Taming babies

aurora · Postby **aurora** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 8:59 am

I got my 2 foals home this year from KY and they were both wild. Seems the farm had some cases of r-equi and they left the mares & babies outside. The wildest one was terrified of people and I've spent gobs of time at feeding time in the stall with him and can pet & scratch him all over his body now but he certainally would rather not be touched, goes ballistic when I touch his face and it has been about 3 weeks now. They are kept outside except for 2X a day they come in to feed. There is improvement but is has been so slow! Anyone have any tips for speeding up the process and getting this guy to stop hating me?

madelyn · Postby **madelyn** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 9:06 am

Oh curses, curse that farm for not imprinting your foals.... unfortunately, petting and stroking them while they are gobbling grain isn't even halfway there. Instead, it is probably best to work with each foal, alone, in a round pen or small paddock. Get the foal coming toward you. You will end up in the position of dominance. Keep driving the foal around until he comes to you and you touch him. Then you let him stop and stand still, which is his reward.

Next topic, how to get the son of a buck to the round pen :lol:

if you have portable corral panels, you can build a "chute" and a small pen and drive the foal through the gate. That's what I did with the big wild weanlings I got last fall and had them halter broke in about two weeks....they shared a foaling stall and I could drive them out and back one at a time. One colt was much easier than the other.

rds · Postby **rds** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 9:10 am

Sounds like your're making progress so don't get impatient. When weaning time comes, if you wean this one to a stall he will after some time be looking for companionship and will be more receptive. I had a very wild filly a couple years ago, and told my daughter to go sit in the corner with a book. She just sat there reading, and after a little while the filly had to figure out what was in the corner. Her natural curiosity won over. So she started approaching my daughter!

Now this filly is a big 3 YO, who loves attention, and loves all people.
Patience is the key!

aurora · Postby **aurora** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 9:33 am

madelyn,
These foals are 6 - 8 weeks old do you recommend separating them from Mom while doing the round pen thing? Mr. Wild Thing is quite independant already but I imagine he would have a hard time paying attention if he can't see Mom.

madelyn · Postby **madelyn** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 10:21 am

They could probably start spending 20-30 mins a day away from Mom, it later makes weaning much easier. It can be MUCH easier to tame them when Mom is not there. I had a filly this year (March 4) that even after imprinting she was a nut case and the mare became a ferocious attack mare after foaling. We started, around the end of April, moving the mare by herself to the next stall so I could work with the filly alone. She just got her feet trimmed Monday... and has come a really long way... and learned NOT to be just like Mom.