First I gain the total trust of the dam about a month before the foal is born
I begin a regimen of feeding her in a stall in the barn instead of in her
pasture. I lead her to the barn every morning for three days, grain her and
then lead her back to her pasture where I have the other half of her grain
waiting. On the fourth day I don't have to lead her, I just open the gate or
stall door and she goes right to where the grain is.
This makes it very easy when the time comes to handling the foal as the dam
knows the routine and goes exactly where I want to go with the new foal in
hand, back and forth each morning and each evening.
Getting the foal to submit to me is also quite easy as after they have spent
10 minutes in the stall so the dam can eat the half ration I then let the dam
out trapping the unsuspecting foal in the stall with me. The dam hangs around
outside the stall door encouraging the foal to come to me. I just stand at
the door and don't make any moves to put my hands on the foal the first three
days. As soon as the foal comes right up to where I am standing I slide the
door open and let it out to join it's dam. Then we all walk to the pasture
bucket together. I also do this routine for three days which is what it
seems to take for each lesson to become routine and established in their
minds.
I teach every new thing over a three day period. Everything and it works
great for me. Once I am ready to start haltering the foal, which is
immediately after the first lesson to trust me, as after the first three days
the foal sometimes has a tendency to lag behind or wander off elsewhere and
then my program gets messed up as the mare runs out to fetch him back and on
and on.
While the mare is eating her half ration in the stall, I go down on my
haunches and just wait until the foal decides to investigate. That's when I
extend my hand to it's jowel or jaw and if it will let me, I give it a light
rub. Each time it comes back to see what I am, I reach out for the jaw rub
and it eventually decides it's quite a nice experience and not a threat as I
never approach the foal, I always wait while it approaches me. Then I stand
up and just stand there, letting the foal come back on its own initiative.
Once it is right beside me and sandwiched between me and it's dam, I do put
my hands on it, my arms gently around its neck and rub softly - if I get
resistence I immediately encircle the foall with both arms and arrest it to
the spot. Sometimes it is startled and tries to get away but I never let it
escape. Even if we both fall to the ground, I never let go. We get back up
together and it then submits to the embrace. In the meantime I have the foal
halter slid up my arm so its there when I am ready. Hplding the foal under
the neck near it's chest with the halter arm, I reach over the horses neck
with my right hand and take hold of the tie strap. Now I can more or less
release pressure on the foal and slip the halter over its nose which of
course gets a whole new scared reaction normally resulting in the foal
backing up to get away from pressure.
Horses always initially move away from pressure so we have to teach them to
come with it instead of move away. My method is to always have more patience
and time in a training day than the horse or I don't even get started.
Once I have the foal trapped in the corner I can secure the halter quickly
but when the foal finds itself up against the corner, the usual reaction is
to then leap forwards. Again, moving away from pressure. Fortunately starting
at this young age, it is possible to physically convince a foal who is herd
mare, from the start, but halter breaking is not always that easy once the
foal has matured. Nevertheless I still use much the same method except of
course for the wrestling to the ground part.
Once I have put the halter on the foal, I can more easily secure it's
attention and then I rub it down and get it used to hands on, all over the
body. If it reacts too sensitively in certain parts, I go very easy and
lightly in those areas but I keep going back to them until the foal is
desensitised on both sides. Eventually after three days of this, the foal
quite likes it and I don't have any trouble getting the halter on its head.
However not wanting to leave a foal in the pasture with a halter on its head,
I remove the halter before taking mare and foal to the pasture. Now I have
the mare haltered and with a lead rope, I very quickly lead the mare at a
trot to the pasture. The foal is so worried about his latest new experiences
that he stays very close to the mare, as long as I go very quickly, I get
them both back into the enclosore without much ado.
