Is handling a pony at a young age good for the future?

Question

I have a 8 month old filly and we handle her daily. We give her bathes and brush her. She leads and picks up her feet. I was just wondering if anyone else does that with their babies.

Answer 1

yes that is like the best thing you can do for them then they will trust you and stuff keep it up

Answer 2

Yes this is very good , very !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 3

yes definately that is great for her.this will be so helpful when she goes into training to get broke. this will also get her to build trust in you and will be so much better for the future..for example I have two fillies...one was always handled and could lead, clip, tie, trailer..ect. so much easier to handle and I built a relationship with her, while my other one was never handled as a baby and i couldn't get close to her at all...and now in training, the one that was handled a lot is doing better and easier to handle

Answer 4

Wow! Thats a great start! I think if you have her doing all those things at 8 months is really great, keep at and she'll be a really great horse. I definatly work on those things with foals. Usually, I start SIMPLE and not gruelling round pen work. I never let them get bored or to tired though.

Have fun!

Answer 5

Absolutely! Its called imprinting and has revolutionized horse training since it started catching on about 20 years ago.

Answer 6

Handling most animals at a young age is good for the future.  Anything you do with your filly now will usually help make your training of her later much easier.  When we had mares & foals, we handled them everyday from the day they hit the ground.  Sounds like you are headed in the right direction.  Just be sure you do not get over anxious & decide it would be fun to ride a yearling or decide to start saddle breaking a yearling, but like I said, the more you do now will make it one less thing to have to do later.

Have Fun!!!

Answer 7

Handling a young horse is GREAT for them!! The more time you spend with it, the easier it will be to train in the future. Aside from leading and brushing, which should be started at a few weeks old, we start teaching our little ones at about 6 months. Using good manners while leading is important, and we also like to start leaning on them. We put a tiny saddle (with no girth or a very loose one) just to let them get used to the feel. I lean over their backs (with my feet on the ground of course!!) so they get used to having a little weights, and touch them all over as much as possible. If they're really willing, I'll even start doing VERY BASIC lunge line activities, such as learning voice commands like walk and trot, but only like 1 or 2 times a week. It is important not to do too much, as they are young and need lots of "baby time," so you don't want to make them sour. And I'll tell you that it will also make you happier in the long run. When it came time for my babies to start their real work, it was like they trained themselves!! No issues with a person sitting on them, willing to walk/trot with a rider, easy to teach cantering and steering. Lots of focused attention at a young age is a wonderful thing for the future of your horse!

Answer 8

It's absolutely essential that you handle foals frequently - I'm glad you're doing so.  You can get foals used to all sorts of things so long as it's not repetitive work (like lunging) that might hurt their joints.

Answer 9

Your question is a little misleading - I'm grinning a bit as I was expecting to answer something about a young person's interaction with a pony.  A pony is not a baby horse....

Handling a young horse is rarely bad.  However, you CAN overdo it for them mentally and it's very easy to teach them bad habits quickly at a young age.  The interaction should be kept to time spent together for the purpose of developing bonds and faith in each other as well as basic controls and movements from the ground.  

I've raised a number of them myself and know others who have raised them.  Some have been very successful at leaving a group of babies to run virtually wild and un-touched in order to allow them to learn the proper social behavior and such with other horses - this is successful as long as the person who touches them first does so with professional experience and knowledge regarding the starting of horses.

Personally, I do many things with them myself when they are young.  My yearling filly makes most movements from the ground - backing up, moving the forequarters and hind quarters upon command, etc.  They learn to stand tied, handling of their feet and learn to accept the scary things like fly sprays, grooming utensils and perhaps clippers.

When you are "working" with a young horse, intending to teach them something - keep these sessions short with "baby step" goals.  A young horse's mind, like a young person's, is difficult to keep focused.  They shouldn't be pushed to learn things real difficult for them - for example, I wouldn't expect mine to learn to stand completely still tied for hours on end to a trailer - that's just plain mind numbing for them.

But I guess I would suggest trying to accustom them to as many things as possible.  To not force her to accept anything, present things to her and allow her the time to accept them - one way to do this is to dis-allow her to focus on the item.  So many people think you must allow the horse to sniff and push scary things around.  Really, you are often reinforcing the scariness of an object - walk her around the object a few times, showing her you are not frightened nor should she be.  When you get a few steps closer than you did yesterday, praise her and let her rest or be done with that session for now.

Teach her things like acceptance of a rope on or around her legs - pressure on her halter or body.  I've heard of people who've worked on these things with theirs, then the horse gets a foot caught in something and stands calmly awaiting assistance rather than freaking out and ripping up their leg.

Answer 10

yes, i do. well, they're not mine, but my trainer's... she lets me help cuz she has 2 right now and not enough times on her hands. handling them from birth is the best bet to breaking them later on.

Answer 11

Yes that is very good for her and all baby horses too! It gets them used to being handled and being around people. Keep it up!

Foals should be handled (my opinion = imprinting) as early as possible.

Answer 12

I think it will be easier to train her.