FOALS to YEARLINGS
The Education of a Young Horse
As translated by Stefan Welebny, an excerpt from Xenophon on The Art of Horsemanship, Greek philosopher, 300 B.C., on education and training of young horses.
"Important is, that the foal is handed over to the rider tame, obedient and trusting. These virtues the foal will usually be trained already at home by a sensible groom by knowing how to arrange, that being alone for the foal becomes equal to hunger, thirst and anger, but food, drink and safety from everything that hurts comes from the man.
If this is consequently observed, the result will be, that the foal does not only like human but indeed wants them. Also one should touch and caress those parts of the body, on which the horse enjoys it most. These body parts are first those with most hair like mane and forelock, and then the parts, on which the horse cannot help himself when something hurts. One also has to tell the groom to lead the foal through crowded places and bring him to all different kinds of objects and noise to get accustomed to it. If the foal is afraid, one may not teach him with hard but with soft treatment, that he need not be afraid."
The translation is a little rough, and we have learned a thing or two over the last 2000 years, however, there is truth and a pathway to trust through this simplistic approach.
If you are so lucky as to be present when a foal is born take advantage of this moment to imprint yourself in the foal's memory bank. Handle the foal, be gentle and loving but do not put yourself in danger by interfering with the mum. After this first contact leave the foal with the mum. As the days and weeks go by spend as much time as you can touching and rubbing the foal all over his/her body. If you have a feisty critter, at some point the foal may choose to challenge you. By this I mean it might rear up and paw in the air, try to kick out at you or bite you. This is unlikely but not unheard of. Do not back down or run away, stand your ground. Do not put yourself in harm's way, but show the foal who is boss. All it takes is once and that will be the end of that. If you think this sounds a little harsh, think to yourself what would the mum, or a sibling, do if the foal tried any of these less than desirable tricks on them? The horses' world is a simple one with one critter taking the dominant role and the others falling into their place within the herd. Even simpler, a herd can be as few as two, you and your horse.
If you are not present for the birthing but the birthing has taken place on your farm, it is not too late to bond with a new born some hours later. One thing I like to do is pick the foal up. Wrap your arms around the chest and hind quarters and just pick it up. Be careful when attempting this, and only after the foal is comfortable with you touching and rubbing it all over. Be very gentle but do it with confidence. The point to this is that some day that foal is going to weigh over a thousand pounds, but he/she will never forget that the two legged can pick them up, even though you may only do this once.
If a foal comes to you at 6 months or a year old you will not have had the chance to imprint him/her, but you still can bond with them. It is most likely the foal will be too big to pick up, for most of us, but you still must take on the dominant role. This has to be done immediately after the foal has settled into his/her new home. The same techniques that work on older horses will work here, and it can be done in less than half an hour. Later I will talk about how to do this. That is the only thing you need do with a foal until you put a halter on him/her and take it out for its first walk.
I believe in letting little horses be little horses for at least the first two years. This does not mean you can not teach them how to walk with a lead, or even show them. What I mean is they deserve to be young and play and make mistakes just like small children. The ideal situation is to leave them with the mum until her milk dries up. I have had foals on the teat for over a year, and even had to finally wean them because the milk is still available, so enough is enough. However, there is nothing wrong with weaning a foal at 6 months or so. It will do no harm and it will not be mentally traumatized by this, especially if it has company of its own age.
Horsey social skills are very important and they learn these from living with other horses. It is not always possible to keep more than one horse, but anytime there can be two or more living together, this is the best situation, especially if they have the chance to interact with other older horses. This is where they learn how to be 'a horse' and what the real hierarchy of the herd is about and how it is established. They also learn appropriate and inappropriate behaviour. The first of these we encourage, but the latter you must catch and stop straightaway. The sooner you catch and correct inappropriate behaviour the easier it is. The longer you wait, the harder it will be to fix and this is a dis-service to the horse.
If you do not have the time to work with a young horse, then find yourself a qualified horse handler who can. The only bit of advice I will give you on this is to ask around. Word of mouth is the best way to find the right person. Make sure they are of the same mindset as you and understand how how you want your horse to be handled. Make sure they involve you to some degree in the process and send you home with the knowledge of what they have done and how to continue working with your horse at home. Failing that, all will be lost and you will back to square one throwing good money after bad.
Probably the first experience of defiance you are going to have is going to be when you put the halter on for the first time and try to go for a walk. In keeping steadfast with my belief system that all good things take time, do not rush it. Do not cause any pain. And do not let your foal get away with being a brat. By this I mean, do not let him/her walk out in front of you. Keep at least 24 inches of personal space between the two of you. And if there is any biting, kicking or head tossing going on, sent them out to the end of the lead and turn your back to them. Make them feel as though they have been cast out of the herd. Horses hate to be left alone. If you have to do this, make it last only a couple minutes, then bring them back to you and then turn them loose, the lesson is over. Keep the first several walks short, maybe 5 minutes and use a long lead. I like one that is between 12 and 18 feet long. This serves two purposes, first it gives you enough rope to stay clear of the unexpected fight or flight instinct that might get you run over, and second it gives you the length to send them away. The reason it is so important to establish your dominant position with them is that this is the beginning of the trust relationship you will have with them from the first to the last minute the two of you are together. Establishing trust is how you are going to convince your horse to go out into the big scary world and go and do things he/she would not normally do or be afraid of. Remember to keep it simple, short and consistent. After your first few walks on the lead your new partner will have given up the fight and will start to look forward his/her walks. Now the fun begins, taking them to new places and exposing them to new things. Every trip out is a new experience and the more you can expose them to will not only accustom them to things like noise and strange things that move, but also they learn to trust you more and more. So when the day comes that you get on their back to ride them there is not question in his/her mind that he/she trusts you and you are not going to hurt them.
Until they are over a year old, this is all I will ever do with them. As yearlings you can start to expose them to things like jumps. Just remember to take it slow, start small, keep the lessons short and make it a game so they are playing more than as if they were in school. By this time, they should already by going in and out of the trailer and behaving like little angels (hopefully) on the lead. However, if you plan on showing yearling colts in the halter class, do not be surprised when they go from angels to demons in the blink of an eye. Not to worry though, for if they have been brought on slowly this is where trust and dominance will allow you to get their attention and 'reel' them back to sanity. And most judges have seen it all, so a feisty colt throwing a temper tantrum is nothing new to them, you won't be asked to leave unless the judge is kicked or bitten!
Between 1 and 2 years old, I like to teach the young horse where his/her feet are. I once had someone ask me what I was doing and I told them just that. 'I am teaching this horse where his feet are.' The reply was, 'It's a horse, and he knows where his feet are!' My reply was this, 'When you were 3 did you know you had shoes on your feet and how to put them on?' The answer was, 'Yes'. Then I asked them if they knew how to tie their shoes or if mom had to teach them that little trick. Enough said. I like to teach the horse where his/her feet are. It is a simple exercise of taking a few steps forward then stopping and repeating this 3 times, then taking 3 steps backward and stopping. This lesson should only last for about 15 to 20 minutes, once or twice a day for about a week, maybe two. Then we step up to taking one step with one front foot at time and stopping. Each time we stop we hold that for about 3 seconds. After we have the front feet down, I start making the horse pay attention to his/her hind feet and doing the same thing. After a few weeks of this we go back to walking 3 or 4 steps and stopping with all four feet square under the horse's body. Do this going forward and backward, holding the stop position for about 3 seconds and giving lots of praise, pets and rubs. Every horse is different and some will get it straight away and others will take longer. The result will be whether you are showing in halter, ridden or free classes, your pony will know to stop and stand just like a little soldier, proud, tall and square.
