Thank you, this is really helpful. This is what I meant when I said halter pressure, I hope you all don’t think I’ve been dragging him along with constant pressure on his neck. While he was right beside him mom, I started by applying a couple fingers’ worth of pressure and released it as soon as he took half a step forward — he figured out really quickly that if he just moved forward the pressure was gone.
I purchased a 15 foot cowboy training lead rope this summer, and it’s fabulous for using to lead babies because it is long enough to wrap around their butt. It gives a lot more control even with antics,and you are not pulling on their head. My filly did quite a bit of bouncing around leading her in and out of the barn every day with mom (who did not scold her much either, and they were by themselves), but OH what a difference after weaning, when she went out with a yearling and 3 year old. They put her in her place immediately, and she’s a dream to handle now. I’m sure your boy will be much better after weaning. Plus, they just mentally mature as they get older too, so it just seems to get easier to ask them questions.
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Scratch him. Stand him up beside mum’s shoulder and. give him a good scritch - the base of the neck, withers, croup, wherever he likes it. When he tries to mutual groom gently redirect him to groom his mum. If mum isn’t available simply stop and push his nose away, wait until he stops trying to nose you (keep pushing his nose away) then resume scritches. You will teach him two things - human is nice scritcher and don’t mouth the human.
Using scritches as rewards for correct responses will speed his learning in all things. If you use scritches as rewards he will not be thinking you are playing with him.
Try pushing on the side of his hindquarters (use stiff fingers, not a flat hand) and as soon as he shifts away change your push to a scritch. See how fast he learns to move his bum over when asked. 
”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹Foals are itchy. Use that to get him interested in doing things with the human!
The two horses I have now I’ve had since they were a few days old.
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Warwick Schiller has some really lovely videos about handling and training foals to lead, feet handling etc. Mostly done with foals still nursing. Bonus he does most of it without a second handler. He has a bunch of videos on his YouTube channel and even more on his subscription. He has an active FB group as well. He does utilize a small pen, sometimes as small as a run in shelter. It’s all very stress free for the foals and promotes a relaxed and eager to please disposition. I hope you will take the time to research him. You won’t be sorry 
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how old is he? His behavior as-written sounds very normal, especially for a colt. Some mares do really let their foals walk all over then, never reprimanding them for truly rude behavior. Those foals may benefit from being weaned a little earlier than 6 months but it also depends on the schooling other horses he’s out with give him. But let’s assume he’s just being a normal colt, and you haven’t yet witnessed her “I said ENOUGH” moments :lol:
He’s doing pretty well with learning to lead, he responds to gentle pressure on the halter to walk forward or step back, he stands quietly, and he’ll let me pick up each foot. He seems like a pretty smart little guy. He has some “horse-kite” baby moments though, especially if I turn to lead him back toward mom, where he wants to rear up and fling his front feet around, which is probably him either just “feeling good” and wanting to play, or being a little insecure about being with a human instead of mom (not that mom is far away at all, I keep him well within the distance that he’ll willingly go from her on his own).
Very normal foal behavior, colts love to get loosey goosey with the front end :lol: As long as it’s not in your direction, purposeful OR accidental, ignore it. How far away from mom are you leading? I think it’s 100% ok to teach them to lead away from mom for a few feet if he’s already to the mental age of wandering away on his own. I wouldn’t do it if he was still glued to mom’s side.
Yesterday while I was handling him he had few minor “baby moments” of bouncing around, which I gently corrected and then just went back to what we were doing, but then he threw in a full-blown rear-and-strike-and-plunge when I started to turn him toward his mom, so I raised my voice, gave him a few snaps with lead line and generally made myself big and scary to move him back away from me. He then wanted to run to his mom, but I just kept hold of him and waited it out calmly the best I could until he settled. After that I left him stand and rubbed him for a few minutes, then did a few more minutes of leading just a few steps at a time, then I’d stop and give him scratches before he had the chance to get insecure or escalate, and then we called it a day.
This is where it’s important to know how old he is. If just a few months, never lead just by a halter. A figure 8 around the withers and butt gives you “pushing” power from behind, and control where the rope crosses the withers, which is where you’d be standing. That puts front feet out of reach, and once you practice a bit, lets you twist your hand to get some pressure on his butt to go forward. Your hand closest to him will be at his withers, and your outside hand will have the halter end of the lead.
In addition, teaching him to move forward off the butt rope helps translate the idea that movement starts from the butt, NOT the head. All ridden work starts from the rear end - hind feet should start to take a step to push forward, not front feet moving to pull forward.
I know he’s just “being a baby” but I also don’t want him to grow up to be a mannerless heathen with dangerous habits. How do I best discourage that behavior at this point? Should I just mostly avoid situations for now where he could potentially be tempted to get fresh in order to have the good behavior become habit, or should I actively work on it? And also, since he’s a colt and has the attention span of 0.15 seconds, how do I get the most out of the time I spend working with him? (Not because I’m in any sort of hurry with him, I just want to have a really solid, well-mannered horse when he grows up!) He is not at home, so working with him multiple times a day isn’t an option.
Silly foal behavior gets ignored. Anything that is a rear or striking your direction or acting like he’d like to bite you gets a reprimand. Reward the crap out of good behavior - that hand at his withers also serves as a scratcher :winkgrin:
5 minutes a day is all he needs, and most of that doesn’t have to be leading.
Essentially, he’s a horse on a scaled down version. You wouldn’t spend 45 minutes working a 3yo who’s just getting started, you’d spend 15-20 minutes, so scale that to the fragility and mental capacity of a foal
“Bringing up Baby” by John Lyons is a pretty good resource :yes:
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I could use some refresher help working with my getting-a-bit-too-saucy-for-her-own-good yearling, and I went to Amazon to look for this. Turns out I bought it in 2008 - the same year I bought (and later lost to colic) a cute paint filly. Guess I’ll have to check my library and see what I did with it!
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