why dont people do more with there babies

liz--y

liz--y

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Aug 18, 2000
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i havent thought of this before till a friend of mine mentioned it today. why dont we introduce youngsters to stuff we are going to do to then when they are older.
istead of waiting till they are 3/4

i have a yearing colt who i have had for nearly 2 months came, who we brought in for a play today. he can be tied up groomed feet picked etc, which i would expect at his age.

but he also has a measuring stick put to him reg, my friend was shocked that he stood there quite happy with me waving the stick around whislt chating and measuring, he has his fly spray an fly hat on.
i can wrap the hose all over him and bath him down competly. had rugs put over him and he has had a play with them, elastic surcyles round him.
he goes back and over when told
he comes to the gate neighing when i go to get him in, never had a day when he wont be caught

he had a bridle on for the first time today and took it all in his stride.

he seems to take everything in his stride. alot easier than producing a fly spray bottle etc when they are older and them going nuts

so why do people just put them out in the field and forget about them till they are old enough to be broken. what would they do if they got injured. surly its easier to introduce stuff slowly now instead of a battle later on.

sorry not sureif this makes any sence
 
Makes more sense to me as well. If I had a youngster I would be slowly introducing him to the daily things he will be expected of later on in life, only on a handling level though. I think it is easier if it is done correctly at a young age, and I don't see the point in puting it off if you have a horse willing to learn.
 
There are two youngsters on our yard which have been here a few years now. One has been left vegetating in a field.. hardly handled apart from the bare minimum. As you can imagine it's not very happy around people, and any task is difficult. It will be broken in next year, and I'm rather predicting it's not going to be simple.

The other filly was handled extensively by her owner.. she moved to this yard when she was two, and from that time she was getting lots of in hand leading, she was being lead around the lanes, meeting a small amount of traffic, she was introduced to bridles early, she was used to grooming and she had impeccable leading manners. When she was broken in as a three year old, it was apparently 'Incredibly Easy' she was no problem to introduce saddle or rider to, and was hacking out alone confidently within 3 weeks! She is still doing really well, she goes in the school and works in a good outline for a baby in walk trot and canter, hacks out alone and in company all the time (In fields and on roads) and is just about to learn to jump.

I think these two, and the stark differences in the way they have been brought up, hilight the need for youngsters to have more handling and experiences.. fully agree with you lizzy :D

Rachel xx
 
Don't put kids at kindergarten through uni. they can't do it.

Babies should be out with a group of horses learning from the herd what is and isn't acceptable.

Okay, teach them to stand and lead and have thir feet picked up but that's it.

Over load a foal, yearling or 2 year old and you'll get a problem in the making.

We have a 2 yo and a yearling out in the hill, we look at them daily through binoculars and if they are at the fence we stop and speak...that's it. They were in al winter and know what's what, now it's playtime, kids need play. Next year they will go out with the big guys and probably be taught one or two lessons from the big herd and a few more fom us. Babaies don;t need over load, kids need time to play, they cannot assimilate lote and lots of info.

i'm not saying leave them to rot, but keep lesson time short and sweet and let them play with thier own kind.
 
Hmm Wally, I do agree that youngsters need playtime, and shouldn't get an overload... I didn't mention that the second horse I was talking about, is turned out with others 24hrs, and was only handled max 30 minutes a day.. but it's just so much more of a confident and happy horse compared to the un-handled youngster.

Whilst I think that horses should be horses, and as youngsters they should have plenty of time to be horses, we do take them into humansville, and that it is best to slowly introduce things from a slightly younger age, rather than suddenly asking an undhandled horse to accept tack and a rider and handling all at once :eek:

Rachel xx
 
I don't want them to be over loaded at a certain age either, but so many folk want babies to be Einstein.

Charles Buttons Esq. is 3. had nothing done with him at all apart from being stabled at night with all that entails. He is as daft as a brush, leads, stands tied and will accept being brushed and his feet done. He trust us, that's all he needs to do, anything we ask him from now on, so long as we are fair he will accept....still in short happy doses.

Don't over do teaching of babies, lead, do feet and stable mannes that's all they need to know.
 
I totally agree with Wally that babies must be allowed to have as natural a "childhood" as possible; mixing with other youngsters and with the grown-ups is the best possible education a young horse can have, and the horses I've met who haven't been allowed to socialise normally in their youth have without exception been labelled "difficult" as a result.

Provided you're sensible I don't think you actually do much harm, and maybe give yourself a bit of a head start, if you introduce a few strange things along the way in addition to the usual necessary stuff like leading, foot-picking, a bit of grooming now and again. Provided it's fun and not scary and there's no pressure that's fine, but there's always the temptation when things seem to be going well to ask just that little bit more...

So if you're not 150% sure where to draw the line, you certainly won't lose anything by leaving well alone.
 
I'm with Wally and ros on this one too. My baby is twelve months old this month. He was well handled early on so haltering, catching and leading have never been a problem anyway - but apart from that he was left to be a baby.

Since I've had him he's been taught to have his feet picked up (although we found out that just because he's happy for me to do that doesn't mean he'll let a farrier!! :rolleyes: ), been groomed all over and wormed. That's all. He won't be bridled , or bitted, or rugged, and some days all he gets is a quick rub on the nose. I try to make sure he's caught and fiddled with once a week and he's learnt the basics of tying up but that's all I'm doing.

Yesterday I went over to worm - discovered when I got there that I'd left his halter at home. He stood beside me with nothing on his head while I wormed him. Got the fly spray out for the first time in his life and at the first spray he legged it - all of six feet away. Came back to see what that was and stood while I sprayed him.

My own feeling is that if a foal or yearling has trust in you there's no need to spend their early years systematically introducing everything they might meet later in life. I totally agree that leaving a baby completely unhandled is a bad idea - but I'd also rather work with an unhandled horse than one which has been overloaded.

My sec B, Lili, had never had the hand of man on her till she was 14 months old. At that point she was herded into a stable, wormed, and sold to us. I did a minimum with her until she was 3 - just basic grooming, leading and feet - and that mare is the easiest, most co-operative little pony you could imagine. She's been with Monty for a little while after being at stud, and even though she doesn't know Monty, has enough trust to load into a cattle crush for the first time for scanning by a vet she doesn't know with no problem at all.

I wouldn't leave a youngster completely unhandled - but once a foal has the idea of halters, leading, and being touched all over I leave it there. The rest comes very easily if they trust their handler.
 
You also have to take into account that some ponies resent being overhandled at that age.

We have a very good filly who we got at two and are bringing on very slowly (much to her frustration) and we also have another who wants as little handling as possible

You may have seen my posts regarding our troubles teaching Bramble to catch, maybe they have had similar problems. We have decided once Bramble is good to catch at least the majority of the time she is not ready to be taught as it overloads her she will get taught her basic manners and will be turned out with the others until she is 3 1/2 when we will start very slowly with her and won't expect to sit on her until the following year.

Horses are very different in their minds dome mature quickly and take things in their stride (like my Shandy) and some are still foal like as two year olds (like Bramble) if you push a youngster who's not ready you'll end up with a lot more problems.

I'm not saying ignore them just some can't accept being bitted up and walked out etc until they're a little older.

It's hard when you haven't had experience with both "types" of youngsters to understand this and I was guilty of the same until we got Bramble.
 
I don't think there is an exact age to start a horse. It's whatever the owner desires. The manager who wants to buy Dante is going to start him on Parelli at the end of the summer. He is handled every day in his paddock with his mum, who actually doesn't mind people touching her foal. Just unless Dante runs off, she'll call to him. We have a 2 year old at our barn who has just gotten used to being brushed and they're starting him with trailers. He's gotten used to cross ties as well. Meanwhile, we also have a yearling just being introduced to cross ties and brushes. The 2 year old hasn't had as much handling or training as the yearling. Starting a horse at the right age and backing a horse are both left up to the owner. Although some people may not agree that backing a two year old is fine, others think that they should wait until they're more mature. I also think it has to do with regions. Here in my area of Ontario, you see ads for 2 year olds that have been backed but are green.
 
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Just what I was going to say! Should be whatever suits a horse best, bearing in mind that even the horses that seem to want to do more early on need time to grow and play and just be baby horses.
 
i dont agree with backing horses at a early age.


he is still alollowed to be a baby in comes in for about 15mins a day, inc his feed, rest of time he is out 24/7
 
I would say that it does vary per horse.. I wouldn't really want to start much education until 2 years old.. and I'm not advocating anything more than making sure that the horse is comfortable with those noraml humansville tasks that have to be done picking up feet/leading (leading out with a friend sometimes has to be done)/Meeting a rug if TB bred.. far better to have a horse which is at least reasonably comfortable around humans just in case of accidents, than one which is unhandled until its nearly four and it just gets sent away to be backed.

When I was speaking to a trainer near to me about breaking youngsters, one of her comments was, that she wished people would at least have handled their youngsters enough so that they were comfortable around humans and the very basic tasks like feet/leading.

I think many people would like their youngster out in a herd situation, but in a livery yard I don't think it's often that easy... it's a shame really as I do appreciate it shapes the horse for the future learning about the herd environment.

Anyway, as a final comment about letting the horse decide what it wants to learn.. I have a DVD of pat parelli and trailer loading. He's in a huge pasture, working with one horse on a line, but as he progresses a bunch of yearlings come over, and lo and behold they quite fancied taking a look around the trailer and just popping in without pat doing anything or saying anything! Absolutely no force, not a whisker, entirely voluntary on the youngsters part - but I'm thinking they aren't going to be much bother to load when they are 3/4/5 years old and the human is suggesting it! :)

Anyway.. never had a youngster.. wouldn't really consider myself a good enough parent yet.

Rachel xx
 
I saw him today, and at 3 days old, he's wearing a halter and is already starting to pick his feet up. He's starting to understand leading and the concepts of it. They work with him 15 mins a day, every day. They, being his new owners. He's already imprinted with humans, and we're able to touch him all over the place.

I'm going to leave it up to them, as I know that they have trained young horses before and have backed them as well. He's going to start Parelli later on this summer.
 
Some of you have said something along the lines of, 'at two they should start the basics, leading and feet being picked up', just wondering - how exactly are feet supposed to be trimmed on youngsters then? Don't get me wrong.. Jinx doesn't have his feet touched but it's a good idea to get the feet in a decent condition from a young age isn't it...?! In an ideal world i'd hope to have a youngster who would come in for a groom, bit of dinner and lead nicely back to the field, and that's all i'd expect.

Until you've worked with all kinds of youngsters from all kinds of backgrounds it's hard to accept different methods of halter breaking and basic ground manners, and it really all does depend on your pony. Now Miss and Jinx are from exactly the same background.. Miss has been backed and is now ridden by 6 and 9 year olds girls and Jinx is still out in the fields having the time of his life and will refuse to be lead. Miss is coming on 3 so is still in light work and we're doing more work inhand than ridden, mainly because i want to do some inahnd shows but also her age is still an issue, as much as she loves learning and is always interested and excited by any new work, i don't want to push her too far too quickly. Hence the roadside walks today which were.. umm.. eventful to say the least.

When i got jinx i was told he was 2 and a half, but turns out he's only 12 - 14 months old, so i'm not pushing him too far either, although ideally i'd at least like to be able to handle him. He's a star in the stable and i can even pick up his feet but in the fields he's a loony and i can just hold onto his headcollar for a few seconds before he realises what i'm doing and gallops off at break neck speed, now because of his background i want to get this problem sorted ASAP because i think it's more a vulnerability issue, he feels insecure when being handled outside, which explains why he doesn't mind it in the stables, i'm looking into getting an IH person out to him, once this has been dealt with and i know that he's comfortable with being led out then i will turn him out again to 'be a horse' but will keep handling him at least once a week, eve if it's to say hello. I do believe that at least SOME education should be drummed into youngsters even if it's, 'we can play rough with other horses.. but not with humans' but pushing youngsters too far will make them stressed and anxious, i like to make things a game for youngsters so that they don't worry too much if they can't manage something or understand what i'm asking.
 
Exactly, Wildponies - you need to teach the basics of trust and respect before a youngster gets overly big and hefty, and at the same time you don't want it to be over-familiar and acting like some sort of enormous lap-dog :)

So really the best way to do that is to do just the necessary stuff until Baby's got the antics out of his system with his equine company, and start the real fun Learning With Humans program when he's old enough to have a bit more than tumbleweed between his ears!
 
I saw him today, and at 3 days old, he's wearing a halter and is already starting to pick his feet up. He's starting to understand leading and the concepts of it. They work with him 15 mins a day, every day.
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I am sorry makebelieve but I dont agree with what you are doing at all. Head collar maybe, feet and leading a no no at 3 days old!:(
 
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