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Susan Jeys
Member
Username: Sjeys
Post Number: 70
Registered: 1-2005
| | Posted on Friday, Aug 11, 2006 - 5:19 pm: |   |
I am new to "horse babies" and have two 15 month old thoroughbreds. When I first got them (at six months) it took me about 45 minutes to catch them; they'd never really been handled on a daily basis. I was too stupid to know what I was getting into, but have really enjoyed the process of working with them (just small things every other day or so) and they have turned out to be adorable, delightful "kids."
I am wondering what their milestones should be at young ages. For instance:
Yearling: So far, will let me walk up to and put halter on them, walk with halter, back up, stop, trot (if someone urges them on from behind); ties, can bathe (one without a halter, she loves to just stand there and get wet); the other with a halter. Can touch all over (with water and hands); can trim; can give shots, can groom, can fly spray (most of the time); can blanket.
I know we should start practicing loading...what other skills should I make sure they have by a certain age...I wasn't going to "lunge" until they were quite a bit older...I just want to make sure my babies don't get too big and become dangerous and then I realize, "Oh, I needed to train them on this when they were little." Thanks! |
Stacy Upshaw
Member
Username: 36541
Post Number: 163
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, Aug 11, 2006 - 9:27 pm: | |
You've undertaken quite a task - I'm glad you are having fun developing a bond with them, and I'm sure you have picked up a lot of safety tips from this board. I didn't grasp whether one was a colt - if so geld with haste! It is past time to load and trailer so be sure to get some really experienced help for this lesson, and a tried and true safe trailer to teach them with. Will they stand tied when there is a lot going on around them? That is a must. Lastly from me(I know others will help you), I always regretted not teaching my two oldest mares to clip. I didn't have the money for clippers 18 years ago, but since then every baby I have raised is clipper-friendly. It's not at the top of everyone's list, but it is something else they should be able to tolerate. Good luck, Stacy |
Suzanne Reed
Member
Username: Sureed
Post Number: 49
Registered: 10-2005
| | Posted on Friday, Aug 11, 2006 - 10:28 pm: | |
OH MY GOSH, here, here to clipping. There are some great battery powered clippers available that enable you to free yourself from a cord and are very quiet. Absolutely essential to get that going now while you can reach their ears and poll. Start by just stroking and messaging their ears inside and with your fingers, their polls and their noses and chin, then massage them with the clippers without turning them on. When they are good with that, expose them to the clippers running but withdraw when they balk and come back to try again. You just want to stroke them with the clippers around their head and ears before you actually try to clip. Complete each step to a level of comfort before going to the next.
You need to be able to clip their fetlocks too so you must be able to confidently handle and rub and pick up their legs and feet before attempting to clip. I would conquer the ears, poll, nose, and chin first and then the feet (which are the most dangerous), but then proceed the same way.
You also need to make sure they are comfortable with you fingers in their mouths. Use you thumb at the corners of the mouth and then massage from both sides to open their mouths. This will help them prepare for a bit later on as well as for vet checks and dentistry.
Yes, they need to be loading. Hopefully they were delivered or picked up by you and already have some positive experience in this regard. Otherwise take it slow introducing them to the trailer and don't try to do this alone. Have a treat for them in the trailer for when they get in there, but don't use treats to lure them in. Again Anderson or Parrelli training are great on this.
Let them stand quietly and then exit quietly. When they are ready, you can take them for little rides in the trailer so they can learn to balance. Remember, stops and starts are the hardest, so drive carefully. Train them separately so they don't mimic each other's behavior.
I had to haul my five-day old baby to the vet (an hour drive) with no advance training (and with the help of much advice from this site). My mare/mother was a Godsend helping her colt. Your babies are weaned, but perhaps if you have a baby sitter horse with them, he/she could help you in the process if needed (by loading first).
Make sure you are exposing them to scarey things like crinkling plastic bags and walking over tarps and having things scarey things (like crinkly bags) rubbed all over their bodies. Consult Anderson and Parrelli for doing this appropriately.
If you have a lead pony, you can pony babies of this age on trail rides. This is such great exposure for them.
I agree, don't lunge them. It is too hard on their developing joints. If you have a round pen though, you can work with them in there free, teaching them to move in accordance with your body movements and direction and learning to accept you as their leader.
Sounds like you are doing what you need to do. Know that all the work you are doing now will pay off huge dividends in the long run.
There is so much you can do when they are young and better able to be handled. The absence of this kind of approach is producing a bunch of pulling, bucking, skittish, unconfident horses out there. I can't believe how many misbehaving, underprepared horses there are available for sale. These horse are jumping and being shown, but they can't be trusted to take care of their riders. Most of it is because these horses did not receive this type of fundamental training that you are providing for your babies.
And yes, gender makes a difference. You need to explore the difference between training a stallion/gelding/filly. I belive there are articles on this site that will help.
Good luck with all. People more experienced than I on this site will provide additional guidance, I am sure.
Suzanne |
Susan Jeys
Member
Username: Sjeys
Post Number: 71
Registered: 1-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, Aug 12, 2006 - 1:46 am: | |
The Clipping is brilliant; I completely forgot about it. The more I thought about this question the more I realized this is the same as asking "how long is a piece of string?" 
I watched Clinton Anderson today on starting young horses for respectful lunging (or something like that) and went out in the field and tried it with both; getting them to engage their hardquarters and face you. That took just a couple of minutes on each side and really brought back the fact that I needed to be doing more of that kind of work with them in addition to the basics. I learned some Parelli with my older horse and it helped him (and me a lot)
Thank you also for the suggestions on handling mouths and ears and the tarps and all that good stuff.
The colt was gelded around 11 months because he was starting to mount things...I felt like an idiot, but the lady who sold him to me told me that she usually gelds in the autumn of the second year. She told me his father also was mounting "unusually early"...I wish she'd told me this when I bought him. I thought by gelding him later that he'd be more flashy, but honestly, if I ever do this again, I would geld them the second they hit the dirt; it was a big procedure and I hated to see him in pain (apparently one of his was really hard to get to and "almost" a cryptoorchid or choroid or something).
On the loading, the lady I bought them from was out of town, but lived in our neighborhood. I decided to hand walk them (with my husband) across our common area to our house. Just because I didn't want them to freak out in the trailer and I wasn't confident once we got there about their education since it took me almost an hour to get the halter on them. We made it, but it was an education in how little this colt and filly had been handled thus far.
I agree with handling as much as you can. One of my neighbors just bought a two year old that isn't halter broke--terrifying. I guess that happens (I am learning) at a lot of auctions.
Another friend is teaching me to ground drive, so I think that will help me to control them better out and about. Another couple of friends have offered to pony them around as well. I have a lot of great help; I am really intent on getting them not just "appearing" to be safe but REALLY being safe when the you know what hits the fan and I NEED them to behave.
That is really my biggest fear; that they behave with me, but turn into terrors under someone else or under stress. Thank you for your great suggestions! |
Susan Jeys
Member
Username: Sjeys
Post Number: 72
Registered: 1-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, Aug 12, 2006 - 1:50 am: | |
Oh, I don't think this is supposed to be this way, but the colt (both intact and gelded) was a doll baby and the filly is a fire breathing dragon, personality wise. She is a strong, opinionated girl. If I hadn't known their sex, I would have assumed she was the stallion based upon her behavior . |
Linda S.
Member
Username: Banthony
Post Number: 127
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, Aug 12, 2006 - 12:10 pm: | |
Susan,
Are these two going to be race horses or performance horses? |
Susan Jeys
Member
Username: Sjeys
Post Number: 73
Registered: 1-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, Aug 12, 2006 - 3:51 pm: | |
They will be performance horses (hunter, jumper, eventing, dressage, driving...whatever they show a propensity for) or if they cannot physically or mentally do these sports I would see about other things...I can't imagine ever putting them on the track since I've never had any experience with that. |
Linda S.
Member
Username: Banthony
Post Number: 128
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Monday, Aug 14, 2006 - 9:18 am: | |
These two really lucked out getting you. Life on the race track can be pretty hard. |
Susan Jeys
Member
Username: Sjeys
Post Number: 74
Registered: 1-2005
| | Posted on Monday, Aug 14, 2006 - 10:14 am: | |
Ahhh...thanks. We try. We'd take them all (as most of us would) if we could. The gray's dad IS on the track but is really slow. He is a beautiful gray TB with dressage type movement. He's about four now and just started racing. I don't know what his owner was thinking...we got our gray baby from the same lady who had 17 horses to sell and had no room to keep them and KEPT BREEDING...we got these two and found homes for maybe 10 more of varying ages.
She'd told us they'd been handled (farrier, etc.) but trust me, even with my lack of baby knowledge, I could see they'd hardly ever been caught. We've been lucky on them that they are so level headed and seemed to bond so quickly to just consistent routine handling. Don't get me wrong, I can see huge holes in their education every day, but every day we try to do a little bit. The place they came from she would lock up her horses for days at a time in a stall...something to do with "they would then look to her for their freedom" or some such nonsense...sigh.
picture attached. |
Susan Jeys
Member
Username: Sjeys
Post Number: 75
Registered: 1-2005
| | Posted on Monday, Aug 14, 2006 - 10:17 am: | |
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Linda S.
Member
Username: Banthony
Post Number: 130
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Monday, Aug 14, 2006 - 11:14 am: | |
Adorable! Nice life if you can get it! |
Holly Wood
Member
Username: Hwood
Post Number: 1335
Registered: 3-2001
| | Posted on Monday, Aug 14, 2006 - 1:02 pm: | |
How precious! They look in wonderful shape . . . and quite relaxed . . . like young royalty. Bravo to you, Susan. |
Susan Jeys
Member
Username: Sjeys
Post Number: 76
Registered: 1-2005
| | Posted on Monday, Aug 14, 2006 - 1:28 pm: | |
Yes, Sienna the bay "I'm a queen, who are you?" and Sky, the gray "Its okay if I nap all day, right?" I'd never been a "horse baby" person...when everyone else would go "Oh, how cute..." I'd just think "what do you do with THAT?" Babies seemed to be missing something to me, they didn't have any experience and that's what I'd bonded with in my older rescue horses. The older horses had so many stories to tell and so many ways to show me how they understood and they wanted to show me how much they knew and they wanted to learn and play so much. The babies were like "BLANK" when I got them...but now we have spent time together and we learn together and I now go "Oh...how cute!" and I finally "get" the baby thing...though I will always love an old horse best that has a lot of stories to tell. |
Karen Trojnar
Member
Username: Karent
Post Number: 17
Registered: 1-2005
| | Posted on Monday, Aug 14, 2006 - 4:27 pm: | |
Hi Susan,
Both are beautiful, congratulations. From your picture it looks like Sienna is a chestnut, not a bay. They both look so easy going and happy to be where they are.
Good luck and enjoy them! |
Susan Jeys
Member
Username: Sjeys
Post Number: 78
Registered: 1-2005
| | Posted on Monday, Aug 14, 2006 - 6:39 pm: | |
She does look very orangey in the picture...she's got a dark mane and tail and dark stockings on her legs between her knee and ankle (forgive my human terminology)...she came from a bay and a gray, so I'd honestly have to look up all the terms to see if she's considered chestnut or bay; I know there are rules with the color points, etc..She is a granddaughter of Nureyev out of Dr. Nureyev. |
Susan Jeys
Member
Username: Sjeys
Post Number: 79
Registered: 1-2005
| | Posted on Monday, Aug 14, 2006 - 6:45 pm: | |
Oh, one more "baby" question...the two babies are the same age and were weaned at exactly the same time and left together by themselves in the same paddock. The gray goes nuts usually when they are separated. The filly doesn't care.
I read an article that said the babies might need to be weaned from each other. The other day I put the babies in separate paddocks (about 1/8 of a mile apart). They each had a babysitter that they knew and trusted. They didn't winny to each other at all or look worried at all. They could hear but not see each other if they called.
I then put the babies in the far paddock together and put the babysitters in my paddock. The older horses cried more than the babies did!
Do you think that this means the babies will be fine when separated? (I'm thinking showing years down the road, I'd rather know now than we have a big 1250 pound TB on our hands).
Do you think I should move one baby to a place by itself or with a horse it doesn't know (keeping it safe of course). Is this a good way to make sure they won't freak out when separated? |
