4-28-07
Today started out nice and cool but it sure warmed up fast! Nothing like mucking stalls in hot humid weather. Fortunately when I open up the barn we usually get a decent breeze. It never ceases to amaze me what pigs broodmares can be! LOL I can't wait until the babies get weaned and we can put the mares back out in the big pasture.
Today was the first day that I led Dora and Velvet (aka Devil Child) to be turned out with a halter. They were great, Dora was a little pushy, which is unusual for her but she just wanted to get down to playing already. I've been working with those two the most of the 8 on my list. Both are very independant at this point and pretty much won't follow their dam's anymore when we go from barn to corral and vice versa. It was getting to be quite the challenge to herd them to where we needed them and I was getting tired of it.
I prefer to start working with foals right from the start - imprinting them, and moving on to at least wearing a halter for short periods in the first week. The owner here has been so swamped that none of these foals have really been handled much and most are now approaching three months. On top of it these are BIG foals too, halter type Paint horses built like linebackers. Her SMALL yearling colt is a big as my three year old Arab gelding.
eek But still, things are coming along well. She's impressed what I've done with them with only a few days working with them. Now to move on the the ones who won't let me even get near their heads.... le sigh. It's a good this that I'm patient, and foals are just naturally curious.
We have a gorgeous yearling stud colt here named Strategic Klu aka Klondike. He's beautifully marked and built, but boy is he a pain in the butt. I don't know what happened to him (other than hormones). Supposedly he was the easiest horse to show as a weanling - but some guy the owner had helping her thought he could train horses and after one weekend she couldn't even get a halter on him. He tries to bite and charge at the stall door everytime anyone comes near. Just to keep him off of me when I give him food and water I give him a lead rope or a crop to chew on (which fortunately works). I definately won't turn my back to him - and I let his owner take him out for turn-out in the arena. Boy is that a interesting battle.
My assesment - I would geld him, alot of studs get mouthy and the lack of hormones might improve things alot. Another thing I would do is work his butt daily and not keep him cooped up in a 12x16 stall. Maybe even give him some horse toys - as chewing on the rope and whip makes him calm down. Heck - I'd have the vet check his teeth as well - I know when my gelding started to lose his juvenile teeth that he started chewing on everything. But unfortunately he is not on my list of horses that she wants me to work with, so I really have no say in what goes on with him. She is actually trying to sell him, and plan on taking him to the Paint World show this year. I wish she would let me take him on though, it would be interesting to see if I could do something.
Klondike chewing on a whip...
Reply
