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
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