ALL WILL BE FINE ~
~ all will be fine & fun ~
[QUOTE=Zu Zu;6399106]
~ all will be fine & fun ~[/QUOTE]
:yes:
Now I just need to distract myself again, all day. Reading the Breeding Forum posts is hardly the way to do this, of course. 
We handle them a fair bit. Often its cool, so we towel the foals, dip navel, give enenma and check sex. We stay at the stall and watch the foal stand and nurse. After we see the foal can get up and down adn nurse unassisted, we leave them alone until the vet check or time to clean stalls. I will introduce haltering and being touched and legs/feet handled. Some foals are born people friendly and will come right up to you, others are more shy so amount of handing varies based on both their and the mare’s comfort level. Good luck
I’ve had the good fortune to meet some of Dawn’s gang at Dressage At Devon last year. They are lovely young horses - social and interactive without being in-your-face pushy. Even the clown prince King minded his manners while clearly soaking up some extra attention. Part of it is her breeding program, but Thom and she sure have a great handle on raising horses to be great companions. I’m a huge fan of her program and her model is a good one to follow.
[QUOTE=horsetales;6399222]
We handle them a fair bit. Often its cool, so we towel the foals, dip navel, give enenma and check sex. We stay at the stall and watch the foal stand and nurse. After we see the foal can get up and down adn nurse unassisted, we leave them alone until the vet check or time to clean stalls. I will introduce haltering and being touched and legs/feet handled. Some foals are born people friendly and will come right up to you, others are more shy so amount of handing varies based on both their and the mare’s comfort level. Good luck[/QUOTE]
^^^this is almost exactly my experience… I’ve found that they all come with their own personalities, much like human babies :-)… we handle them as we handle the mares, re: feet, brushing, spraying, leading, just shorter in time span and much gentler. You will find your own “method” and most of it will be common sense, so TRY to enjoy “foalhood” as it flies by quickly :D:D
Mine I would say do not get “imprinted”. They do get handled. They are at a foaling/raising farm. I visit when they are first born and get a couple of pictures but really visit more with mama and don’t spend long (my mares are all great–even when they were maidens and happy to see me (with their treats)). I like the foals to see me love on mom…and even when the foals are older and supper social, I still always say hi to their mama’s first. When new born, they get whatever vet attention they need.
They are led out to the fields daily with mama (with a butt rope at first) so learn about that early. They will live out 24/7 as soon as ready but are still handled a little daily (and put in individual feeding stalls twice each day for short periods of time). Feet are picked up and farrier sees them fairly quickly too.
If they are more stand offish…they might get a bit more attention. But that’s it. When older, they get a little more work occassionally. One went to a breed show as a yearling…might do Devon with some of the youngsters this year (but maybe not). I really don’t worry too much about getting them out and about until they are 3+.
