Foal Handling Tips

Kathy Anderson Author

08/27/2024 Added

3 Plays

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Short video on how to handle young foals

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[00:00:00.920]in this short video we want to give you some tips about handle how to handle a newborn foal some
[00:00:16.360]things that you really need to be kind of careful about and pay attention to and so hopefully we
[00:00:20.240]give you some insight of how to handle one when they're just a few days old now the baby we're
[00:00:24.600]going to show you on this little video she's only about three days old and yes if you look at the
[00:00:28.640]stall that we have her in right now it is bedded with shavings it really is preferable when you do
[00:00:33.740]have these mirrors into full if you do fold them inside to have that bet that the stall bedded
[00:00:38.780]which with straw straw is going to be a lot cleaner and a lot better for those for those mirrors as
[00:00:43.660]they're going through the folding process and so that's kind of how we want to have the stalls
[00:00:47.760]bedded so in this little short video we're going to show you some things about handling the baby
[00:00:51.980]getting the baby and the mayor out of the stall the first time and hopefully just give you some
[00:00:56.600]safe ways to work with the both of them
[00:00:58.280]now when you first go to handle these newborn foals you have to understand and realize that
[00:01:02.900]they're not halter broke and so you need to be sensible and do some safe things about handling
[00:01:07.760]them I will say that this baby is extremely quiet extremely easy to work with and don't think
[00:01:12.680]they're all going to be as as easy to get along with as what she is but you can see what we're
[00:01:17.000]going to do is go ahead and put one hand and cradle them in front of their neck and then the
[00:01:21.080]other hand we're going to go back by their buttocks and usually go ahead and take a hold of
[00:01:25.040]their tail and with that you can do a lot to
[00:01:27.980]moving where you need also it's really good in the early training programs of
[00:01:33.620]these young guys to get in here and handle them and work with them as easy
[00:01:37.460]as early as you can to get them used to being handled and rubbed on and things
[00:01:41.780]like that you might also hear of a process or another theory that people
[00:01:46.520]will do called imprint training and that's something that you can look and
[00:01:51.020]research more about this is not really truly imprint training because that's
[00:01:55.040]normally done within the first 24 hours but here we're just
[00:01:57.920]after this baby's about just a few days old getting in here and rubbing on them
[00:02:02.300]and holding on them if he me if we need to do any treatments on this full at
[00:02:06.860]this stage it's too young to put a halter on and so he's going to hold the
[00:02:10.640]baby and cradle her and move around her and then we could give her a vaccination
[00:02:15.440]to give her an injection draw blood on or any of those types of things as we
[00:02:19.620]might need all right some more things about handling these babies really pay
[00:02:24.080]attention to them the other thing is they're not going to be overly resistant
[00:02:27.860]to this so what you have to remember is just kind of hang on to them just kind
[00:02:32.600]of go with them and see she's showing a little bit of resistance here you want
[00:02:36.560]this is some of your very first early train on these guys and so you want to
[00:02:40.040]make sure that you do go ahead and hold on to them pull them to you keep them
[00:02:44.460]around you and so that you from the very beginning or the boss you don't want to
[00:02:49.340]get in a super big battle or overly aggressive with them you certainly don't
[00:02:52.820]want to injure them and keep it all positive and so we'll make sure that
[00:02:56.660]baby's doing what we want her to do
[00:02:57.800]and then back off and be friendly to them the other thing is they like that
[00:03:02.240]they like you to be about eye level or on the same size with you so what you'll
[00:03:06.480]see is he's going to creep down so he's not as imposing so he's more about the
[00:03:10.920]same size of that baby the other areas that a foal really likes to be scratched
[00:03:15.180]is there up at their withers and then also at their tail head and if you watch
[00:03:19.580]even adult horses out they will scratch each other at their tail head and up at
[00:03:24.040]their withers and those are really comfort zones in areas of
[00:03:27.740]really positive kind of interaction with them it's good to go ahead and pet this
[00:03:32.600]baby on her face on her head on her ears but really that initial contact if you
[00:03:37.220]if you bend down and go in and approach them at their shoulder you're going to
[00:03:41.420]get them you can see that she's kind of interested in name and looking at him
[00:03:44.660]and you can even back away and so many times they'll go ahead and follow and
[00:03:48.080]come to you the other thing you want to be careful
[00:03:50.300]as you're handling them is watch your feet because they will kick out they
[00:03:53.600]will step on you so make sure that you've got closed shoes preferably
[00:03:57.680]boots on when you go to handling these young guys so you don't get yourself
[00:04:01.580]hurt and you can stay with them and work with them and handle them in the right
[00:04:05.000]way okay now we are going to go ahead and put a halter on this little bit this
[00:04:09.620]little filly now remember I did say she is extremely quiet they're not all going
[00:04:14.540]to be take things quite as well as what she has here and she has had one on once
[00:04:19.340]or twice already and so just kind of work with them just be pretty careful
[00:04:24.020]with them and pay attention they're not all going to stand there quite as nice
[00:04:27.620]as what this filly did and sometimes you just need to put them on and let them
[00:04:31.300]shake their head and play with it and get used to just having that halter on
[00:04:34.960]it's really nice if you have the time in the facility to go ahead and start
[00:04:39.120]putting a halter on them when they're this little if you wait till they're six
[00:04:43.060]eight months of age you can tell that they're going to be a lot bigger and a
[00:04:45.940]lot more difficult to handle we're not you don't want to ramrod them you want
[00:04:51.920]to just more or less kind of pull them to you and push them ahead and get them
[00:04:55.620]to move and give to pressure of that halter
[00:04:57.560]but do it in a very kind of subtle and quiet way so that baby does learn to
[00:05:02.520]he's not really going to snap around he's just going to hold her head over
[00:05:06.140]here and get her to convince to go ahead and come over to him like she just did
[00:05:10.220]right there so if we take this baby and we would just pull hard on her head okay
[00:05:14.760]that's when oftentimes that they'll go ahead and get in the fight with you they
[00:05:18.980]might flip over I've even known a baby's at this stage if you flip them over you
[00:05:23.600]can break a neck and so which is never good and so instead of getting
[00:05:27.500]a fight with her and really doing a really push type thing he's more or less
[00:05:31.280]going to move her hip over and pull her so she does come around and send her
[00:05:35.480]more forward and pull her around into the circle around him so it's always a
[00:05:39.420]give-and-take type of thing and you move them off Center just a little bit but
[00:05:45.980]here he's going to push on her hip
[00:05:49.140]send her forward and then around so she does come to him remember you want to do
[00:05:53.420]it both directions so we first did it to the left and now he's going to ask her
[00:05:57.260]to come he's going to push on her hip and send her forward a little bit and
[00:06:01.520]then come around to him right remember she's only about three days old and if
[00:06:07.280]you've got like I said before have the time and abilities to go ahead and do
[00:06:11.520]some of this when they're very young like this that really is to your
[00:06:14.900]advantage because they're smaller they're a little bit easier to handle
[00:06:18.680]than when they're six or eight months of age now you need to think about some of
[00:06:24.260]your safety and a little bit of the know a little bit of the behavior and nature
[00:06:27.800]of these newborn foals when you first take them out of the stall ideal is that
[00:06:32.000]we have the foal that's going to follow that mare you have to realize here
[00:06:35.340]within probably about the first week of that foals life their eyesight is not a
[00:06:39.080]hundred percent so don't assume they're going to magically just walk out of this
[00:06:42.700]stall and follow that mare very simply because
[00:06:44.780]they've not been outside if you by chance have a mare that foals out on
[00:06:48.720]pasture that's a little bit different situation because they're already going
[00:06:52.280]to be out there in the open together but when you're foaling in a stall situation
[00:06:56.180]you need to probably have two people with you when you initially take that
[00:06:59.420]mare and foal out of the stall to make sure they come out correctly some things
[00:07:03.260]to think about too is because that baby can't really see he doesn't really know
[00:07:06.820]what's going on if the mare and foal do get separated the baby's going to panic
[00:07:12.200]sometimes they run off because they can't see
[00:07:14.660]so sometimes what the handler can do is go ahead and do that little the whinnyin
[00:07:18.280]that you might hear a stew and that meant what and because the foal can hear
[00:07:22.400]he's just not going to see very well so that's a little bit of a comforting
[00:07:25.580]thing to those foals and it also does help them know where that mare actually
[00:07:29.060]is and he's going to cradle her and bring her right along the mare as we go
[00:07:34.400]out to the indoor arena it's nice if you have a small enclosure like what we have
[00:07:39.420]here so we can initially put that mare and foal out together by themselves so
[00:07:44.540]then the foal can go ahead and learn how to follow that mare in a small area so
[00:07:51.140]after we've had this baby and mare well the baby will follow its follow the mare
[00:07:55.580]and we've had the halter on a little bit here in the stall so she's kind of
[00:07:59.360]giving to pressure and and working with us a little bit and also knowing the
[00:08:02.720]demeanor of the baby like this one that she's so quiet we'll go ahead and start
[00:08:06.440]leading him to the pasture leading them as we turn them out for a couple of days
[00:08:10.060]to get some of that initial halter breaking done what you will find is if
[00:08:14.420]you can get a halter on one it's very handy some of these guys get pretty
[00:08:17.840]independent pretty fast and they don't follow the mare as well or they kind of
[00:08:21.860]get distracted and run off a little bit and that's always a very nervous
[00:08:25.280]situation both for the baby and for the mare and so by having two people and
[00:08:30.020]having and actually as they get a little bit more broke you can even have one
[00:08:33.080]person holding the mare and holding the baby and moving them from the from the
[00:08:37.220]from the stall to wherever you might be going to turn them out but remember
[00:08:41.720]they're not really completely halter broken so you have
[00:08:44.300]to be careful with them it's always kind of a give-and-take type thing
[00:08:47.680]they're easily hurt and injured if you kind of get a little bit too aggressive
[00:08:51.980]with them and so always pay attention and be careful and think about some of
[00:08:56.300]those types of things you'll notice that this baby does have a nylon halter on
[00:08:59.920]and here is we're going to have it out just for a little bit we might leave the
[00:09:03.820]nylon halter on however it's not really recommended that you leave a nylon type
[00:09:08.360]halter when you turn these horses out what you're going to find is they do not
[00:09:12.680]break and so
[00:09:14.180]if it would get hung on something or whatever the outcome probably is not
[00:09:17.780]going to be very positive there are some operations some large farms that do put
[00:09:22.160]halters on their babies right away and leave them on but if you really watch
[00:09:25.280]and notice those are going to be leather halters because a leather halter halter
[00:09:29.340]will break if they get hung on a fence or something the halter is going to
[00:09:33.500]break and hopefully the baby won't won't break itself and so that's something to
[00:09:36.980]be aware of and just because we have a nylon one on this one right now is we're
[00:09:40.860]kind of getting it started taking it out is not what we would leave on this
[00:09:44.060]baby say if we want to leave it turned out for any amount of time so we're
[00:09:48.200]going to go ahead and take this pair out now that we've got had the halter on the
[00:09:51.200]baby a little bit he's going to go ahead and work with her so she does follow the
[00:09:55.440]mare but kind of get learns to respect the halter and and put the two together
[00:09:59.900]so he's going to kind of just work with the baby and she's got a natural go
[00:10:04.580]mechanism because she's wanting to follow them there and he'll push her at
[00:10:07.400]her hip a little bit I'm and work with her
[00:10:09.880]again knowing that she's not completely halter broke so he's just going to be a
[00:10:13.940]give-and-take and kind of work with her getting her to follow the mayor kind of
[00:10:17.720]learn some of the halter pressure and those types of things as we put the two
[00:10:21.300]together I'll remind you it is much easier to do this when that they're at
[00:10:26.420]this age and this size then when they're four or five six months of age and once
[00:10:35.360]we've done this at this early stage it's going to be there with that full and so
[00:10:39.920]you might not even have a halter and lead it for another month or so but it's going
[00:10:43.820]to be there and so the next time you do halter them and try to lead them it's going to go
[00:10:48.820]much easier than if it would be the very first time.
[00:10:53.560]So what we've shown you is some different things as far as handling this baby when it's
[00:10:56.640]relatively new just a few days old and also a little bit about putting a halter on them
[00:11:00.700]early on and then getting them to lead behind the mare.
[00:11:04.400]So what you can also see is once we've had them out in a smaller enclosure then put them
[00:11:08.300]out in a little bit bigger area you can see that that mare and foal pretty much follow
[00:11:12.240]each other around.
[00:11:13.700]Then they've pretty much done the good bonding thing that you want them to have and the foal
[00:11:17.080]is going to be bonded to the mare and follow the mare around.
[00:11:20.020]So now after a day or two of this then we're perfectly fine to go ahead and turn them out
[00:11:23.240]into a much bigger enclosure, a bigger pasture even if there's other mares and foals around
[00:11:27.520]because these two have bonded together.
[00:11:29.120]Subtitles by the Amara.org community
[00:11:30.120]Thank you.

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Foal Handling Tips

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