Hello, I have a question and I am looking for advice on the best way to go forward at this moment in training an 8 month old filly. I have raised many youngsters and they were predominantly low key personality types, easy to handle, etc. However, I recently purchased a very nice ranch bred filly who comes from a program that sells their weanlings each fall. The bloodlines, disposition and conformation are impeccable, so I purchased a nice filly. None of these foals are handled, with the exception of vaccinations, health checks, then a little prep for the production sale. Their whole lives they have run out on 30,000 acres with the broodmare band. I have lots of experience in equines but this one is a new situation. I have trained many a young horse, carried my Kentucky trainers license with the Kentucky TB Commission and have raised National high point champions. My plans for her are to spend the next 2 years just building trust and a strong bond. I have begun letting her adjust to her new lifestyle here, the noises of cars, dogs, etc and after 30 days I began the process of letting her trust me enough to work around her at feeding time. She has gone from not letting me within 30 feet to letting me scratch her nose while she eats (though she is leery if I try to do too much). She doesn’t kick or show any defensive behavior but it’s time to get a halter on this girl.Shes only 8 months old and 14 hands or better. I put her in a small lot so I can rub her back belly and legs with my pool noodle, which she has grown accustomed to. Now, its time to work toward her head area and get her used to me touching her, but I’m just not sure which route to take. I have seen some people rope a young horse and without fighting them, wait until the youngster allows them to touch and get a halter on. I’m trying to avoid stressful handling of any type but I’m stuck., she actually extremely good minded, smart, resourceful curious and she follows me around. She waits for me at the gate when I get home from work. I want to get to the next step of petting her, brushing her, etc, but cant get there until we get a halter on her. Any tips that might help me go forward without causing her to lose her trust in me? I only have run in sheds but can put up a temporary small lot with corral panels.
Sure you can
I strongly suggest you get your hands on the 10 commandments written by John Charterton.
He starts with how to train foals and no roping is used.
The strongest advice I can give is to take your time with this filly. Do not rush her and do not rope her or force her into contact.
She’s curious and follows you, so surely she will respond to you if you take a bucket or a manure skip and sit in her paddock. I’ve found this particularly effective for unhandled horses. Take your time and don’t ask anything of her at first. I think you will find that she will come up to you and and the touching and brushing will follow. Once she’s trustful, the haltering will not require any kind of force, which could undo all the previous gentle handling.
Horses have a language of their own.
When we work with them, many times we are trying to teach them our way to communicate, but ignore how they are trying to talk to us.
Horses learn then by giving up and paying attention to us.
It is better if we learn horse language so we have something to talk with right off, as horses are learning about ours.
Once we learn horse language, it doesn’t take days, weeks or months to gentle a feral horse, more like half an hour will get the horse coming to you, following you and soon your hands on the horse, maybe even a lead rope draped over their neck, not even all the way around and teaching one to give to/follow it, haltering comes a bit later, is a whole other question for the horse.
Some times we use a “buggy” whip, a 4’ whip with a 12" floppy end we put our glove on and use it as an extension of our arm to touch when the horse invites us into their space and gives permission to do so.
You don’t force at any time the horse, you talk it into working with you to get along.
Is even easier with weanlings, they are so curious and trying so hard to get along and if they feel safe learn to be around humans without bringing up any defenses.
They get where they crave the time you spend with them and stand at the gate waiting for more, when you have to leave after working with them they sigh and go take a nap.
Is hard work to have lessons, but that they ended up relaxed, not anxious lets you know all was well.
Could you find a breeding farm with employees in charge of foals that you can watch working with them?
Take time to watch horses, in herds or across fences talking to each other by the way they shuffle around a few inches, move their heads a bit, their facial expressions, tiny little shakes of their nose and one foot tapping, tails talking away.
Humans are not horses, we can’t move like that directly, no tail to switch, ears to wiggle, but we can do a close approximation of it and more important, that we see and recognize what the horse is telling us and respond to it the horse notices and works with.
Horses are very communicative, use that to talk to one, to help it get what we are after.
Also, every horse is different, not all respond the same, we are the ones to keep changing our approach with each one.
Everyone teaches us so much, enjoy your filly.
I used to go to the PMU sales, and buy a few each year (mostly the half TBs). They are a bit younger than what you are working with, but much the same in handling experiences.
Sometimes, they are easy enough and wanting to be friendly enough that you can get to work with them pretty easy, gain acceptance and trust, and offer friendship, and can halter them pretty easy. Other times, and it depends on the horse, flipping a lariat over their heads, and a loop up over the nose is the easiest and quickest way to get them haltered… it just depends on the horse and the opinions they have already formed about humans. Either way works, you just have to decide which way you need to go with your horse.
You will need a confined area (usually a stall or smaller enclosure) to work with the horse. If you need to use a lariat to do the first capture, it is easiest to put some acepromazine on some grain, and let them eat that, and give it time to take effect. This reduces any stress levels that an untrained horse may have about this contact, so it is helpful. Then, while wearing gloves, you flip the noose over the head (it’s not as easy as it sounds LOL). Since there isn’t a lot of room for the horse to run away, they will just go around the perimeter of the stall, and re-evaluate their predicament. You don’t choke them with it, but you let them feel the restraint. When they are ready to stop and reconsider you, you can try to approach, not straight on but from your side, and advance a hand… usually towards the shoulder or chest, and offer a tickle… while (of course) speaking softly with a greeting. They may move away from you again, or maybe not. But you can persist with this, non threatening, but applying some pressure on the rope when they move away. This is the first of “pressure and release” that you will be using in your training. Your goal is to make friends, and greet each other, touch each other, and form a bond together. When you can touch the horse, and the horse has some confidence that perhaps you are OK, you can loosen the noose and pull a second loop through the noose, and slip that up and over the nose. Now, you have a “halter” made out of the rope, on the horse. This is called a “war bridle”, and if used poorly and incorrectly, it is indeed a weapon of war that you don’t need. Don’t use it that way. Just use it softly, as a halter, so the horse gets the feel of what a halter is. When that’s OK, you can slip a regular halter on over top of this, and remove the entire lariat from the horse. Leave the halter on. This can be accomplished in about 20 minutes of work with a young horse in a confined space. And in that time, the horse will have learned a LOT, found a new friend in you, and has been touched, and hopefully tickled. But if the horse is still shy and timid about you, you can leave a “horse catcher” on the halter, a short bit of leather around 18 inches long, snapped onto the halter. This allows you to actually take hold of the horse next time, without actually getting “that close” to it’s head, and snap on a lead rope, which can be helpful with a particularly timid horse.
In the following days, you greet the horse again, approach the horse, offer yourself up to be this horse’s friend, tickle the horse, and extend your touch to the rest of the horse. Groom the horse in safe areas. The horse will begin to look forward to your presence, and your touch. When you need to start to actually teach the horse to lead, you will put a rump rope on, and use that to apply pressure from behind in conjunction with your lead rope, and leading training will begin. Again, in a confined space until you are sure that the basics are installed.
Good luck. It’s a lovely moment when their eyes light up with understanding that the human is not (after all) a threat, and that the lines of communication and friendship are open.
Wait, we need the requisite photos of your baby!
(Sorry for the interruption, especially since I have nothing helpful to add or knowledge of training. I find this topic quite interesting and am following along!)
There is a trainer, who posts on Facebook, on a page called Enck’s Training LLC. He posts videos daily of his work, and he has a bunch of videos up right now of colts he is working with that have not been handled before. The videos are usually very informative.
thank you for your advice. I definitely need a more confined space. She accepts all new things I teach her, she’s just being a smart ranch horse. When she lets me scratch that pretty nose, it makes me crazy I cant just hug her neck and start brushing her. She’s extremely big for an 8 month old so I don’t want to allow much more time to slip past while she gets bigger. Ill work in a smaller space with my corral panels for a few days and hopefully make progress. I plan to leave a length of rope on her halter to teach her about the lead. Basically, she shies from any reaching movement toward her, but she comes right back. Fortunately, she doesn’t seem to be herd bound in any way.
I dont know how to show pics but would love to show her off.
I love babies and working with them but this girl has ranch bloodlines that she uses quite well. She is big, strong, confident, can get that butt under her and stop, turn and scoot with relative ease and quickness. Its beautiful to watch but frustrating right now! She def has the distinct advantage by being bred to be quick, sensitive, a light touch and very athletic. Its what I wanted for sure, but failed to realize this might make initial handling a tad bit harder. LOL
As others have pointed out, there are whole books, videos, Youtube channels and all kinds of resources dedicated to handling unhandled babies.
What almost all of them (any worth their salt, anyway) is this: use the horse’s curiosity to your advantage. Young horses that haven’t been ruined by overstimulation and forced handling are VERY curious about their surroundings and very ready to make changes if you allow them the time and space to do so. It’s much easier to get an untouched mustang to hook on and become interested in you than it is a lot of domesticated, stabled horses because we haven’t squelched the natural curiosity and interest of the mustang. Same goes with babies left to mature and develop in the way your filly has.
Don’t worry about creating a timeline. Doing so is only going to cause you to put pressure on her that she’s isn’t prepared for. Continue spending time each day around her. By all means, get her in a smaller enclosure so she can’t “leave” so far if she does turn away. Use extensions of your body: the pool noodle, a soft flag, whatever works. Make small, brief passes and then take it away. Start getting a bit closer until you can reach out and briefly touch her. Just do little bits every day, and don’t get tempted to be greedy and take more than she’s willing to offer if you truly want to preserve that sensitive, sharp nature.
I agree with the posters who advise that you should be working with her (for halter breaking) in a more confined space rather than in a large area.
Good luck. The babies are so fun and very rewarding to work with.
Why?
If this was my filly I would just start getting my hands on her unrestrained. Multiple times a day I would get my hands on her where I can ( where she is comfortable with) and work toward her head.
Scratch her/ brush her where she likes it and just build on that day by day. When you can reliably pet her neck then start taking a halter in and let her get used to seeing it and smelling it etc…
Start using it as a grooming tool, lay the rope only over her neck and when comfortable then loop it loosely and just repeatedly put the rope on and off and then replace that with the halter .
Reward her liberally with praise, pets and treats. You will halter her in no time.
Because I dont want to be kicked.
Is she in the habit of kicking at you? If you are not threatening her by forcing something she isn’t comfortable with why would she kick you?
If you try and corner her in a stall I can see her turning her butt to kick and if you forcibly get a halter on her what then? You can’t hold her or tie her. Just take your time and go at her pace.
These Warwick Schiller videos on handling TB babies might be useful. These are unweaned foals so the mother is part of the process but the same principles for approaching and using the baby’s natural curiosity might be useful. He uses an enclosed pen.
I’m going to say you are about 50 years behind in experience and knowledge, so let’s just leave it at that. I’m seeking “tips” from 30-50 year experienced professionals who have had a lifetime of arena and track success with horses of many, many horses of all ages, talents, diverse training in every aspect of racing, showing, breeding or training, just as myself. That is how the best horsemen succeed by sharing experience and knowledge from accomplished people in their field of expertise. This is not your conversation so please don’t say silly things.
These are very informational but are a different set of variables. These particular ranch babies are foaled out on 30,000 acres and are essentially have the fight or flight of a deer. Fortunately, they come from very intelligent amenable personalities and learn quickly. I know that techniques continue to change in gentling and handling these types so hoping for new insight. I do have my baby girl in a smaller pen for training and we are now brushing and scratching but she is going to take some more time to get to her head and introducing a halter. Im 63 so I dont want to do anything to rush her and get either one of us hurt. So far the handling has been coming much quicker now that she enjoys being scratched on her neck and bootie!
We have so much more progress in her new pen. One extra good personality trait is that she doesnt seem to build up steam with confinement. I swear this filly only walks or mosies around but she is so cat like and quick, its a perfect combo. I am brushing her back, bootie and neck…still a bit iffy on her right side. She is the goosey type but not a frightened screamer. My goal now is for her to allow me to work with her face and legs and shes really progressing nicely.
