Raising the baby horses can be little difficult – How to deal with it?

I have asked many people who said that raising the baby horses can be quite difficult and cumbersome especially if you are not familiar with horses. In simple words, it is a big job which only a professional can do well. If you're made your mind to keep your baby horse to train and ride one day, it is important to stay close to your baby horse. The crucial thing to remember is that habits learned during the development of a foal will lead to maturity, and bad habits that are cute for a baby horse can be disastrous when that baby becomes a full-fledged adult horse.

One of the best way to ensure proper development of baby horses is to work with them regularly. Try to work with them at least 3-6 times a week, the more the better. Short sessions result into positive outcomes. Get the baby horse used to being trained and treated all over the body. Teach them to pick up their hooves for you when you ask.

In order to train the horse effectively, it is important that you start working on him right from the childhood because teaching a baby is easier than an adult one. A baby horse will naturally want to follow where his mother goes – therefore, a few times a week, have a handler lead you mare around as you lead the foal behind the mother. Do not allow the foal run ahead or lag behind, calmly encourage and reprimand, and praise for walking by your side.

During the development process, teach baby horses to tie slowly after they start to understand leading. You can let them tie in a stall or small corral, with mothers close to them. Feed your leadrope around a sturdy pole, hold the end, and leave some slack in the line, allow the horse to realize he is tied. Your foal will likely pull back, do not release the rope unless the foal becomes tangled. The baby horse must learn struggling will not release him. When he stops pulling on the line, praise him and turn him loose. This skill is much easier to teach a baby horse than an adult horse.

Somewhere between four and six months your baby horses will need to be weaned from its mother to let the mother time to recover from nursing. Weaning can be dramatic but try separating mother and foal a few hours a day, in safe pens or stalls so they can still see each other. Slowly extending the time and distance apart is the safest way to wean a foal for Sale. If your baby horse can have another foal as a companion or even an older gelding, he or she will do much better.