Post by Sarah on Feb 20, 2006 10:43:31 GMT -3
Teach Your Foal to Stand Tied
Too many young horses are not taught this important skill, which can result in problems when they become full-grown animals.
Sandra Costanzo, breeder and trainer of champion Welsh ponies at her Brookside Stud in Schomberg, ON, advises, "Kindness is always a good thing to remember - however, they are animals with strength and agility and you must respect that. Aggression very seldom works, but care, caution and respect usually do." If your foal is hesitant or upset by any training procedure, assess the situation and go more slowly with the foal. As Costanzo says, "Every foal is different."
In addition to evaluating your foal's attitude towards the procedure, remember to take the dam into account. The mare may be upset or nervous at having the foal separated from her. If you followed the steps to teach your foal to pick up his feet (last issue), by the four-month point, the foal should have been physically separated from his dam in order to have his feet handled outside the stall. This should help give you an idea of what the mare's reaction will be to this procedure.
1. Begin the procedure when the foal is approximately four months old and has been accustomed to having his hooves picked up outside the stall. This means that he is used to being physically separated from his dam, even though she is still in sight. Have a handler hold the mare in her stall to ensure that she doesn't get upset and stress the foal. If you would prefer to have the first session in the stall that the foal is used to, have a handler hold the mare in the stall - should the foal get upset, the dam might become protective and agitated, making her a danger to both the foal and the foal's handler.
2. Start the procedure outside the foal’s/dam's stall. For this procedure to work, the stall must have solid steel bars in a non-movable wall (i.e. not just in the door). Keep a rubber mat on the floor, in case the foal falls. For safety, you may wish to pad the wall that the foal will be facing, just in case the foal panics and falls forward.
3. Attach a cotton rope to the foal's well-fitted leather halter and measure that the rope is long enough to enable you to reach to the back of the foal with ease. The end should be a plain snap in good condition. Costanzo advises against using safety snaps, as she says, "Safety snaps do rust in the barn." Should the foal become upset and require the snap, the rusting may not allow it to release. Likewise, a safety snap that does give may teach the foal the wrong lesson - that if the foal pulls hard enough, the restricting rope will give way.
4. Thread the rope around one of the stall bars, with enough rope to allow the foal's head not to touch the wall. Hold the other end of the rope in your hand as you stand beside the foal, creating a pulley effect around the bar with you at one end and the foal at the other. Keep the point of the pulley high - preferably above the foal's eye level, to discourage the foal getting a leg over the rope. "The more rope there is, the more chance there is that if the foal rears, he'll get caught in it," says Costanzo. In some cases, if foals rear repeatedly, place the pulley point higher than their head in order to keep the rope away from their legs. Should they get a leg over the rope, not only could they injure themselves, they have just learned how to avoid the entire lesson - since you will have to stop and release the tension to untangle them.
5. Keep the lesson very short - no more than five to ten minutes at first. Hold the rope with steady tension. Steady tension on the rope will encourage the foal to move into the wall, not into you, should he react. "Put yourself in a position of safety," says Costanzo. As soon as the foal does not pull back or react to the rope, put the foal back in the stall. The lessons can get longer as the foal becomes more accustomed to the procedure.
6. Wait until the foal is accepting the rope before releasing him - don't release the foal while he's fighting or pulling at the rope. Release the foal by unwrapping the rope from the bar, then while still holding the rope, give him lots of praise. Then release the foal by unsnapping the rope from the foal's halter. Make sure he knows that you released him - that the rope didn't just suddenly give way.
7. Repeat this every day for about two weeks or until he accepts being restrained by the rope without any resistance. As the lessons get longer, you can handle the foal by brushing or picking up his feet, as long as it is a procedure he is familiar with. When doing this, remember not to let the rope cross over. When you want to change sides, change the rope's position by removing the rope from the bar, walking in front of the foal and running the rope through the bar again.
8. The next step is to tie the rope to the bar with a quick-release knot. Begin the procedure as usual, but tie the rope with a quick-release knot to the bar instead of holding it. If he shows signs of resistance, go back to holding the rope for another day or so until he can be tied with the quick release knot. If he is fine with you holding the rope, but objects to the knot, check that you are not giving him slack whenever he pulls. If you feel you can't do this, enlist a helper that can stand with the rope as you work with the foal. If the foal continues to object to the knot, make sure that you have left enough rope between the foal and the tie point.
9. When the foal is comfortable standing tied with a quick-release knot outside the stall, you can then try tying him away from his stall. Be sure that he can still see his dam. Again, be sure to keep the lessons short. At any stage, should the foal begin struggling, go back to the last stage where he was comfortable. Take your time and remember, Costanzo says, "Repetition and patience are very important with young stock."
Thanks to Sandra Costanzo of Brookside Stud Schomberg, ON, for her help with this article. Costanzo is a senior Canadian Equestrian Federation judge and clinician, as well as a long time breeder and trainer of champion Section A and B Welsh ponies.
Canadian Horseman May/June 1999
Too many young horses are not taught this important skill, which can result in problems when they become full-grown animals.
Sandra Costanzo, breeder and trainer of champion Welsh ponies at her Brookside Stud in Schomberg, ON, advises, "Kindness is always a good thing to remember - however, they are animals with strength and agility and you must respect that. Aggression very seldom works, but care, caution and respect usually do." If your foal is hesitant or upset by any training procedure, assess the situation and go more slowly with the foal. As Costanzo says, "Every foal is different."
In addition to evaluating your foal's attitude towards the procedure, remember to take the dam into account. The mare may be upset or nervous at having the foal separated from her. If you followed the steps to teach your foal to pick up his feet (last issue), by the four-month point, the foal should have been physically separated from his dam in order to have his feet handled outside the stall. This should help give you an idea of what the mare's reaction will be to this procedure.
1. Begin the procedure when the foal is approximately four months old and has been accustomed to having his hooves picked up outside the stall. This means that he is used to being physically separated from his dam, even though she is still in sight. Have a handler hold the mare in her stall to ensure that she doesn't get upset and stress the foal. If you would prefer to have the first session in the stall that the foal is used to, have a handler hold the mare in the stall - should the foal get upset, the dam might become protective and agitated, making her a danger to both the foal and the foal's handler.
2. Start the procedure outside the foal’s/dam's stall. For this procedure to work, the stall must have solid steel bars in a non-movable wall (i.e. not just in the door). Keep a rubber mat on the floor, in case the foal falls. For safety, you may wish to pad the wall that the foal will be facing, just in case the foal panics and falls forward.
3. Attach a cotton rope to the foal's well-fitted leather halter and measure that the rope is long enough to enable you to reach to the back of the foal with ease. The end should be a plain snap in good condition. Costanzo advises against using safety snaps, as she says, "Safety snaps do rust in the barn." Should the foal become upset and require the snap, the rusting may not allow it to release. Likewise, a safety snap that does give may teach the foal the wrong lesson - that if the foal pulls hard enough, the restricting rope will give way.
4. Thread the rope around one of the stall bars, with enough rope to allow the foal's head not to touch the wall. Hold the other end of the rope in your hand as you stand beside the foal, creating a pulley effect around the bar with you at one end and the foal at the other. Keep the point of the pulley high - preferably above the foal's eye level, to discourage the foal getting a leg over the rope. "The more rope there is, the more chance there is that if the foal rears, he'll get caught in it," says Costanzo. In some cases, if foals rear repeatedly, place the pulley point higher than their head in order to keep the rope away from their legs. Should they get a leg over the rope, not only could they injure themselves, they have just learned how to avoid the entire lesson - since you will have to stop and release the tension to untangle them.
5. Keep the lesson very short - no more than five to ten minutes at first. Hold the rope with steady tension. Steady tension on the rope will encourage the foal to move into the wall, not into you, should he react. "Put yourself in a position of safety," says Costanzo. As soon as the foal does not pull back or react to the rope, put the foal back in the stall. The lessons can get longer as the foal becomes more accustomed to the procedure.
6. Wait until the foal is accepting the rope before releasing him - don't release the foal while he's fighting or pulling at the rope. Release the foal by unwrapping the rope from the bar, then while still holding the rope, give him lots of praise. Then release the foal by unsnapping the rope from the foal's halter. Make sure he knows that you released him - that the rope didn't just suddenly give way.
7. Repeat this every day for about two weeks or until he accepts being restrained by the rope without any resistance. As the lessons get longer, you can handle the foal by brushing or picking up his feet, as long as it is a procedure he is familiar with. When doing this, remember not to let the rope cross over. When you want to change sides, change the rope's position by removing the rope from the bar, walking in front of the foal and running the rope through the bar again.
8. The next step is to tie the rope to the bar with a quick-release knot. Begin the procedure as usual, but tie the rope with a quick-release knot to the bar instead of holding it. If he shows signs of resistance, go back to holding the rope for another day or so until he can be tied with the quick release knot. If he is fine with you holding the rope, but objects to the knot, check that you are not giving him slack whenever he pulls. If you feel you can't do this, enlist a helper that can stand with the rope as you work with the foal. If the foal continues to object to the knot, make sure that you have left enough rope between the foal and the tie point.
9. When the foal is comfortable standing tied with a quick-release knot outside the stall, you can then try tying him away from his stall. Be sure that he can still see his dam. Again, be sure to keep the lessons short. At any stage, should the foal begin struggling, go back to the last stage where he was comfortable. Take your time and remember, Costanzo says, "Repetition and patience are very important with young stock."
Thanks to Sandra Costanzo of Brookside Stud Schomberg, ON, for her help with this article. Costanzo is a senior Canadian Equestrian Federation judge and clinician, as well as a long time breeder and trainer of champion Section A and B Welsh ponies.
Canadian Horseman May/June 1999