Humane Cattle Pens, Custom Designs and Behavior Consulting
Take your time with this first lesson. Foals only have a limited attention span. Always stay within the limits of their ability to learn new things. Be consistent in the way you give each lesson. Consistency is more important than continuity. Foals with low cowlicks need more lessons to form habits, while foals with high […]
Before discussing my “new school” approach to factors affecting bonding with humans during the pre-weaning stage of development, I want to explain the behaviors shown by colts and fillies raised in the “old school” traditions that cause serious welfare concerns. The experiences horses have before being “broke to ride” indicate the underlying issues from intensive […]
Learning to lead and stand tied is done in the mare’s presence. If you don’t have the foal’s mother and have a weaned colt (like Bill in my last post), find a trusting surrogate (like Jim in my previous post). I also used Jim as a surrogate to teach Bill to lead, as discussed in […]
In ???? ? of this series, I discussed the importance of the first experience of handling the legs and feet of pre-weaned foals and setting the stage for a lifetime’s acceptance of this necessary and critical husbandry procedure. The old timers had a saying, “?? ????, ?? ?????.” The farrier is a forger, welder, toolmaker, […]
Generally, weaning at four months of age is considered safe. The foal’s nutritional requirements exceed that provided by the mare’s milk, and at that age, most foals eat grain and forage independently. Even so, consider the position of the hair whorl before making your decisions. Foals with high hair whorls are more prone to stress […]
(Follow to read the next post on the Paradox of Double Whorls) The first experience with trailer loading is a challenge for any horse, regardless of whether the horse is one with low fear (low hair whorl), or a high fear (high hair whorl) horse, and whether the horse is a left or right handed […]
Breaking” a horse to ride using the old-school approach is a challenging and often traumatic event in a young horse’s life. It sets the stage for the acceptance of its life spent under saddle. When forced early experiences compromise the horse’s relationship with the people and cause the maladaptive (abnormal) behaviors discussed earlier, breaking to […]
Kathleen: The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle said, “There is no genius without a touch of madness.” This phenomenon has been verified repeatedly in studies in the past. Current neuroscience shows that the family lines that produce the most prominent creators also tend to be characterized by a higher rate and intensity of psychopathological (mental illness) […]
After several years of observing thousands of horses, I still hadn’t figured out the puzzle of the double whorls, but I finally believed in the predictive value of hair whorls. Most horses with high whorls were reactive and fearful, but not all. I began to suspect this must be due to experience and upbringing. For […]
???????: Because of the overwhelming interest in horses with two side-by-side hair whorls, I decided to interrupt my series on training young horses with my new-school approach and tell the story now. How I learned about the double whorls is as important as what I learned, so I’m starting from the beginning. Follow my page […]
