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Regular
Posts: 51
| I posted a while back about picking up a yearling filly and two year old colt that had never been handled... We've had them 4 months now and have done quite a bit of ground work with them, and have even ponied the gelding with someone on him already. They've been in a 40ft run since we brought them home, but we are wanting to introduce them to the pasture here soon. We have good barbed wire fence on every side, but two sides are lined with thick brush while the other two have wide open pastures on the other side. I'm paranoid that the first time we let them out, they'll take off playing and run through it. Any suggestions as to how you have introduced young ones to barbed wire and pastures? We took him out of the pen last weekend to lead around the outside of the barn (just for a change of scenery) and he tried to take off several times - which is totally out of character for him, but this was also his first time "out." How do you get them to focus among "wide open spaces?" We have always started young ones as weanlings, so you could over power them for a while. We never had to worry about that stuff as by the time they were "strong," they were broke. Just hoping to pick y'all's brains..... |
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I just read the headlines
Posts: 4483
 
| You could tie bright colored material/tape to the strands of barb wire or anything that would make the fence more obvious. Lead them around the perimeter and then from fence to fence crosswise. Do you have older horses you could turn out with them? |
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 Toastest with the Mostest
Posts: 5712
 
Location: That part of Texas | Can you not pony them around the pasture so that they get a feel for the boundary lines and just the place in general? I didn't have a problem with letting my 3 out on our section of land here at the house (all barb wire and t-posts) but it's a big place and they learned quickly where boundaries were from the older horses. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1367
Location: mi | I have no experience with this, but my thought would go with the rest pony them out in the big pasture for awhile showing them the boundaries. Then I would just kind of let them go once they had settled in and were a tad tired from trotting around. Also some good older horses used to the area will settle a young one down quickly. |
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 Buttered Noodles Snacker
Posts: 4377
Location: NC | I am always paranoid about turning horses out in my pasture for the first time. I like to put an obnoxious amount of fence flagging tape on, then walk them around the fence once or twice. Then I like to put hay or grain out to keep them a little occupied at first. Drives my husband crazy. The last horse we got he turned out while I was at work one day because he didn't want to deal with my tactics... Good luck!! |
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 Coyote Country Queen
Posts: 5666
| I agree with the other suggestions. We also like to stand by the fence after we turn them loose so we can shake the wire in case they get to running around and not paying attention. If you tap the wire they can hear the sound and it usually shakes it enough that they can focus on it and see where it is. |
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 Bulls Eye
Posts: 6443
Location: Oklahoma | On the TB farms I've worked for, we've given just enough ACE to take the edge off so they don't go running full speed. It allows them to calmly walk around and get acclimated |
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 I Chore in Chucks
Posts: 2882
Location: MD | we always ponied our horses (or hand walked if it was small enough) around the perimeter of the pasture. we always kept the horse new to the pasture on the fence side. Went around a couple of times then turned them out with a watchful eye. |
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 Tried and True
Posts: 21185
Location: Where I am happiest | GLP - 2015-01-14 11:17 PM You could tie bright colored material/tape to the strands of barb wire or anything that would make the fence more obvious. Lead them around the perimeter and then from fence to fence crosswise. Do you have older horses you could turn out with them?
^^ This ^^ |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1162
Location: White Mountains of AZ | When I introduce horses ( young or old ) I will walk them around the pasture and make sure they know where the fencing is. Sometimes they'll walk right up to sniff and get poked and realize thats's not something they wanna mess with. I've never tried tying anything to it, but that is smart! I've never had issues with my horses so far!! |
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