Humane Cattle Pens, Custom Designs and Behavior Consulting
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
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
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
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
(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
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
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
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
???????: 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
In 1994, I conducted a preliminary study of hair whorl patterns and racing performance on 290 Thoroughbred horses during the racing season at Santa Anita Racetrack in Arcadia, California. Performance data was collected from The
