Dumb Question on Leading Foals?

[Castlegate]

So Pilsner is 6.5 weeks old and I think he may be a bit too independent for his age.

When hubby is home we lead them both to the pasture....Mom first, baby following...all is ok...Pilsner understands the concept of leading...

When only one of us is home, we have to lead one (mom) and assume Pilsner will follow. NOT!

he will actually go the other direction and be completely out of her sight and start grazing elsewhere...unfortunately, momma doesnt care either, so she does not call for him or anything....so, I have to either go back and try to get him to join us...OR I have actually put her in her pasture and then gone back to find him!

Is this normal?????

And what can I do differently? I am worried he is going to get himself into trouble taking off the other direction...(right now, where he goes is all perimeter fenced so he cant escape..but he can get into stuff)...

I am hoping this is a sign that weaning will be easy....but right now its making turnout a challenge!

[SpruceLane]

Not to hijack your thread, but on a similar note...does anyone lead their foal and have the dam follow them out for turnout when only one handler is present?

This is what I have been doing and the little guy is 5 weeks old and leads very well. His dam is very watchful of him and so she follows us out of the barn and then stops to graze a little. In order to get her to stop grazing and come into the pasture I lead the little guy around the corner of the barn, he whinnies and Mom nickers and comes wandering in. This has worked so far, but I suspect that as he gets older Mom will be less worried about his where abouts and I may have to actually let him go and trek back out to get her.

Castlegate, it sounds like we both need a clone. :yes:

[Equibrit]

Halter them both and take them together.

[Jsalem]

Yep, that's what I do. I have the baby halter with grab strap on baby. I lead her close and have momma on a long lead tagging behind. That way if baby parks it, I'm right there to correct her. It was a circus before we figured that out!

[Kota]

I agree with Equibrit...I've had good luck walking next to the foal (with a butt rope if need be) and a long (10'ish) lead on mom. Oh, and try not to walk inbetween them :)

[Altamont Sport Horses]

Once they start getting this independent we will lead the foal or someone is going to get hurt. If I am doing this by myself, I put a 12' long cotton lead line on the foal and the typical lead line on the dam. Inevitably the foal almost always goes to the opposite side of the dam but usually lagging behind. I hold the foal's lead line in front of the mare's chest. If the foal stops or lags too far behind the lead line pulls tight across her chest and she stops to wait for baby. I prefer to have a second handler to help with this so I'm not using two hands at once but that is only possible about half the time.

[pintopiaffe]

I do it the way Altamont does it. I don't have the luxury of a second handler, ever. ;)

[Jaegermonster]

When my baby was little, I never had a second handler either. So right off the bat we started with leading the baby instead of the mom. My filly was leading and tying by the time she was a week old, I was boarding so I wanted to cover all that just in case anyone else ever tried to do anything with them if I wasn't around.
If your baby doesn't lead well yet:
Put the halter on the little monster, and use a realllllly loooong lead rope. Clip the lead rope to the halter as normal, then take it around his behind over his hocks, and then back around to the front. Hold the end near the clip part under his chin, so you are holding the beginning and the end of the lead together. There will be some extra length, just take the extra in the free hand on the other side of your body from the baby. Walk off. If he gets bullheaded, just gently tighten on the extra part so it tightens under his butt and encourages him to walk forward.
My mare just followed along behind us.
Hope that makes sense.

[jodyb]

I do it the way Altamont and Pinto Piaffe do it. I do generally lead the mare off my left side so if the foal bounces up by me I lead it off the right. Since my mares are easy peasy to lead it's better for me to have the foal on the right side of me if there is a problem. Otherwise the foal bounces along at their mama's hip.

[Nancy!]

We also halter and lead baby first with a butt rope for as long as needed and mom is haltered and follows behind us. Have never had a problem. When taking mares and foals into the barn at night, my Australian Cattle Dog will take the mare through the gate first and then I take the foal and close the gate. Rain loves to help.:D Of course she tries to kill the rope and the mares just look at me. :lol:

Nancy!

[JoZ]

I have led the foal with the dam following much more successfully than vice versa when they start getting independent.

Here's something I want to try, but haven't yet. An old cowboy told me to tie the foal to the dam's tail! If I could figure out a way of making this safe, it sounds like it has some merit. I have learned not to discount these "old cowboy" things just because my initial reaction is "huh"? He told me it teaches them to give to pressure without a human involved... so it's like their mom has them on a line. Most of the time they follow willingly (he says) but when they start to stray the pressure is applied, then released when they catch up.

I have on occasion attached a long rope to the foal's halter and fed it through the ring on the dam's halter, then I hold both. Again, it's more like the mare teaching the foal to lead and stay close.

[Home Again Farm]

Yep, that's what I do. I have the baby halter with grab strap on baby. I lead her close and have momma on a long lead tagging behind. That way if baby parks it, I'm right there to correct her. It was a circus before we figured that out!

Ditto.:yes:

[Elfe]

I lead the foal (on my right) with my left hand on his lead rope and my right arm around his butt while at the same time holding the mare's lead rope also with my right hand. If baby stops I push with my right arm and mom has her nose right on his butt which also helps moving him forward. After a while they get the idea and then I can just lead them like you would normally lead 2 horses.

[amdfarm]

Until they figure out the routine, I usually lead or push baby out and mom follows. After a few days, they're doing it on their own w/ the ocassional side track of baby. :)

I had to chuckle though, because w/ ponies this is EASY! :D After our pony mare had her foal, we just carried the foal and lead the pony out to turnout because she refused to follow mom. She was independent from the git go. As she got older she still maintained her independence and would hang out w/ the much bigger geldings and older colts and only go to her mom to nurse on the other side of the pasture. Baby could walk under the electric fence gate, mom couldn't. ;)

[LavenderFarm]

Here’s what I do. Might not work for everyone, but works for me.

I am alone on my farm. (OK, not “alone,” but the only human here.)

Once baby is old enough to move from the tiny first-turnout paddock, I lead foal (as Moms already know how to lead and the little foal buggers have a habit of getting stronger and bigger on a daily basis) and let Mom follow to their field. It is not a very long distance.

Inevitably, the time comes when Mom begins to wander. When this happens, I then lead one at a time, leaving one in the barn. Which one I take first depends on the individual mare / foal, but usually it is Mom. I do need to do this pretty quickly the first couple of times. Eventually, each learns that the separation will be short and it seems to help later on with “separation anxiety” and being “herd bound.”

I have tried leading both at one time, and it just hasn’t worked well for me.

You’ll find what works best for you and your mare/foal – trust your instincts. You’re fortunate to have a helpful hubby!

[sid]

I, too, used to have to lead both by myself (across an ungated parking area) to get to their turnout field.

At first, baby follows freely, but most not for long as they get more confident and curious about things outside their living quarters.

I lead baby on my right because that's my stronger side. Mom with a short lead and baby with a longer lead in case the little bugger decides to take off. After being stalled they're pretty much full of beans.

As long as your mare leads and stands quietly when asked, if the foal gets silly it's not hard to get things under control relatively quickly.

Personally, I've found colts to be ones to want to cut out and "explore" -- though I've also had this with a few fillies.

[tarragon]

I led my mare on one side and the foal on the other side with long cotton leads on both. I just looped the foal's lead around as a butt rope and back into my hand and held both ends as I would a normal leadrope, and would lead/push the foal alongside the mare, but then my mare is very good in hand, she will stay at my shoulder so I can pretty much ignore her and focus on the baby. I could see my system not working quite so well if you had a mare that needed more attention when leading. I started my filly leading like this on day one, and after a couple of days she led like a little champ.

When I worked for a large breeding farm and we had lots and lots of mares and foals to lead out every day, we would clip a long cotton lead to the foal's halter and then loop the lead through the mare's halter and hold both sides of the lead under the mare's chin. The mare would be on the handler's right side and the foal would be on the mare's right side. Usually the foals would just follow right alongside mom, but if they did start to leap about or pull back, they would pull on their moms (who were in a hurry to either get out to the pasture or in to dinner), and almost all of our mares would correct the foals pretty quickly and make them toe the line. Since the lead was just looped through the mare's halter if a foal really started to pull back it was easy enough to let the lead slide through, or to just back the mare along with them.

[Ladybug Hill]

If they are that independent lead one out and then lead the other out. I usually am doing this by the time they are 3 months old regardless. Make sure you have a good solid and full stall door though or you might have a jumping foal.

[Fairview Horse Center]

All of my foals out of one mare are that independent by the time they are a week or 2 old. If they become too much of a problem, I take them separately. I make sure there is a mare in the field with the foals good friend, then take the foal first, and turn him out with the other foal and mom. Then go back for the mare. Opposite when coming in. I bring the mare in first, then go back for the foal. Sometimes it works if I go back for the 2nd mare, and let the 2 foals run in together with her. Then I "sort" foals from the aisle.

edited: I just saw that Chris does the same but leaves the foal in the stall. That does work fine if a solid wall, full door. My barn has half doors, and 2/3 walls. It is safer to let them stay/go out with their friend in my situation.