Thanks for the advice troops. Wasn't keen on swatting him because he's not savage, just being a freaking pest and playing rough with people the way he does with his dam and with other horses. He bit me again today, got me a pretty good one on the forearm. Little bugger. It's not serious as I said, just playing rough, because if he was serious my arm would be half off. Put a head collar on him & checked him every time he tried to have a go seems to have done the trick. It makes him stand up and generally behave himself. Progress!!!! Definately more handling required. Geeze he is so tough on his poor old mum though. She is an old bitch & her and I don't get along that well either... but I was watching him today. He gives her absolute buggery. She must have incredible patience. How she hasn't given him a nice old whack herself before now is one of Life's great mysteries. If she could only display the same patience with me.
Last edited by triplev123; 02-16-2011 at 07:13 PM. Reason: spelling
I really wouldn't worry at this stage, this behavior should start to lessen as he gets older and is halter trained and taught respect. You should never slap a foal and really if you don't just simply push him away and ignore it he will start to think you are playing and treat you as though your one of the pack.
The respect will come as long as use good horsemanship throughout his life and treat him with the firmness an entire needs.
Yeh, cheers for that. I'm hoping that it will. What has spun my head a bit with this bloke is that he is so bossy and so pushy so early...or at least what I think of as being early. I'd kind of expect it if it came along when he was off his mother and closer to be yearling or even moreso afterwards but while he is a foal at his dam's foot...to me he just seems so young to be such a freaking pest.
Hi Triplev123
My Filly got a bit forward of heself and started on dear old mum she was quicky delt with by mum and now tows the line with her mum
Something of interest my mate bred this bute thoroughbred filly butter wouldnt melt in its mouth until you got to close or turn your back on her she would savage you 2 years on she would be one of the evilst horses I have come across in my time yet with her female trainer shw is fine.
G'day Nat,
Some of them can get really bent out of shape but I am certain that in some way or another such behaviour is man made. Somewhere along the line they had been handled or treated in such a way that they ended up like that. A good example is Oil Burner. He was an old horse when he came out here and he has the dubious honour of being the only horse to have ever made my blood run cold. He was seriously mentally twisted, I suspect he was naturally given to being that way but on top of that I am pretty sure he had been mistreated, and he really frightened me. I'm sure it was very hot where he went.
There was a Trotting Stallion from years ago now who's name escapes me but he had a rather heart warming habit, whilst being led, of dropping down to his knees and trying to rip at his groom's legs with the aim of getting him/her down on the ground so he could then savage them like a bloody Lion would do when attacking something. What an absolute charmer he was.
There are also quite a few sires, both recent past and present, that have displayed some serious mental issues...some much worse than others of course. One prominent sire was given to furiously humping his feed bin rather than jumping the breeding mount or covering a mare in season.
This filly came out that way right from birth my poor mate didnt know what to do as it was his first foal.
And in saying all these things I do like a horse with a bit of somthing different about them not mundane.
Best to leave colt foals to their mother. When weaned put them into a mob or at least one mate preferably a little older is he is alone
Hows the colt foals coming along?
And for me, personally, I will give a swift wack to the nose any horse that tries to bite me... whatever its age and no matter how much money it has won! lmao! I do oftern find that the colt foals grow out of it, however. We have a Lis Mara at the moment that comes up and will rear right over the top of you - if you wack him with the feed bucket he turns around and tries to cow kick at you, the little buggar.Doesn't have a shred of fear whatsoever!
G'day Flashing,
He has pretty much backed off on the biting routine...but only a few weeks ago he rather casually wandered up and took a short, sharp nearside hind poke at my brother while we were down on our knees with our backs turned fixing the bottom of a fence.
Thankfully he saw it coming right at the very last moment and it just flicked him across the knuckles of one hand he had put out to fend it off. He can be handled no problems once he's wearing a head collar & lead but left to his own devices, well, I think he's just naturally a bit of a bastard.
As an aside, he was a big foal, quite notably so, and an early one too, 29th September I think it was, and based on that I thought, in fact we all thought, he would be a monster.
Now however, size & development wise he's a very good stamp of a horse but there's no visible difference between him & the filly born on December 30th, a full 3 months later on.
It makes me wonder about the early Vs late foals thing. Personally, I've never thought it held much water as a theory & the more that I see of it up close the more I think it is all bullshit. The reason I say this is that it's such an individual thing that to make any sort of judgement based on a foaling date alone is just absurd. People do, however.
The fact is that some foals are born late but develop rapidly while others are born early & seem to take ages to get on with their growing.
Also, depending on where you are situated climate wise & even then depending on how the seasons go, instead of growing it seems to me that in some areas where it is normally a bit cool at that time of year or if you simply have an unseasonally cool Spring, the really early foals spend a great deal of the nutritional intake of the first 8-10 weeks of their lives just keeping themselves warm.
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