The foal, who is currently a horse with no name, mugs for the camera.
Most foals are not comfortable approaching strange people.
And they don’t get much stranger than me.
He’s touching me with his muzzle when his muzzle when most of his face goes off frame, and I didn’t want to make a sudden movement and spook him.
I don’t know too much about the breed, but I do know TWH are known for being people friendly.
Mom seems pretty tolerant of you, too.
This breed is very much known for it.
That black mare (“Bobbi”) is one of the most gentle horses around.
This is the mother this summer.
The horsefly spray does a very poor job keeping them off of her.
And you can see why her three-year-old son is a sorrel and white.
The stud is a black and white that carries the “red-head” gene.
They may not be good ‘by default’ but at a month old, assuming he’s been properly handled, he should think of people as a GOod Thing- real trouble later, otherwise.
He is a month old.
But even those who have been handled by their owners are a bit shy around people the don’t know.
That’s just the way foals are.
This particular breeder has produced many easy to handle trail horses. One of his fillies was said to the most easily broken horse this well-known trainer had ever worked with.
I personally don’t believe in handling foals until they are a bit older. They need to learn to be horses.
This one is an exception. He’s much friendlier than I expected.
He touched me. I didn’t touch him.
http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/breeding/foalhandling-115.shtml
There’s schools that go both ways- I like my foals (and admittedly, I’ve only raised one- he’s coming 5 this year and has just been lightly started, and I think he turned out pretty well) to be pocket ponies- not demanding of interaction, but very willing to accept it.
The owner, my grandpa, and I had this discussion.
Because these horses are turned out into a big pasture near the woods, and because the foals will be used as trail horses. It is very important that they learn to be horses and not imprint too strongly on people.
Touch a foal too much can make them fear people or make them imprint too much. I’ve known two that were bottle-reared, and although very friendly. They never fit into horse society. One of them got badly bitten by one of the dominant mares. The other never would drink out of a watering trough, unless she saw another horse do so. If you left her in the pasture alone, she’d die of thirst.
Bottle-raised and well-handled/properly imprinted are two very different things.
Bottle-raised babies of all species are notoriously asocial.
I’ve never heard that trail horses shouldn’t be handled as foals. That seems a little silly to me. But then, I’ve only seen positive results from imprinting (and negative results from zero handling when small). There’s something to be said for getting an animal used to being handled when it weighs 200 lbs instead of 800-100.
They should be handled, but not as much.
The best way to imprint these animals is to have a positive relationship with their mothers.
They learn more from their mothers.
BTW, I should say that every one of the foals that comes from this pasture has been easily broken.
Handling mom while the foal is near is usually part of the imprinting practices I’m familiar with.
But, as with anything, people can go overboard. And on the other side, all the ‘negative’ cases I was thinking about, the owner neglected both mom and foal.
And on the other, other hand, mustangs that come off the range as adults are supposed to just as easy to train, if not more so.
Horses are really different form dogs and cats.
I handle newborn puppies as soon as they are born. It is very good for them to get some handling. I would never be able to handle a kitten that hadn’t been handled before weaning.
These horses do get some handling as foals, but it’s not like the guy who rubs on them as soon as they are born– in fact, before they even stand up!
Well, is it safe to say that with a horse, if the parent has no fear of humans then the foal will share that? Taking its cues from the parent?
Tell us horse whispererman.
Yes.
I can tell you that none of these horses are neglected.
They all love people.
http://stablemanagement.com/issues/article.php?tid=528
Handling should be minimal.
Horses don’t touch their young very much.
And only the mother does.
The owner doesn’t work the foals the way I’ve seen some people do.
He lets the mare be the primary teacher until weaning.
She teaches them how to be a horse.
They have to be a pretty tolerant breed; I hear some of the getups they have to wear in order to train them to gait properly are pretty ridiculous.
LOL.
These are just trail horses.
They will never have to wear chains and that stuff.
I’m glad to hear it. Trailing riding is what the breed was created for.
They don’t ‘have’ to wear the torture devices; it’s an out-dated and usually cruel training method. Horses gait naturally, it’s genetic.
You’re totally right though. They put up with a lot more crap than other breeds would.
One of the foals born from this particular stud was beautifully gaited.
This one might develop that gait.
I’m watching.
Someone I know thinks the most important thing to do with a young foal is pick it up off its feet. That way it will always see a human as “larger” than it and automatically respect them. (I don’t buy this line of thinking but it’s never done them any harm).