News

November 11 th 2007

Foal Handling

Breeding your own foal can be one of the most rewarding ways to enjoy your passion for horses, though it can also be one of the most frustrating and heartbreaking experiences. It is a long journey from selecting the stallion for your mare, to the competition ring. When your foal does arrive safely it is important to start his education in a positive way, right from the beginning. Your foal should learn that people are nice to be with, that they aren't scary, but are predictable and can be approached with confidence. He must know to respect your space and realise that you are not a playmate. I think it helps if he learns right at the beginning (when it is true) that you are stronger than he is, and that he gets accustomed to being handled all over his body.

Whenever you are handling horses, safety must be the first consideration; safety for you and safety for the foal. Ensure that you have an adequately fenced area, or a stable to work in. Wear solid shoes and if you are teaching leading wear gloves. It is best to have an assistant holding the mare so that she is standing still. If she is rushing to move away the foal will also be afraid of you. If the mare needs it to settle, have a bucket of feed too.

We handle foals twice a day, at feed times so the mare is more likely to be relaxed. Make sure that you have time to be patient, but keep each lesson short. Like all babies, foals have short attention spans and tire easily. It is better to have three ten minute lessons than one thirty minute lesson. Remember that it is removal of pressure or reward that does the teaching, and it is necessary to have many repetitions of the lesson to establish the new learning. I believe that there is no place for punishing or hitting foals, especially on the head. If the foal gets boisterous or nips, or is being pushy; simply push him away very definitely. An easy way to do this with foals (or any horse not respecting your space) is to pinch the big muscle at the base of his neck in front of the point of the shoulder. Wrap your hand around the muscle (brachiocephalus) and squeeze it firmly.

When the foal is born it is good not to interfere while he gets to know his mother and works out how to stand up and how to drink.

However, as soon as possible it is good to hold him loosely with an arm around his chest and an arm around his rump to restrain him. Try to stay near enough to the mare that he feels safe and isn't fretting for her. If he is fretting for her you are teaching him to be afraid of you. Talk softly to him. He should be able to move a bit, because if you hold him too tight he will want to run away. When he settles, try to scratch him on his chest, withers or around his tail. This will help him to relax and start to enjoy having you around. When he settles to this you can start to gently extend the area you are rubbing. If he becomes tense just move back to where he was comfortable and let him settle. This strategy of approach and withdraw back to a comfortable spot is one of the fundamentals of the Jeffrey Method. The Jeffrey Method is a very effective way of breaking in, developed by a disabled man in NSW and demonstrated and written about very effectively by Maurice Wright.

When he feels comfortable with you rubbing his body slowly work up his neck to his ears. If you are patient he will start to enjoy this. Then you can work down his legs. When you first pick up his feet, only lift them a little bit off the ground then let go immediately. Remember the principle of shaping behaviour in your training. At first reward any attempt to cooperate with you. Removing your hand (pressure) rewards the foal's attempt, ie allowing you to handle his foot and move it a little. With patient repetition he will allow you to pick his foot up and hold it. You should try not to remove your hand if he kicks etc, as this would be rewarding the kicking. He will learn the wrong thing just as easily as the right thing if you inadvertently reward the bad behaviour. If he really objects to you handling his legs you may use something soft like a brush or a broom or water from a hose, so that you keep contact with him, but first remember to just bring your hand back to where he is comfortable and move again to extend his comfort zone.

Don't worry if it takes a few lessons before he allows you to pick his legs up.

When you introduce the halter and lead, first allow the foal to approach and familiarise himself with it. Sometimes a foal will allow you to put the halter on in the normal way, but often they don't like the halter coming up in front of their face, so it can be easier to put the halter on his back, and then slide it up towards his ears, then do up the throat-lash before buckling up the nose.

There are many ways of teaching the foal to lead. This will be dealt with in a further article.

We do not subscribe to the idea of “imprinting foals”. Imprinting is a term from the science of ethology that refers to the practise of bonding a baby animal to an animal of a different species, which then functions as its mother. This is a useful practise for research and can be very helpful for orphan foals, who can be bonded up with goats, for example. Lactating goats have been known to feed and rear foals when a mare is unavailable. Apparently goats milk is a satisfactory substitute for mares milk. However it is patently clear that we do not want a foal that already has a mother to think that a human is his mother. Any foal handling that is too intrusive can easily make foals timid.

Finish each lesson with a good scratch on his favourite spot and try to leave the foal before he gets sick of being with you and then leaves himself.

Kerry mack