Watching foals growing up is one of the greatest gifts and deepest joy of a horse breeder. Seeing them explore the world and turn from tiny creatures into horses with a personality and character of their own, is priceless.
I love watching young foals going out with their mothers for the first time, but they are far more fun to be around when they are grown a little and you can start teaching them the first stuff, the so-called foal ABC.
I have already talked about the first learning and imprint training which is important to gain their trust and make them comfortable around human beings.
This is not something you do once and then it is done, but it needs to be reinforced during the next days and weeks of their life. In order to do that, I try to spend a couple of minutes every day with each foal, mostly when their moms are busy eating. The young foals are not yet that interested in food but definitely enjoy getting their bum scratched.
This is the time I use to interact with them, scratching them, bringing a brush and brushing them gently, touching them everywhere and giving them a good time with me.
Some foals will try to play rough with me. This needs to be discouraged from day one, otherwise you will soon have a grown-up youngster biting and kicking you.
You have to do it gently but firmly with a tap on the nose or a loud word, but never with violence or brutality which might frighten the foal and scare him away from humans. Foals should also never be chased, beaten with a stick or thrown stones at. Something which sounds like a non-brainer but which I have seen too often.
Most foals are just happy to get some attention and love to interact with different people.
Getting the Foal used to being Groomed
I slowly get the foal used to getting groomed and brushed. Most of them love it and they readily come to me when they see that I have a brush in hand. You can also first brush their mothers, when the foals are too shy to come. Once they see how you brush the mare, they are curious and come to you to investigate.
Their natural curiosity is our strongest ally and can help us in getting the foal used to a lot of “scary” stuff.
When I brush the foal, I make sure that I am able to touch him everywhere, including the ears, the nostrils, inside the mouth, under the belly and between the legs. This is important for the future riding horse. There is nothing worse than a horse which cannot be touched on some parts of their body.
After getting the foal used to getting brushed, I start lifting the feet. Very casually and never keeping them up for long, I just lift each hoof gently off the ground just to put it back immediately. Once they got used to having their feet handled, I extent the periods and start cleaning them and even tapping the hoofs to mimic the farrier. This is a gradual process drawn over a period of several weeks, sometimes months. Some foals are very nervous about their feet and it is important to proceed gradually.
Introducing the Halter
Two items which are an important introduction into the life of a foal are the halter and the rug (in some regions, rugs are not necessary, so there is no need to introduce them to foals just as yet). Both are something we need to gradually get the foal used to and both might pose the first problems in our relationship.
Many foals are happy to get their neck and even head scratched, but accepting a halter is a different matter. The first instinctive reaction of the foal to pressure is to push against it. So, it will struggle when you try to restrain it and it will pull away from you. This instinct need to be overcome as you want to teach the foal to yield to pressure and the first steps are getting it used to the halter and to be led.
The first time I show the halter to the foal and let him sniff it or even nibble at it if he likes. I then use the halter to rub him all over the body to make him feel comfortable around it. Most of the time, I don’t go any further on the first day.
The next day I will bring the halter again and might fasten it around his neck and leave it there while I brush him. I want the foal to accept the halter just as he accepted the brush as a part of the equipment which is not offensive. Bit by bit, I will slip the halter over his nose and rubbing it, to give him a good feeling. Once he accepts the halter of the nose, I pull it up over his poll and fasten it. This should be done swift and naturally without fumbling but also without any rush, pulling or pushing. The foal should be standing still and not get nervous. Many foals don’t like pressure on their ears or poll and might shake their head. I counter that by always opening the halter on the side buckle, so that I don’t need to brush their ears but take the crown or poll strap with my hand over the foal’s poll as not to infringe with their ears.
I then leave it on for some time so he gets used to the feeling of the halter on his head. Then I take it off. Next day we do it all again. I never leave the halter on when the foals are out in the fields playing with each other. The risk of the halter slipping down is too big and the foal might get his hoof caught and might seriously injure himself in the process. Also, the risk of the halter getting stuck somewhere is there.
First Leading
Once the foal has gotten used to the halter and we have put it on and taken it off a couple of times, we can start with the first leading exercises. As I have mentioned before, the first instinct of the foal is to lean against pressure. This is a totally normal reaction. We need to teach him gradually that if he yields to pressure, the pressure will go away. We need to teach him to follow the rope.
So, the first time I hook in the lead rope and ask him to follow me, I go in a direction he likes to go, for example, towards his mom. Like this he will be more willing to do the first step so we can release the pressure. In the beginning I just ask him for a few steps, nothing more. I give him a voice command such as “come” and gently pull the lead-rope in the direction I want to go. If the foal leans against the pressure, I just hold it, but do not increase it. The problem is, if I apply too much pressure, it could provoke an extreme reaction such as rearing, slipping or the foal flipping over, something I want to totally avoid.
So, I start very gently and release the pressure the instant I feel even a shift towards me. Here, timing is crucial. Pressure does not teach the horse, release does. If our release comes too early or too late, we teach them the wrong thing.
This is something we always need to keep in mind when we work with foals. It is crucial to do a good job as we are laying the foundation for the future riding horse.
Never work with foals when you are emotionally upset or when your mind is elsewhere. There is too much damage which can be done!
In the beginning I limit my leading to inside the stable for just a few minutes. I don’t want the foal to be distracted or getting scared and pull away from me.
Also having mom nearby, gives them the feeling of comfort and safety. Take them away from their mothers and they will get distressed very quickly and unable to process any new information, thus are unable to learn.
Which brings me to an important point:
We should never separate mothers and foals during the first months. It severely distresses both and has negative effects on the foal!
Sometimes there might be a valid reason for it such as a medical treatment or even the covering of the mare. This might justify a short separation, but keep in mind that a longer separation is definitely bad for both of them and should be avoided at all costs.
So, now my foals are used to being brushed, having their feet handled, are used to the halter and had their first leading experience. This is in a nutshell what I do with my foal during the first 2-3 months. I also make sure I can touch them everywhere, give them a de-wormer and put my fingers in their mouth. I want them to come to me when they see me and be confident yet respectful around me. Also, they should be mindful about where I am as not to stand on my toes or bump into me. All of this sounds easier than it is, but we can achieve this when we spend a bit of quality time with each foal every day.
Introducing Rugs
During the last days, winter has finally arrived in Rajasthan and as it is not only cold here but also wet, so I slowly started rugging our horses. First the ones which hardly have any winter coat and are feeling cold quickly, then bit by bit the rest. So finally, it was also time to put rugs on the foals. Kalyan and Kalyani have super fluffy coats, but the other three not so much. I started with my sunny boy Chandradev who is definitely the most approachable of the bunch. As expected, he had no issue at all with me putting a big cloth on his back and fixing it there with noisy Velcro stripes.
Next came Ambey who also accepted the rug with grace, even though he was clearly not thrilled and till now first retreats behind his mom when he sees me coming with the rug. I then coax him out and he lets me put the blanket on his back and strap it tight.
The third one having only a little bit of warm winter coat is Devraj, the youngest. Barely two months old, he is a sceptic fellow. He prefers to keep a safe distance to anything which might be dangerous and, in his eyes, the rug clearly was. So, for the first times I approached him with a rug, he fled behind his mom.
So here I clearly had to work a bit more on my basics. I made sure to spend some quality time with him, getting him more used to being touched, scratched and brushed. In the next step, I brought a jute sack with me and got him used to rubbing him all over with the sack and finally putting it on his backs just like a rug.
Once he accepted the sack, the colorful rug was just one more step. It makes more noise as the sack does, but with some coaxing and working, he finally came around. In order to put it on his back, I had to restrain him with my arms wrapped around his front and back end. This needs to be done at times, as foals will naturally struggle against any restrain and don’t like to keep still. Here it is important that you can hold him until he stops struggling. So better get any foal used to this method early on as they soon grow much bigger and stronger and you won’t be able to hold them alone without help so easily.
Once they get used to being restrained by your arms around them, they will stop and stand still when you put an arm in front of their chest and the other hand on his bum as they remember the lesson. This is extremely useful for any further exercise or when you need to administer medicines.
Like this I put a rug on Devraj for the first time. He soon realized that the rug is not hurting him and now he comes to me when I arrive with the rug in my arms.
The last two babies who had fluffy coat again were not thrilled by the rugs, but eventually accepted them with me following the same process.
Now we are rugging the horses every evening as a routine process, including the foals.
Once the foals are a little older, approaching 4 months, I continue working on their leading abilities. Bit by bit, I take them outside their stables, leading them a few meters away from their mothers and walking with them for longer periods of time. Longer periods here mean like five to ten minutes, usually still with the mother being not far away. Only when that works really well and the foal is comfortable with me being at a distance from his mom would I really take him out of sight and hearing from her. That is usually something I would start at around six months in preparation to the weaning which takes place earliest at the age of six months.
Just to add an additional resource here, if you plan on breeding your own foal, maybe you would like to listen to two episodes of the Equestrian Adventuresses Podcast about Breeding a Foal From Your Mare. In them, I talk with breeder and nutritionist Daniela Vadehra from Austria about how to get a mare pregnant and to how to manage pregnancy and birth.