|
|
 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 429
 
Location: Oxford, Kansas | So I just picked up a filly this last weekend that is a yearling and has had very little human contact during the first year of her life. Not a mean bone to her but as far as ground manners and desensitizing and trusting me she is pretty far behind. I was able to get a halter on her in the trailer and she will now walk up to me in the round pen to the point of touching me herself and sniffing and allows me to rub her down each side, lead her around, working on getting her ok with me rubbing on her with a lead rope... I'm just curious as to how you work with these babies, do you treat them any different then you would a weanling? She's on the bigger side but like I said.. not once has she bitten, bucked, kicked, reared.. anything other then jumped and ran to get away so I'm not afraid of her and I trust her to the extent you can trust a baby but I'm just concernced that she will never fully trust me the way a foal thats been handled since birth can trust. |
|
| |
|
 Elite Veteran
Posts: 805
Location: Montana | Just keep doing what you are doing, we had a mare that once she figured out we were the providers of the magic food (grain) she was all about being brushed and loved on. We had gotten her off a ranch in Paisley, OR she had been missed on round up till she was 3, then ran in roped, thrown down, given shots, a halter with lead attached and thrown in the trailer with a bunch of other horses to come down here. We picked her up at the guy's Dads house here in the valley and had to run her into the trailer then into a stall when we got home. She didn't care what you did with her on the ground as long as she had her grain once she figured it out. |
|
| |
|
 Coyote Country Queen
Posts: 5666
| I would rather have an untouched horse than one that is full of bad manners and spoiled. Just treat her like you would any other horse. The round pen is a great place to teach manners. But I've found that the best way to earn trust is to just be around them daily so they learn you aren't going to hurt them. We've taken in several horses over the years that were very untrusting and afraid of people. We put them in a stall/pen where we fed them, cleaned their stalls twice daily, and were just around them. Seems like curiosity usually gets the better of them and they'll start coming to see you. Many times I won't do any real work with these horses for weeks or months, other than getting a halter on them, touching them all over, picking up feet, etc. Just go slow and now when you're pushing too hard.
I bet you'll be surprised at how fast she comes around. There are many people who don't mess with their babies a whole lot before weaning (myself included) and these horses are just fine as far as trusting. I don't do a lot with my babies until weaning, and even then only do minimal handling throughout their yearling year. Anytime we go out to the pasture, these babies come a running to check us out and get rubbed on. Some are a little more stand-offish to begin with, but going out into our pastures are dangerous because you'll be instantly surrounded by the young ones! When we gather them as 2 year olds to start then under saddle, we don't have any issues. |
|
| |
|
 Expert
Posts: 4121
Location: SE Louisiana | Just keep it up. Treat her the same as you would a weanling. Lots of TLC.. brushing and stuff... Find the itchy spots like the withers and rump area and focus on those a lot. |
|
| |
|
  Twin Sister to Queen Boobie
Posts: 13315
Location: East Tennessee but who knows?! | I agree -- I wouldn't treat her any different at all. If you can find the itchy spots, that helps quite a bit.
Something else I do is work on them while they're eating. I do a lot of handling but after that, I'll do a lot of moving the hips and shoulders over. For some reason, the eating seems to help them come along quicker. I think it's because they're more relaxed -it's hard for a horse to learn when they're not relaxed. |
|
| |
|
 Independent Cuss
Posts: 3978
Location: Dearing, GA | Basically what everyone else has said- keep up the good physical contact with her. The more time you spend with her, the stronger your connection will be. Be patient and let her get used to your hands all over her.
And just a note: the first thing I would do with her is lateral flexion. Get her to give her face to you going to the left and the right. Getting her to respect pressure & release on her face will be good with a horse that has had minimal contact. |
|
| |
|
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 429
Location: Oxford, Kansas | Ok, good! I've been spending a solid hour a night with her just rubbing her down and talking to her and just adding more more step each night. I've been doing a lot of approach and retreat as far as touching places or asking for something new, like tonight i used a brush instead of my hand.. I know she's making progress.. Like I said for the first 2 days I couldn't get close enough to even touch her and she'd rather collapse then join up with me and now she actually has been coming up to me the last few nights and is getting less and less jumpy but she still has that terrified look going on... I'm just not used to having one that's not already people friendly! As far as feed time, I got brave tonight and she was being really good so I took her halter off to see if I could put it back on.. She was being stubborn and kept walking off the second I went to reach around to grab the strap so I refused to let her eat til she stood still to get it back on then I let her have her dinner and called it a night... Is this kind of the right idea? I want her to get the idea that something good happens as soon as she lets me halter her. |
|
| |
|
Regular
Posts: 96
Location: whitesboro tx 76273 | I am glad this post came up. I have a young yearling that was never messed with in the pasture. He was wild as a deer when we first weaned him, but now I can touch him a little. I don't know how I will ever get a halter on him! I am just doing the baby steps like a little scratching here and there as he will let me. We don't have a round pen or something solid and safe to put a lot of pressure on him in. We do have a stall where I kept him since October. I turned him out with the older gentle geldings this week. He is more trusting now that he sees the others like the attention. I call him Bambi though. Hope he comes around soon. |
|
| |
|
 Expert
Posts: 2097
Location: Deep South | I just found this really great video series this week that I've been spending every moment of my free time watching! I think we've all seen Stacy Westfall's bareback, bridleless, freestyle, reining video (if you haven't youtube it!) and she is now doing a video diary with a 2yo stud colt that she has never had any previous contact with, he is only halter broke, and she is showing every step of his training from from day 1 to "as far as he lets her take him." Which she hopes will follow in his dam's footsteps of being able to do the brideless, bareback reining pattern.
I think the way Stacy explains everything is awesome. And I've started back tracking on some of my colts that were actually a little farther along and using some of the groundwork she's using in her video series to gt them more broke.
Here's the link to episode 1 if you want to check it out. So far the series goes up to like 20-30 episodes? I think. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_MSomz0yg0 |
|
| |
Folks on-line