Handling foals....make vs want.

I should preface this by saying that I don't consider myself an expert on foal handling...yet! I do have a passion for foals that I discovered early in my journey to becoming a lifetime student of the horse. A slightly wild new colt was born at a facility in FL where I was taking riding lessons. I was immediately smitten & visited him as often as I could. My second experience was at a breeding facility where I boarded my thoroughbred Miles. They had a paddock full of wild (literally) colts that had just been weaned. They were in a smaller enclosure & had halters with short lead ropes attached. The owner was pretty old school....a cowboy type who believed that hard knocks teach great lessons. So he said of course I could do anything I wanted with them.....I had signed my life away already so "No problem!". I was elated. These colts were young racehorse prospects. When one of the colt's new owner came by later, I asked how his young bay weanling was & told him I had spent time grooming  & leading him. He laughed & said he now understood. He had expected a wild thing & picked up what he had thought was just an exceptional temperament. He also said I could do anything I wanted to any of his colts! This is in my opinion the entire point of foal handling. Horses are born wild. They can stay that way for some time & still become a nice horse. But what an opportunity we have if only we take it. I wholeheartedly believe that early foal handling sets a horse up for a better future with humans. It's not in the nature of a wild animal to trust humans....it's not in the nature of a lot of  grown & tame horses out there trying to get along with humans either. I've had horses handled "correctly" as young horses. Some of them trust but some just can never quite get there. I'm also incredibly fortunate to have been able to raise my own in a way that focuses on the horse trusting me as he might another horse. There is no comparison, truly. The first foal I raised was my now 6 year old mare, Kisia. She came to me as a weanling already halter trained. She had been handled exceptionally well. She was smart, learned quickly & never failed to spare me her opinion on anything! My mistake with her, which lead to great learning, was because she understood the basics of pressure, leading & such, along with her intelligence made it easy for me to be overly ambitious. We worked it out & both learned our lessons. So at my next opportunity I decided to experiment. I was keeping the foal so if I made a mess of it...it would be mine to own. My plan for Zorra was for her earliest training to be almost totally be at liberty. This meant no ropes attached to give me leverage or control of where she goes....so she could leave whenever she wanted. If I wanted to get anything done, she had to want to be there. I could not make her. So ambition was quickly thrown out.....patience & trust must rule this time. It worked wonderfully & honestly......if she had been my first foal, I would have thought I was a horse whisperer indeed as she's been incredibly easy to train. But her parents were chosen foremost because of their brains. She will always be a standout in the temperament department thanks to smart breeding choices. The basic lesson here is that liberty type training for foals & young horses is an excellent tool. It takes away "make". My newest foal marches up to me at every opportunity. I've never forced anything on her. She is more like her mom, Kisia, in temperament. She has a mind of her own, can be concerned about restraint & shares her opinions. So she is more challenging than Zorra as a foal for training. She will, although, be able to do things later in life that will challenge a more laid back Zorra. All types are good.....they're just different. We started leading two weeks ago after taking several slow weeks to get her comfortable being haltered. I had to go very slowly with haltering & pressure from the halter or rope to get movement. But when the trust was there she just did it. Same with fly spray. As a matter of fact, I still can't believe I was able to accomplish fly spray without some type of restraint. Training at liberty is worth trying if you have a young one. All that's required is time & want. Throw away your schedule & any idea of "make"...if you dare! Now I know that there are times when force can be necessary. Life & death situations do arise. Training at times must be set aside to provide care when needed. That said, if the trust is there, the horse will allow you to do things you never thought possible. I've already experienced this with Zorra & Kisia thanks to their early training. Will share an older video here of a weanling Zorra & a colt named Cash. Cash was a rescue we fostered. He came here at around 6 months old totally unhandled & quite malnourished. You'll see him eating in the barn isle. He did eventually make it into a stall, get haltered, groomed, learn to lead, stand tied & stand for the farrier before he left. All with the same philosophy of liberty training. He was the most gracious creature I've experienced. https://vimeo.com/16378593

Permission to ride....

The last two weeks I've been free lunging (as my dressage trainer calls it) or playing the circle game (one of the seven games as defined by the Parelli program) Kisia as we prepare to start riding. She's had the last year off due to pregnancy. Her daughter is now about 7 weeks old & learns as well while I work with her mother. Kisia lost a good deal of muscle in the last months of her gestation so I've been watching for that to develop. In the past few days I've seen much change particularly in her shoulders & back. During our online time, I've been asking her for a better quality of movement. She's knows these exercises & is quite bored with them despite the time off. Asking for something more particular from them has caused an improvement in her attitude & even better, her movement. Kisia is a powerful & very "dressagy" type moving Andalusian. That said, it can take a bit to "get the lead out" so as to see this wonderful movement. During our exercise yesterday, I found it difficult to get her energy up so asked her for some yields & lateral work (which she likes). Rather than go out sideways as I'd asked, she quietly came sideways to me, lined up for mounting & gave me a peaceful look that said...."Don't you just want to ride?" YES! I didn't ride but that offer means she's mentally ready & feeling like a partner. She knows how to offer this to me thanks to something I learned while attending a course in Ocala, FL at the Parelli campus. The exercise has you standing on a block, rail, whatever.....ask the horse to line up to mount & stand quietly...which they probably don't do...then play a bit of squeeze game until standing in just the right place. I've played this game with both Kisia & Zorra & let me tell you....they understand what it means to stand quietly for mounting from both sides, under tack & bareback. It's a good game. Kisia understands it on such a level that she knows how to offer it to me when she's not in the mood for lunging. Very cool as I value my horse's opinion & desires. She is in my opinion the type of horse that it's best to be clear with but always maintain the option to negotiate. She's exquisitely honest & has a highly tuned sense of justice. So you always know how she feels (as does everyone around you....thanks for all the lessons in ego Kisia!!). If she's being less than good, she tolerates a correction....if you've misunderstood her....not so much. So I work very hard to always listen to her & accept everything nice she offers. She's an addictive type horse for me & one that's easy to get too ambitious with. That said...she's mature, strong & just offered me a ride! Photo here of a four year old Kisia having a canter on a trail ride.

Summer update

Much has happened since I last posted an update on my old blog. As posted previously, Kisia foaled a filly we've named Kiva. I devoted many sleepless nights to making sure I was there for Kiva's birth. It was a great experience that went smoothly. Hopefully I'll be there for many more over the years. Kisia in the past two weeks has started back on a fitness program as we'll get back to riding soon.

Zorra went out to a colt starter in January & promptly injured her hind leg just in front of the hock. It's been a long & hard recovery. The tendon is healed & the wound is now about the size of a quarter. I'm wrapping it every 2-3 days depending on how the bandage holds & treating it per my vets advice. She's incredibly bored. She watches as the others get worked & seems to wonder if I'll ever do anything with her again. My goal is to ride her! As soon as the wound closes, we'll get to it but no rushing.

Valencia spent several weeks in TX at Herradura Andalusians where she was bred to Gitano MOR. He is a special stallion & , I believe, will make a magical cross with our tall, gorgeous, fabulous moving Valencia. She's in excellent health. I free lunge her 2-3 times a week lightly for fitness but also to keep our "language" intact.

Foxy has gone to a new home. She will be giving therapy rides to handicapped children as well as get back to some carriage driving. We miss her & cherish the time we had with her.

Miles, my thoroughbred, is 22 this year. He continues life as a retiree. He seems to feel good behaving quite, & uncharacteristically I might add, relaxed these days.

The photo below is of Dehesa who is a retired broodmare at Herradura. She is our Zorra's great, great grandmother. She was imported from Mexico. At 25 years old now, I understand she had 18 foals in her career.

New Blog! & Kiva's optimization!

Welcome to my new blog. Due to some issues with my email address it became tedious to log in & out from the previous blog. If new here feel free to go over & check out posts from the old blog at http://lafayettevalley-alice.blogspot.com/.

This past year has been one of growth & change for our budding breeding program. Kisia our grey Andalusian (Inscribed PRE) mare produced her first foal for us....a wonderful grey filly we've named Kiva. She's a really lovely combination of her parents, very like her dam but taller, longer legs & somehow looks like will even move better! Like her mom, she is very beautiful....think Unicorn pretty folks....this one will seriously draw a crowd one day....her face is perfection. She also inherited her moms power & balance. She's strong, sensitive & athletic. I believe crossing Kisia with the stallion Klickitat (Revised PRE) has added to the temperament as well. I've been calling Kiva my 100% girl. Her mom as a foal was an overachiever who gave 150% at least to new things, which sounds nice, but can be daunting in a sensitive, powerful creature. Kiva so far is proving VERY trainable. If you followed my old blog, you might recall a post about Zorra's optimization where I explained the process or theory of optimization in developing a horse. For ultimate optimization one starts with choice of parents. I applied this same thinking to "making" Kiva. Choosing a stallion that compliments Kisia in every possible way was, of course, key. There are many good stallions around. That doesn't mean they are great for my mare. I also enlisted the help of Kisia's breeder who patiently watched many videos, sharing her own knowledge & expertise about what some stallions might add to my mare. My first question to her was asked as Kisia was traveling here as a foal. I asked for an honest assessment of her strong & weak areas which gave me a head start in my search for understanding how a mare & stallion can outproduce themselves in their offspring. Health & condition of the mare is clearly vital. Our mares are on individualized nutrition programs, get daily exercise and stay up to date on immunizations & deworming. Besides stallion choice & mare health, one often over looked aspect is that of my mare's training. I'm convinced that when my mare is happy to see me coming, she imparts this trust of humans to her foals. She should also tolerate all kinds of handling so I might safely clean & care for her as her foaling time approaches. She should patiently allow me to handle her new born foal. Basically, she should trust my intentions. This means I've put the time in to develop a relationship with her as well as exposed her to types of handling that will be required well before she is foaling or has a brand new baby at her side. Not everyone does these things nor does everything think they are important. I'm not saying they are wrong but that this is what I feel gives my foals the best start I can provide. My goal for breeding foals is that they are physically & mentally able to partner with a human but also like it! At just over a month old our Kiva is bright, super athletic, friendly & happy. She lives in a herd of well socialized mares, comes in the barn daily where she wears her halter, has a meal & gets groomed. She yields to pressure nicely, is respectful, picks up all feet & is friendly with every part of her body. An "optimal" start in my opinion.