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  Discussion on Leading my young foal
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Posted on Thursday, Aug 12, 1999 - 4:35 pm:

Does anyone have any ideas on how I might get my foal to not run past me? She is only 10 days old today. She wears her halter and in the barn will lead a short distance, turn both ways and back for a few steps. Obviously, I don't want to pull on her neck at this tender age, but here is my problem: in the round pen, she will lead as usual and then take off running past me. How can I teach her that that is NOT what I want?

Posted on Thursday, Aug 12, 1999 - 6:26 pm:

The best way I've found is to wrap the lead rope around her butt, smooch to her and pull a "little" on her head while you are pulling on the rope around her butt. I've taught 3 this year to lead this way. She will learn quickly that a small tug on her head with a "smooch" means to go forward. Mine are 5 months old and lead great. Good Luck!

Posted on Thursday, Aug 12, 1999 - 8:01 pm:

Hehehe, its sounds like you have 1 happy healthy little foal.

She is a quick learner, and is having fun. At this age there is not any easy way to slow her down without upsetting her and causing a fight. "You tell me to go, then you tell me to stay, make up your mind".

If you can get her to relate the voice command Whoa to every time she stops walking or running. She should come around quickly. Alternatively you might try a thin stick that you hold in your left hand accross your body and in front of her, as long as she accepts the stick she should see it as a boundary to her behaviour. You might have to include the stick/broom handle/etc in you other games so she see's it as part of you and not to be afraid.

Posted on Friday, Aug 13, 1999 - 6:30 am:

The best answer I can think of is: with patience. Your foal sounds normal to me also. Do not expect a whole lot of attention at this time. Lead her in and lead her out, work on her being still long enough to get the gaits open and release her halter without bolting and you will have your hands full.

Next will come holding still in the barn aisle while trimming and grooming. Severly correct rearing and kicking everything else is a slow learning and molding process.

From these early steps a willing and mindful weanling will develop and you can start advancing the lessons further.
DrO

Posted on Sunday, Aug 15, 1999 - 1:22 pm:

Thank you all so much. Already she seems to be listening to Whoa a little bit, and seems to be noticing that when she does run past me she gets no laughter and no "good girl", which she just loves to hear. Yeah, she's a doll but I don't want to make the same mistake with her that I did 11 years ago with my only other colt: now he doesn't respect me as "leader" and plays all over humans. (He was premature and I overdid the gentling with no corrections). You can sit on his back (never been trained) and he just looks at you. So yeah, Im trying to train Sundance and have her comfortable with humans YET respectful of her place. Thanks again for your advice.

Posted on Monday, Aug 16, 1999 - 2:49 pm:

I used a figure 8 with my foal years ago.

Basically, a long, cotton lead rope is put in a figure 8 around the foal, cris-crossing over its withers. The front end is in the top loop of the 8, around the foal's chest, and the back end is in the lower loop, around the foal's bum. Then you can encourage baby forwards with your hand at the withers by pulling on the lower loop, or encourage it to slow with the wither hand by pulling a little on the chest loop.

It is important to use a soft cotton rope for comfort, and don't tie it or hook it to the halter, if you let go, it should DrOp off.

You can also take advantage of the foal's willingness to follow mama if you have a second person to lead her.

I've found a foal's attention span to be very short. It takes time for that little brain to develop into more than mush that can be trained to retain information. Short, brief, frequent, happy sessions seemed to work best for me. And, a heavy dose of patience.

Have fun.

Posted on Wednesday, Aug 18, 1999 - 7:23 pm:

The figure 8 sounds workable and I'll give it a try. She follows the dam quite nicely, but still gets these impulses to jump ahead. (Mom is a lenient one and doesn't call her back unless she travels a good distance.) I'm thinking my next best bet is to teach WHOA and tying up and then maybe progress with leading. Thanks.

Posted on Thursday, Aug 19, 1999 - 1:25 pm:

I worked on leading with the figure 8 leading and whoa, first.

I saved tying up for much, much later.

My concern is that their undeveloped minds have such short attention spans and they are so quick to jump/dash/bump/loose it. The last thing I want to injure is their head/neck/withers area from a freak tying accident.

After they are stronger and closer to a year, you can teach them to tie. I like Linda Tellington Jones' approach - she doesn't tie them up and let them flail around, fighting. She has a technique called "taming the tiger" that is very methodical and safe. Check out one of her books as it is very detailed to write in here.

I have a friend who bred a very valuable foal. At a young age, she resisted her handler, reared and flipped. The injuries were severe enough that she never could be ridden :O( These kind of stories keep me on a "take it very slow and easy" track with the young ones.

Cheers.
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