A labor of love! 
. Sending you and your mare and foal all my good thoughts.
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I always kept a clean baby bottle with a snipped nipple (to make the hole slightly larger) in my foaling kit. I just took the top off the bottle and milked the mare right into it after giving her udder a warm water wash. Then I gave it to the foal who slurped it up. I just didn’t get enough because I was worried about the quantity remaining for the larger foal. Probably silly, but that was my thought process at 3 am!
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Awww …! So sweet. I love his bright star.
Morning foal report:
…
That little rabbit is spunky today! I twiggled his rump and the little booger BUCKED! So i got a long peach tree twig and we had ourselves some sticktraining. Touched him everywhere while he was nursing and while he wasn’t . Touched Brenna too because she was not sure about the stick on her number one son.
Also…Brenna wants OUT and she wants out NOW. I opened their back door wooden gate…and they were left with the cattle panel. Brenna immediately started pacing. Back and forth, Back and forth along that side of their room. And Hazel kept right up with her switching sides as needed and having to trot as she walked quickly.
Sooooooo…my plan for the day is to clean up everything in the corral and sheds (only about 2 days of mess from Rizada…and things were very clean out there before that… Anyhow…i’ll haul out every bit of hay and straw and then switch Rizada and Brenna. I need Rizada IN and Brenna wants OUT.
I promise to get many pics and videos of the little fella out in the world at large!!
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This normal foal behaviour. 
To be honest, I don’t remember any of the foals on the breeding farm I managed ever not at least bouncing their back ends when they got butt skritchies. They do grow out of it quickly.
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i didn’t HIT him! i just got a long stick so i wouldn’t get kicked in the shin and touched him all over (as i have been doing with my hands up til now). He didn’t persist once he discovered it didn’t make me stop touching him.
I was so surprised because i was kinda expecting him to be depressed feeling. Yesterday was A LOT.
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Some horses never do, I rode one if you would scratch behind the saddle it would induce little crow hops. It was a fun party trick!
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Never said you did? Just that it’s normal behaviour. What you did is a great idea to get them used to being touched everywhere at an early age.
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I guess I should have qualified that none of the foals we raised did I guess. 
And that would be a fun party trick if you knew about it.
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i’ve been holding off picking up feet as he is still not up on his pasterns AND still a bit wobbly. But soon. Next time the farrier comes he’ll be getting his turn (just touching and learn how a rasp tickles)
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Good idea to wait until he’s steady on his pins. Starting early is a great idea, but he needs to be able to balance so it’s not too stressful.
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The foal pics and videos are awesome, congrats on the first one and fingers crossed for the second! But I have to say, I LOVE LOVE LOVE your barn! I keep seeing different parts of it in the shots and in my head I’m saying “daaamn… that’s a nice barn!”
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When I met my Morgan filly, she was 5 weeks old and I knew very little about foals. I was surprised by how much she loved butt scratches!
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Well thank you!
It was standing under a decent enough roof when we bought the place. And built of hand hewn oak beams in 1840. We hired a missouri man who rehabs old buildings and he and his crew of two spent NINE MONTHS renovating our barn. They left in place all the original vertical and horizontal beams, but peeled all the scabbording (except the interior ones under the shed…because they’d never been exposed to the elements and were hard and good…and hand hewn!). I had them lift the stones that were the thrashing floor (now ‘breezeway’) and then i laid the entrance with more giant flat-sided boulders. I did most of the stonework around the base (it had been just an open space). I’ve got lots of pics…i’ll dig them out and tag you.
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Sounds like the barn renos deserve a thread of their own! I would love to see the pictures. I adore old barns.
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I don’t need to get pounded for this but it works and it’s not hurting the foal. And you don’t have to do it.
Right away I carried a plastic pitch fork down low and out from my body so if they kicked out they would get a small prick. Carrying it low they never associated me or my hands with the consequence. It nipped the kick problem lickety split. We have one of those small trailer forks (it’s so valuable to teach kids to be useful with it!).
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I have no problem with that if they are kicking at you as opposed to the funny bucking thing foals tend to do when getting butt skritchies. I often used the pitchfork as an obstacle like you did, or gave them a mild thump the the end of a long cotton lead shank. Got their attention without hurting them.
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Me too! I’d love an old barn reno thread!
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Totally better off starting early with this stuff, and honestly I don’t care if they know the consequence came from me. I’m not saying to beat them or anything but “do THIS and then THAT happens” is a totally ok and normal learning process. They get it from their aunties in the wild, in captivity we need to be the aunties haha
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I posted same tip years ago and it was a siren call for some here ! Many who have probably never raised young stock … or produced anything with manners and civility.
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