Just bought a weanling and would love advice on some of the best training tips, fun exercises, etc that this group has done successfully. It’s been many years since I’ve had a baby, so looking for some ideas. As of now I’m not overdoing it, she came to me knowing how to tie, lead, load, pick up feet. I just spend a few minutes a few times a week leading her, grooming, tying for short amounts of time.
So anyway, would love to hear what COTHers have done!
I keep my three horses (older mare, mom and her baby) at home. Just in daily chores the baby (now a yearling) gets plenty of interaction with me.
For me, I wanted to instill the basics and manors. Each time you work or handle a youngster it has to be short, sweet and to the point. I love are “big girl” walks where we look at strange things on the farm. She gets lots of scratches and praise when we see something that may be alarming. This also gives me a chance to reiterate that running into me is not an option.
Once she was really solid in grooming in the cross ties (only had one side hooked up at first) I would add other things like boots on legs followed by grass walks. Shipping boots with grass walks. I have also started to pretend that the hoof pick is a hammer and I bang around the bottom of each foot (my farrier loves me!).
Now at 1 1/2 yrs old she is fine with saddle and girth, clippers, bathing, trailer rides, playing at other places.
I think mostly you want to watch your youngster and see what she can handle. My filly is very smart, picks up new things easy and wants stimulation and lots of interaction with me. I just don’t do anything for very long at one time.
Bought him a giant 5’ in diameter exercise ball. The best thing ever!!!
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Let him live outside 24/7 with other babies and one solid citizen pony to enforce the rules.
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Following and welcome to the club - I just took home a 6 month old filly… It’s been SO long since we’ve had a baby on the property… and I forgot how silly some horses are with babies; all of my guys are SO enamored by her. She’s alone for now as she settles in, but will be introduced to one of the more gentle geriatrics soon.
I think the best thing you can do is handle them daily, multiple times a day. You want to start early, and while they’re still small – Keep it short and sweet - I’ve already discovered that mine has a ‘time limit’ before her attention expires. She’s a little older than yours, so I imagine yours might be shorter - hers is 2 minutes only!
Right now we are working on blanketing on/off daily, leading in/out politely, waiting for me to say it’s okay before going in/out doors, and touching her body all over. We’re also reminding her daily that our space is OUR space, not hers, and working on moving away/backing up from pressure as well as leading where I say to lead. We’ll probably tackle her aversion to having her legs handled this weekend. She came from a wonderful breeder who was super super busy (in the middle of a move, multiple other foals, etc) and a little behind schedule with her, so we are still catching up with some of the basics, but so far she’s really fun… and VERY sassy.
You have to keep the interactions/sessions short. After a few times of handling them you’ll figure out what their threshold is for ‘maximum time spent doing XYZ’, and cater to that – IE, my filly is very smart but has a very short attention span before the ‘terrible two’ tantrums come out, so I keep everything under 2m and give her lots of time in between.
This weekend is the first real weekend I’ll have off and we’ll be working on tying, standing, and leading up/down the driveway (not all at once, of course - broken up into small segments).
I’m almost tempted to bring out clicker training with her, but I don’t know how early is too early. All of my other guys have had some CT and it’s made a huge difference in their ground manners.
It’s never too early for any kind of training. That doesn’t include free jumping or riding of course as that is based upon physical maturity not basic handling. I load, clip, groom, lead, show in hand etc. The more the merrier. One of my favorite things to do is hang out with the babies in hand in the arena while lessons are going on. I stand them right next to the jumps so the horses are coming towards them and landing next to them. I also ground drive them all over the farm.
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When I was on the track with the Standardbreds, we treated the babies just like smaller, sillier adults. We didn’t baby them. When we haltered one, we fully expected them to act politely and behave and you know what? They normally did. As soon as we expected something to go wrong, it did. There were times when I’d go into a field, halter up a baby and lead them away from their friends for their daily grooming and walk about the property. If I was confident about their skills, so were they and I never had a single problem. Sure, they didn’t do things with the finesse that an older horse would (cross ties were scary to all babies, no matter what), but they tried. They got lots of praise for being good regardless, but we just expected manners.
That’s my advice. Treat them with the same expectations you would a grown horse. Expect good things and you will get good things. When you’re confident, the babies will pick up on it and realize that they’re okay with you and things aren’t quite so scary. When their minds are relaxed and they’re not on high alert, they will learn and retain information more effectively.
Common theme here is hand-walking all over the property, or even off-property.
An oft-neglected, extremely valuable part of young horse training.
I actually used to get teased about “hand-walking my weanlings like puppy dogs”, but you know what? It paid off… BIG time. The people who bought my homebreds raved about their manners and how chill they were when being moved or shown off-property.
I was lucky in that I mostly boarded my babies at barns that were on quiet, sometimes dead-end roads, and I would hand-walk off property, up the side of the road, walking through puddles, ditches, in the woods, seeing culverts, cars, bicycles, mailboxes, flapping garbage bags, etc. The idea was to take them out of their comfort zone, repeatedly, so they would learn that change was no big deal. New things were no big deal. I became their security blanket, not the herd - so they were not herdbound or frantic when they left their buddies or vice-versa.
I always made it a comfortable, stress-free experience, with lots of scritches and grazing time while on a “walkabout”.
Another piece of advice - never, EVER attempt to do any kind of groundwork training or desensitizing with a baby if you’re on a timeline or in a hurry. Ever. They will pick up on it and think that there is something to be tense about.
Have fun - babies are awesome! I MISS having one - been trying for the past two years to get my mare back in foal… i’m badly jonesing for another baby to handle… 
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Took him to shows (in-hand breed show stuff). I wanted him to learn his job early and I’ll have to say it worked for us. Lots of walking around the grounds to learn it is no big deal. And of course, he got used to riding on the trailer.
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I taught her to tie before she was too big to break anything.
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110% agree with those above. I think the big thing as babies is frequent handling, exposure, and building trust. Our last baby I was able to really be hands on with. As a weanling, I started taking him on long hand walks on the trails - up and down hills, crossing streams, navigating small fallen logs, checking out machinery (our neighbors) and anything else that caught his interest. I think this has helped make him brave, in combination with his natural curiosity. I also worked on tying, picking up feet, bathing, trailer loading, etc. As he got a little more mature, I started ponying him off of my gelding for more time on the trails and doing in hand work. I “sacked him out” with tarps and other objects in the arena, taught him how to navigate trot poles on a long line, etc. At two, I started putting a bareback pad on him so that he could feel a girth. I then started occasionally putting my jump saddle on him for ground work. In the fall of his two year old year, I sat on him a handful of times bareback and I’ll “start” him late spring this year as a three year old. So far, he has been pretty easy and he has really enjoyed all of the attention/work. I think it builds a work ethic on them. 
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We have him wear saddle pads, hold a girth loosely around his barrel, let the cat ride around on him, and scratch his neck from the top–sounds silly but not everyone does it and I got bucked off backing a horse b/c he’d never had his neck scratched from the top. When ours is laying down, I’ll put my leg over him and let it touch his sides, scratch his neck, and mess with his ears. Backing him at 3 should be no big deal!
Also teaching him to clip–currently teaching my 4 year old that was benignly neglected to clip and it is NOT fun (she’s a great mare, getting better every time, but would be so much easier if she wasn’t 17hh). Take him on little trips in the trailer if possible. My colt is for sale, so I make a point for videos or if someone is coming to look at him, the night before he stands “tied” for mane shortening (it is growing crazy fast), clipping touch ups even if he doesn’t need it–I’ll pretend clip parts of him if he doesn’t need it, mane banding, the works. Next morning, he get his mane unbanded, groomed thoroughly, feet picked out, hooves polished. All in the barn alone. I’ve had some adult horses just be pains in the rear the night before and the morning of shows for braiding and everything else, when it’s time for him to start showing, he should be good to go.
This colt has an extremely long attention span, but we are still always careful to not over do it. He has also been exposed to every power tool known to man, tractors, everything we can think of–at first we made sure he was never exposed to new things with a horse that would spook, his mother is dead quiet, at this point we now intentionally practice leading on days the other horses are being completely nutty, and he is never phased.
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I also got teased re treating a yearling like a dog. Barn was right by a park and I took her for lots of short and longer walks. I touched her with all kinds of stuff. There were “nerf” balls around our barn, she got to the point where I toss them around her, bump her, etc. I taught her to be ponied.
She lived in a small barn w/ some police horses and they had obstacles in the one pasture. We walked on tarps. over poles, over pieces of wood - bridge, not ground poles.
Great suggestions here re hanging in the ring, power tools, etc. HAVE FUN!!
[QUOTE=LisaO;9024698]
Bought him a giant 5’ in diameter exercise ball. The best thing ever!!![/QUOTE]
We need pictures/video!
Kept my Valium prescription filled! (Just kidding–mostly!
Actually, two things: keeping her full time with my BO’s wonderful Arabian gelding as a babysitter, and leaving her leather halter with a grab strap on her at all times. She was a bit of a hellion…
Good news is, she was a really sweet horse by the time she was 7!
Because we had a lot of kids around and dogs, we worked to get them used to all sorts of conditions and expected them to tolerate being mauled and handled and surprised by a kid throwing an apple into the paddock, or a hose, or umbrella, or whatever comes to mind.
Teach them to let you handle their teats and vulva if a filly and their sheath for cleaning if male. The sooner they get used to you being around those areas the better.
[QUOTE=vineyridge;9025684]
Teach them to let you handle their teats and vulva if a filly and their sheath for cleaning if male. The sooner they get used to you being around those areas the better.[/QUOTE]
I found out that my filly absolutely loves to have her udder rubbed and scratched. If she is lying down she will actually roll on her back and lift up her leg and put her nose in her udder area. This is my signal for “get down her and scratch me”!
I love the baby scratch method of training!
Make sure you are teaching the baby GOOD things. I have seen over handled youngsters that became real problems, because the owner allowed them to be pushy and needy. Leading them in and out of the barn daily is fine and a good idea. A few short lessons per week can be better than messing about just because you think you need to every day. I don’t think it is a big problem if you can’t work with them daily.
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I would be interested in what others think, but with weanlings, I do a lot of leading, brushing and handling all over. I pick hooves, pick up feet, and bathe (with assistance as necessary) in the summer when it is hot. I put towels and saddle pads on their backs, and will lead them around and over tarps, wooden boards, jumps in the ring, etc.
I bring yearlings (not weanlings) into wash stalls to bathe and put them on cross ties with safety snaps and brush them and feed carrots so they think this is okay. I do not leave them alone on cross ties and I make sure I have a lead on them at all times just in case. I let them look at clippers and turn clippers on and off and run the clipper over their body so they can feel the buzz (I don’t clip them, just get them used to it and not on their heads yet). I put bits in their mouths with snaps and feed them oats and then remove the bits. I put saddle pads and surcingles on them and will put a saddle on and take it off. I will lean against their sides and back and teach them to move away from my hand on their rib cage. I walk them in the indoor ring and outdoor ring on quiet non-windy days (if there are only one or two sensible horses in the ring and the riders are okay with this). I walk them around trailers , tractors and other farm equipment and let them have a good look. I will put blankets over the pasture fence and put tarps on the grund for them to walk over. When I take them carrots, I bring the plastic bag and crinkle it so they can see that good things come out of scary plastic bags. I always go out to the pasture with carrots and call them to come up and get their carrots, which saves me a lot of slogging through mud. I limit sessions to about 15 minutes and give lots of carrots and pats. I do not worm or give medication right before or right after I work with them.
