When should I start to play with a young horse?  Playing with any horse, young or old, is best done when you have time; when you are not in a rush.  Especially with a young one, and for this article I’m talking about a horse 1 year old or younger.  There is something called “foal imprinting” which is done in the first hour of when the foal is born. There is much debate as to whether it is good or bad. In my experience, it is only as good as the knowledge and skill of the person doing it. I believe the idea or concept is great and can really speed what the horse is going to need to know in the future. I have seen it work very well, and other times I have seen a monster created. I have worked with three year olds that were ‘supposedly’ foal imprinted. I say “supposedly” because if the foal imprinting had been done as intended, there would not have been any monster created. A person has as much chance, maybe more, of doing it incorrectly than doing it correctly. It appears to be a fairly simple thing to do but there is more to know than meets the eye. The handler needs to read horses well, and have good feel and timing. They need to know what to look for and the little things to reward.  Foals are easy to handle and learn very well at a young age, things both good and bad. Some of our foals here at the ranch get foal imprinted but most do not because of a lack of time and I don’t feel it is a must.

Genuine Jets River - now all grown up and living at Candice Tkachuks Ranch.  She was played with as a fola, then again as a yearling, and two year old, then Candice purchased her and Dixie started her the following spring when she was three.  She is a gorgeous mare, not only on the outside, but on the inside as well.

Whether a person does the foal imprinting or not, there is lots of other good and fun things in their first year we can do with our horses that can also prepare them for the future. At any age, and probably earlier than later, having a horse confident around us, responsive, and respectful, is a great thing.

Whatever age they are when we get to spend some time with our young horses, I want to be creating a partner and not a pet. Someday soon that little cute foal is going to be big and out weigh us by five or six times. Even as a youngster they need to know that we are the leaders and what is safe for them and us.  We get them to move for us; not the other way around. I’ve seen yearling that have already been taught to chase their owners out of the pen. They may be cute but they are still horses and play all the horse games. They know how to use their feet and they know that “he who moves his feet less wins”.   If you allow them to start chewing on you, or pushing you around when they are little, look out when they get older. 

Playing with these foals or starting a young horse under saddle should be done by the most educated and experienced person we can find. If that person is the owner, then that is fine. If not, as the owner we need to do our homework and find out who some likely candidates might be. The person should know how to earn a horses respect and build their confidence, and have spent a good bit of time getting their horsemanship skills organized before giving this a go. Not because it is dangerous to the person, but it is to the horse, and whether it has unnecessary baggage for the rest of it’s life or ends up in a can.

Sometimes I am asked “What do I need to know?”   I have found that people that can complete all the requirements to pass the Stages Program 1 though 5 minimum in our horsemanship program or the equivalent, and have the skills to do a pretty nice job of handling their foal.  Stage 8 and above, they do a great job with anyone’s foal. Stages alone won’t make for great but after stage 5 on a persons way to achieving Stage 8 much time would have been spent getting experience with many horses refining their skills and knowledge.   I have been fortunate enough to work with thousands of horses and people and that amount of savvy seems to work. The more I learn the more I realize what I didn’t know and the problems that can be created by accident and a lack of understanding.

Some of the practical things a person could teach a young horse is to be handled without fear, haltering, leading, picking up the feet, follow a feel, don’t push or pull on pressure, have confidence around us and help them become overall more brave. Even a young horse should have his feet attended to regularly. Having a horse that is confident around us means we can catch them, load them in the trailer and take them to the veterinarian if needed.  If they had been taught not to push or pull on pressure, maybe they wouldn’t get cut up in fences as easily. I have heard of colts that were just weaned and separated from the herd and something spooked them and they ran straight into a fence and broke their neck.  If they were braver they wouldn’t have got near as spooked, so it can be time well spent.

Carson and River - two special little girls with a wonderful future ahead of them.

If you have your foals born at your home and you can spend time with them each day it is very easy to progressively build their acceptance to humans because for the first few days they only wobble around and it’s easy to be with them. While they are getting used to us we can be using our hands and help the horse accept our touch all over its body, preparing them for where our hands, saddle, cinch and the halter will go.  If they trust us, the rest is easy to do but still needs to be done correctly. You progressively expose them to the halter, then get to where it is easy to put it on. From this point very carefully teach the foal to follow a feel.  Give them lots of time to find their way forward off of the pressure. If they pull back which is very likely, slip a little rope so they don’t feel trapped, but keep some pressure on until they move forward. It can be as little as a half step with any foot in the right direction.  Then let them have time to think about things.

If you don’t have the luxury of being there when the foal is born it doesn’t take long and they aren’t wobbling around anymore. The foals we play with in the mountains, for example, have never seen a human sometimes until they are four or five months old. They have already learned to live with the herd in the wild and stay clear of anything that isn’t their mother. These ones won’t allow you to walk up and touch them for quite a while. They are very wary and have to be, to survive in the wild. With enough time and the right amount of approach and retreat they will allow you to get up to them. When you do get close enough and allow them to touch you that is when you can reassure them the easiest. It can take a bit of time to get to the point where you can actually halter a wild horse. If you don’t have a lot of time and 25 head to handle then using a rope to deter them from staying just out of reach is the fastest way I know to get up to a horse and start the process of building the confidence and acceptance. Now having said that, many people that would put a rope on a horse feel they need to pull the rope tight and start a tugawar. I would suggest letting the foal wear the rope, then rub it with the rope from a distance. Don’t get in a rush to touch the foal or lead it around. Allow the foal to get used to the feel of the rope without tension on it. When it has relaxed then try using the rope in such a manner that it helps the horse accept its feel, by laying the rope across the foals back, hip and legs, inside and out, giving it time to wear the rope and get over the feel of it. Then start teaching yields. Put it across the nose from a distance and tip the nose in your direction left and right. All the while you are getting closer to helping the foal feel, follow a feel and trying to convince it to give you a sniff and allow you to touch them so it can feel your good intention.  No horse wants to be lead by something it doesn’t trust.  Earn the trust first then the leading is much easier. Once you have some trust established they still have to learn to follow a feel but they won’t have to be worried about us as predators taking them back to the cave. After you’ve earned his trust and got the halter on, you can continue with the list of practical things to teach them. Just because the halter is on doesn’t mean our approach can change. We still need to present everything progressively and fairly from their perspective. We need to think down the road and ask ourselves: are we creating a horse that wants to be caught, or one that doesn’t, are they calm and respectful, dull and pushy, or scared and untrusting. What kind of horse appears is the responsibility of the handler. Yes, they are all different but if we step up for the job of handling and especially training young and untrained horses then we can’t blame it on the horse if the project goes sideways. If the right approach, feel, timing and understanding is used a wonderful very usable training situation will happen. It’s called curiosity. It is easiest found in these young horses. Once they can relax enough to get curious around us the fun really begins. Keeping the curiosity in any age horse is a wonderful tool. It only shows up when there is trust and they are presented with get-to situations rather than always a got-to situation.

Dixies Two Cents Worth:  Here River has grown into a confident, respectful filly that is inquisitve and ready to learn. She is set up to enjoy a long and happy life, and to be enjoyed as well.  In her future relationships and connections with people, It is unlikely that there will ever be tears, blood,  broken bones, concussions, or a destiny of ending up in a hospital or dog food can.  No need for fear involved in either the human or the horse, only pure en-JOY-ment!

Every summer we take students that are wanting to improve their horsemanship skills to the mountains 80 miles from the nearest road for a learning adventure holiday. Everyone is flown in from a dirt airstrip along the side of the highway back into the mountains to another dirt airstrip and dropped of at the main Lodge. To ride into the Lodge it takes four days, eight river crossing and lots of muskeg and most would rather fly in than ride. So you get the idea, very remote and the horses we use live there year round have their foals and live out their lives in the mountains. I’ve mentioned in other articles, but it is worth mentioning again that they are some of the healthiest horses I see. Most of the year what I see are town horses, and they don’t always have access to the best water or the variety of vegetation that these mountain horses do. The mountain horses also have miles of country to graze on and never have to eat where they defecate. Most of them live into their thirties and I don’t think I have ever heard one cough. All these horses at some point have to get handled and started under saddle as well as used for packing tents, food and so on. So it is a fantastic opportunity to handle horses that are in their natural state living as horses began.

This year I played with a foal that was about 3 months old, very healthy and full of himself. I spent 3 and a half hours playing with the little fellow to try and develop some of the things in this article. We got to where he would lead, allow his feet to be handled, crack a whip anywhere around him, wave a flag and rub him anywhere, put a tarp over him, walk over the tarp and plywood and generally start the process of creating a great horse. We had a contest to suggest a name, and he is called Elvis. His mother was a wild 7 year old the year before and I started her and used her to ride for the 3 weeks in the mountains. This year she came in with Elvis by her side.

Your young ones can be much fun and they are never too young to learn.
.....Glenn

Glenn Stewart travels extensively conducting clinics, demonstrations, and colt starting sessions, and also offers Camps and a 3 month Horsemanship Course at his home The Horse Ranch, as well as the Horsemanship Learning Adventure Series; two completely different experiences, High & Wild in the Northern BC Rockies, and Working Equitation with Lusitanos in Brazil. He rides 30-60 client horses per year, including young horses, restarts, challenging horses, and foundation training. Glenn is a former Champion of the Cowboy Up Challenge at the Calgary Stampede and has been chosen as one of the Canadian representatives in the 2012 Road to the Horse, the World Championship of Colt Starting in Murfreesboro, TN. More information by calling 1 877 728 8987 or visiting www.thehorseranch.com

Keily and "Stetson" - Genuine Stetson Jet, 2010 AQHA Gelding