedback on this subject.
Sylvia
Don’t play with him and use stick when he wants to kick or go on you. The best is if he try do that in a pen or stall then he can’t run away and you can smack him right away. Just one smack and make him move away from you and tell him loud no. They understand words by sound. It is good to have a stick with you any time you approaching bad mannered horse. It is extension of your hand and they do walk away from the stick. Also they don’t like when you use stick on their lover part of legs. If you have a long stick with a short rope on the end and move swift right to left in front of their legs on the ground they will back off. You just have to be persistent and move him around instead him moving you around. If you see that he want rear just lift your hand with stick and say loud no and smack if you need. Only if you need. If he back off and stop then you reward him by telling him… good boy and tap him gently anywhere. They actually like caressing and your talking. You have to show him that you are the boss and in same time that you will not hurt him. He will understand that soon and he will start trusting you. It doesn’t happen over night or in couple of days. But it will come. Be patience. It is easier to deal with small horse than with fully grown. Any hungry horse in a stall after few days of feeding him will calm down and start thinking. They are smart but we are smarter. We should be.. Take your time every day to be with him few minutes and you will see the difference. Just remember not to give him a minute of feeling that he is your boss. Your word is always last one.
Cheers, Branka
Larry I believe it is way too eairly to be training a horse too lunge at the age of a yearling! otherwise I agree with your methods
Yearlings tear around the pasture at a dead run, jump on each other, wrestle each other to the ground, bite, kick and do all kinds of other stuff when playing.
If 5 minutes on a lunge line is going to hurt your yearling, he has very unusual problems.
Larry T
Of course, like so many other things “imprint training” means many things to many people.
The original recommendation was to handle the foal only as much as necessary to establish familiarity and compliance with normal human/horse activity – largely what most of the folks describe. Being touched, picking up feet, and so on.
The touchy-feely folks mis-interpret this to mean treat a foal like a puppy, which of course is a good way to ruin a horse.
No… “Imprint Training” is a method laid out in a book written by a veterinarian/clinician.
It suggests handling the baby and training it the INSTANT it is born.
I strongly disagree with this course of action.
Larry T