Baby is here???

Question

I want our baby to be extra good... We have been working with him daily. When mommy gets rinsed off we often will get him wet too. We've been rubbing and touching all over, on his legs, his ears, his belly, his neck, etc. What I need to know is basic time frames, like what is 'too' soon to actually bathe him and is it too soon to start messing with him with the clippers. He already halters very nicely and stands for the vet and when we flyspray him. When can we start teaching him to lead? Oh yeah, he's also being really good about moving away from pressure. He doesn't mind us toweling him off, or petting him when he's laying down.

By the way, he's 6 days old. Have we moved too fast? Also, we won't do all this at once we usually only work in 10 - 20 minutes sessions, usually closer to 10 minute.

One other question. When he intentionally backs his cute little brown butt up to us and kicks AT us, what should we do? Or, for anything intentionally rude or mean, should we correct him?

Answer 1

First CONGRATES ON THE NEW BABY! i want to see photos if thats ok. [e-mail]

Ok, you can start halter training him right now. Some people do it the day after they are born, and the day they are born. With foals, you want to start training them as quickly as possible, but also be patinet about it.

I know a great website that will help you with any questions you have.

http://www.equine-reproduction.com/board...

go all the way to the bottom and start new thread.  

If you have any other questions just email me.

http://www.horsekeeping.com/horse_traini...

that web site may help as well.

Answer 2

AWE! I have a three month old filly and she is rotten! No! You haven't got started too early! There's no such thing! You can bathe him as soon as you get ready but don't use anything with harsh chemicals, it might irritate his skin. If I were you I would just continue to soak him down everywhere and show him it's okay... Never seen a horse freak out over shampoo lol When he kicks at you, simply spat his lil' booty (not HARD) just enough to get his attention and firmly say NO! He will get the idea that it's unexceptable... My filly tried the same with me and now she doesn't kick.  The sooner you start teaching him to lead - the better... Easiest way is to loop the lead rope around his hind end and pull until he gives while asking him to move forward... He will eventually get the idea. If he acts up have mom walk along side, too, so he understands what's being asked of him. Have fun and enjoy your new baby!!!

Answer 3

Please keep in mind that these babies have the attention spans of a gnat. Really they do, any "session" longer than 5-10 minutes a day with this baby is just going to wear him out and make him surly; i.e., the butt to you, ears back, kicking out behavior. THAT IS NOT NORMAL BABY BEHAVIOR. He's probably associating you now with everytime he sees you, he has to have a lesson, i.e., you are not pleasant. That gets really old, really fast to these little guys and quite frankly he is forming a negative association to you. And it has absolutely nothing to do with him being a stud colt, he isn't old enough to even realize he is a stud colt yet, a filly would be the same way.

Please remember his main job right now is to grow and be a foal. If you must mess with him every day, keep it SHORT 5-10 min. at the max. Short, positive lessons have a lot more impact that long, drawn-out sessions that leave everybody tired and frustrated. Go to see him and just scratch him on the head and then leave him alone. He'll start learning that everytime he sees you it isn't going to be about "work". They learn a lot more and want to cooperate when the sessions are short and positive.

Also, does this baby have another other horses to socialize with other than his mother? Preferably another mare and foal that he can be buddies with the foal? Horses need to learn social and behavior skills with each other and those can be even more important lessons than anything you can teach him at this point in his life. Another foal will take the "right back atcha" attitude with him and the other mama isn't going to take a whole lot of guff off him; i.e., he will learn positive social skills with horses that can translate into humans working with him later on. That a lot of times is priceless with one this young.

Answer 4

what in the world are you talking about? If your baby is only six days you shouldnt be spraying it with fly spray. Are you nuts? And making a baby lead? and taking a human to the vet? What? Discipline at 6 days, no.

oh you must be talking about a dog.

oh in that case then its still never to early to start training.

Answer 5

when he kicks at you and tries to bite or something he is usually playing.he probably think that you are another horse and does what he would do to play with you if you where a horse. so no don't punish him just wave your finger, then give him a slight slap on the rump. that helps me with my mare. and trust me it works. remember don't slap him to hard.

Answer 6

thats good for how young he is i would say don't spend more than 2 minutes with him right now his thought process is almost always with his mom right now so 10 min is way to long. i only work with yearlings for 10 minutes as for kicking either push his butt away from you(from the side) for a while so he is anoyed or else i take a crop or whip and tap and when he kicks tap him harder to anoy him and keep tapping till he does not kick for a few taps and reward and walk away for the day

Answer 7

You're going too fast.  He's not even a week old!

At the moment, he's just getting his bearings and learning how the milk bar works.  He's finding his way around the paddock and getting the hang of his massively long legs. 10-20 minutes, or even 5-10 minutes, is too long to be interfering with him.  I know it's exciting and I'm sure he's cute as h**l, but he needs chance to be a baby.  He can't possibly be expected to concentrate on what you want to say to him for 5 minutes!

I don't lead foals individually until about 8 months, which is when I start to wean.  At around 4 months I put a little foal slip on and attach a lunge line, and put the line across the dam's back, so I'm leading the mare and she has her foal on the other side.  There is plenty space for the foal to move around and get himself in the position he wants to be in, and obviously leading is going to be easier if Mum is going too!  Prior to then, I don't lead them at all; I lead the mare, and the foal will follow.

If you attempt to treat your 6 day old foal like a grown up by introducing a bath and clippers (why are you clipping him anyway?) you'll overwhelm him and he'll get very pissed off.  He'll learn that you're no fun and you'll seriously damage his career prospects.  At this stage (and for the next four months) you're better leaving him well alone and letting him find his own way.  Discipline is not necessary; he doesn't have a clue what's going on, and is probably tired and bored.  It's best to just ignore him - it's not "intentional".

Answer 8

YES! definitely correct him,it might be cute now but when you have a 700lb gelding or stallion biting/kicking at you its isn't so cute,as long as he isn't stressing over anything Id say your not moving too fast,just keep the training sessions short and don't end on a bad note (meaning that if he is good throughout the whole thing and your about to end and he bites you or something DON'T STOP! you MUST end with something good that he does....)

Answer 9

Yes Correct him.  He needs to learn that its bad immedieatly, and its never to early to get your foal use to things and teaching him mannors, go ahead and start leadining him, and wont affect him negitively.

Answer 10

You seem to be doing good. Those are good time sessions. He can do any ground work that you would do with an adult horse that isn't strenuos. He can't jump, but he can certainly learn to lead and learn ground manners and be desensitized to things like streams and noise and whatever you can think of. If it gets cold then I wouldn't advise getting him wet, but if it doesn't then he can learn that as well. Good luck and look at the link below.