I recently purchased two Thoroughbred mares, because I want to breed Hunter Under Saddle Quarter Horses and Paints, and am really excited to tell you that I have a foal on the ground now, a Coats N Tails stud colt who's all legs with a little bit of horse attached. He's four days old today, and we've had the mare since January. We didn't do very much of the classic imprinting techniques before he got up after being born, but we did do some, and every day since then we've been petting and scratching him all over, with particular emphasis on the areas where tack will be and down his legs for the farrier. He's also been wearing a halter since he was a day and a half old. The mare has been extremely protective: wringing her neck, snaking her head at people and emphatically biting the air, as well as keeping herself between us and him, but we've found that she's bluffing--if I go right in, tell her "no" or "whoa" in a stern voice and grab her halter, she settles right down and behaves. She doesn't try to bite when I'm actually reaching for the halter and, although she'll turn her butt to me, she hasn't tried to kick--yet, anyway, and we're always very careful and aware of that possibility. We've found that we have to pay a lot of attention to her while we're paying attention to the foal. Before she foaled she was extremely easy to handle and work with, and very calm, so I think her behavior now is mostly hormones with a little bit of jealousy thrown in. When we go in to work with the baby, I put the mare on a lead rope so I can follow her around without being stepped on while she follows the baby (and I watch her closely for kicking or biting). I scratch and pet her and whatever part of the baby is closest to me, and my daughter pets the other end of the baby and the mare if she can reach her. He seems to like people--he'll leave his mom and come to the stall door when someone opens it.

This little guy's career will be showing and trail riding, and then, if he's good enough, standing at stud. Things are going well now, but what else should we be doing? Also, can you recommend any books or videos to help with this process?

Thanks,

Congratulations on your new foal. I am sure he is a cutie and you are having lots of fun with him. However, I do have a few words of caution for you.

As for your mare, she is not jealous, she is simply doing her job in protecting her foal. Do not assume she is bluffing and do not interfere with her doing what she is programmed to do. Many people are shocked when their gentle mare foals and becomes a different animal. It is not only her right to protect her foal; it is what every cell in her body tells her to do. Usually this behavior diminishes after the foal is a week or so old, but in the meantime, do not push it and never assume that any horse making threatening gestures is just bluffing. Maybe they are, but it is quite likely they horse is willing to act on the threat. Be patient, gentle and understanding with the mare and give her the time she needs with her foal.

Imprinting can be a great thing and it can also be painfully overdone. It is probably good you did not do a lot at first because you never want to interfere in any way with the bonding between mare and foal in the immediate hours after birth.

In my experience, foals are often over handled, particularly when they are treated like pets. This results in a spoiled, pushy foal that has absolutely no respect for humans. Foals love to be scratched all over and if you indulge them too much, pretty soon they are running up to you and slamming their butt into you so that you’ll scratch them. Be careful not to let a horse control your actions and elicit the scratching from you. When this happens, you are teaching the horse to be dominant over you because he can control your actions.

You can go overboard on desensitizing a foal to the point where he is oblivious to any touch, or worse, learns to lean into pressure. That will come back to haunt you when he is ready to be ridden and is insensitive to pressure.

I am not a big fan (as you can probably tell) of too much handling as a young foal. I want them to be accustomed to humans and to like humans, but I want them to be a baby horse too. I will usually halter a foal when he is about a week old, but never leave the halter on. When you do come into handle him, slip the halter on so that he gets used to being haltered. I will generally teach them to lead at a pretty young age, with very light pressure (just a jiggle of the lead, releasing the pressure as soon as the foal moves his nose forward), and work with him occasionally for very short sessions.

There is lots of time in the next few years to start training him, starting with when you wean him. For now, let him be a baby horse and romp and play and explore his world. Don’t get in a hurry to train him. Like most trainers, I give young horses minimal handling the first year. As a yearling, we start teaching them to have good manners on the lead, stand tied, etc. But they are still babies at that age (training a yearling is like sending a child to kindergarten when he is three). I will wait until the horse is 2-3 before even thinking about any saddle training. Foals that are over handled and spoiled are not fun to train later on because they have no respect. I would way rather start a colt that has never been handled than one that has been spoiled. So be careful with your foal. He is a horse, not a pet.

I geld ALL my colts as weanlings or earlier if I have reason to. The longer you wait, the more likely he is to develop reproductive behaviors that you do not want. Just like dogs; if you wait to neuter them until they are lifting a leg on every thing and running off to hound-dog, those behaviors are already ingrained and neutering him will not eliminate the unwanted behaviors.

Your colt would have to be in the top 1% of quality AND bloodlines to be worth keeping a stallion, and even then, I doubt you want to mess with a stallion. Stallions are more challenging to handle and there is a much greater responsibility and liability associated with owning a stallion. And besides, you will never make money on a breeding stallion, especially if his sire is still breeding (why would a mare owner settle for diluted genes when she can go right to the source). My suggestion would be to geld him as soon as your vet thinks it is appropriate. His value is as a performance horse, not a breeding stallion.

For any breeding program, the best thing to do is invest in high quality mares. You can find world champion stallions to breed to all over the world and with shipped semen, you can breed to anything and keep variety in your breeding program. Put your investment into the mares and buy semen when you need it.

I know John Lyons has a lot of books and videos on foal handling, but I am not personally familiar with them. Also, Cherry Hill has a great book on the subject (and many other subjects). Her website is www.horsekeeping.com.

Good luck on your new endeavor and enjoy your horses, but do not spoil them!

JG

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If you liked this article, Julie suggests the following products to help you continue the work with your horse (or call 800-225-8827 for ordering help):

FTG, vol. 2, Lead Line Leadership: http://www.shop.juliegoodnight.com/shop/trftg2leadlineleadership.html