Training Tips

QUESTION: I am really impressed with your methods on training and would like you to please help me out with my 3-month-old stud colt. I have been hands-on with him since birth. I started feeding him out of a bucket about 2 months ago. I would just stand there and let him push his grain around and nibble on it until he started to eat it down to the last kernel. I would talk gently to him and stroke his neck. He always seemed to enjoy feeding time with me. The stall that mommy and baby share is big. Mom's grain bucket is in one corner, his is behind her in the other corner. We gave him his own big boy bucket. I still have to stand watch while they eat, so mom won't eat his food. When she's done eating she will move him out of the way to eat his. I put my arms up in a way that she can't get her head through. The foal seems to know that I keep mom from eating his food and likes me there for that reason. He has always been very sweet and if he's not with mom, he knows if he looks hard enough he'll find me out in the yard working and will whinny for me to come be with him. My husband will sometimes feed the horses and will do it his way. So, those days mom takes the colt's food and he never gets to finish it on his own. Lately he has been pinning his ears back and turning his butt towards us, aggressively trying to kick us! I just can't believe it! What would make him act out like that?

REPLY: It's because, while you're bonding with him, you're not simultaneously sitting proper limits and better establishing yourselves as leaders of "the herd." You can "kill a horse with kindness" so to speak if you don't also set limits. The word is: spoiled. And you don't want spoiled as that can turn very dangerous up the road. And I think the feeding time scenario there might be contributing the most to all that. See, in a natural horse herd (where humans aren't interferring), it's the highest pecking order horse who gets access to the food first always, lowest pecking order horse (which would naturally be the younger, more immature horses) would have last access. You've switched that around there, not realizing it's going to cause a problem with him perceiving himself as higher pecking order horse now, even over humans, because with you present, he's perceiving somehow he's magically causing himself to have first access to food, therefore (in his mind) you guys are lower pecking order from him. And horses don't like or respect those lower than them in pecking order, quite often. Time to turn that around! Since I realize he needs his nutrition, a better way to do it there (so mom can't get to his food) is to get a "foal feeder." I go over that here:

Foal Feeding - How to feed foal so mother won't get into the food

When you go to place the feed in the foal feeder, shoo the foal away. Direct his feet. Let him know that you are the higher pecking order "leader" via moving his feet away from you and clearing way out of your space. In a horse herd, they follow a prey animal herd instinct that goes like this: He (or she) who moves the other's feet is higher up on the pecking order, and therefore the leader worthy of respect. Horses, as pecking order animals, live this axiom 24/7. This foal is learning to move your feet instead of the other way around. Repeat: time to turn that around!

Place the feed in the foal feeder, but don't allow him in to have access to it as you do that. You can use a rope to twirl to keep him at bay, if needed. This will teach him respect for your space and will also tell him in his own equine language that you are the leader of his herd. (You are the one in charge of moving his feet, not the other way around). If he barges into that twirling rope barrier, well...he just hit a "wall" with that behavior all by himself and will back off. Once the feed is in the foal feeder and he has kept his distance respectfully (insist on it! no grey areas allowed), then and only then walk away and allow him to eat without you there. If he turns a rump to you or kicks out at you at any time in this training process, send him away from you via tossing an end of the lead rope at him or twirl the rope. Don't tolerate that behavior for one second. He'll understand that language if you are 100% consistent there and he'll stop turning a rump to you, kicking at you, etc., and will face you respectfully, waiting patiently for permission to come in to eat. Don't give that permission until you are ready to exit yourself. He's not allowed to approach the feed until you have exited. Stay consistent there and he'll get it. And he'll be more respectful (and even happier, in the end) for knowing and understanding the rules.

Read this following link, also, on my web site, if you haven't already, to understand a little more about natural horsemanship & applied prey animal psychology, so you'll see the "why's" of these methods better: http://www.naturalhorsetraining.com/WhatIsNH.html

And get busy starting to train this foal (I go over what you should be doing training wise within the first link above there).

Hope this helps and thanks again for writing!