>>> I haven't started a lot of foals but have started a few of different breeds and the method doesn't vary from breed to breed.
Well put, Laree. The METHOD doesn't change...but a handler with some basic sensitivity will change the approach slightly as needed for the INDIVIDUAL young horse, whatever the breed. If you are willing to adjust your approach - the intensity, duration, the timing, etc. - based on the individual in front of you, there is absolutely no need to change methods for any given breed. >>>I do think they are right about having an easily handled mom equates to an easily handled baby - which would tell me that if I had a skittish pregnant mare, I would be spending lots and lots of time with her before the baby is born. I had that with Bjola and to a lesser extent with Maja. Neither was handled as fillies. I bought them both from bankruptcy sales, where the Icelandic Horse Farm was their trustee. Maja is Bjola's niece, and Angie is Bjola's half-sister, Maja's aunt. I had to decide quickly to buy Bjola, because we were only in BC for 3-4 days. She wasn't at all what I went to buy, but I was so blown away by her progress in the short time we were there. When she first put the bankruptcy horses on the for sale site, Christine described Bjola as the shiest of the bunch - I think there were 50 or more in the herd. By the time we got up to see the horses a few weeks later (planning only to buy 2-3 good, tried and true broodmares) Christine told me that Bjola had become less shy, but she still wasn't working to train her. We had decided to buy Brunka and Saga after looking at a lot of nice mares - easy choices, but I asked to see Bjola too. In 3 sessions of maybe 20-30 minutes each, her progress was amazing. She didn't understand wearing a halter at first, and she certainly didn't know how to lead. Mind you, she was five at the time - with a 9-month-old baby! I just cannot for the life of me understand how someone can breed a mare that can't be haltered and led! The second day Christine and I went to get her out, she was waiting at the gate for us, put her head into the halter, and led willingly up to the training ring. That pretty much cinched it for me. I took a deep breath, and said I'd buy her and asked Robyn and Christine to breed her to Bragur. She came home about 2 months later and Christine worked with her maybe 4-5 sessions in the interim. By the day she went into labor, about a year after I met her, she was a totally different mare. The day she had Ima, I went to check on her several times during the day, and each time she tried to get between the gate and she's wrap her neck around me to block me from leaving her. She not only "allowed" me to be with her during Ima's birth, she plainly said that wanted me there. I've never spent much time actively "training" Ima. In fact, all of her training as been very passive - things just happened during the day-to-day interactions with the herd. We just hang out with the babies when we get a few minutes, play with them, and do our normal daily routine, and training just happens along the way. I fully suspect next year I'll say that Ima was the easiest filly we've ever started. Maja was also basically unhandled when we got her, but we had her for about two years before we bred her. Her foal, Kola, is very much like her cousin Ima. Maja also "invited" me to attend Kola's birth. I didn't literally ""imprint" any of my foals, but lightly handled them all from birth, as situations presented themselves. Of all the experiences I've had with animals, I think the most humbling and the most flattering experience was having Bjola single me out of her herd to be her "attending mare" for Ima's birth - Bjola, who just a year before was the shiest mare in the bankruptcy herd. Bjola still has a slight wary edge to her with new people, and I often wonder exactly how spectacular a mare she'd be, if she just trusted people that little extra bit. She's certainly one of the most outstanding mares I've ever worked with. Maja also retains that very slightly wary edge to her that Bjola has - not to us, but to people she doesn't know. I feel confident we've broken that cycle with Kola and Ima...and hopefully with Kola's little sibling we'll meet in April. Karen Thomas, NC No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.19.20/1261 - Release Date: 2/5/2008 8:57 PM
