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Got this damned colt foal that bites, goes out of his way to do so.
It's only half playing at the moment but he is getting bigger & bigger and little by little it's getting more & more forceful. Eventually I think he'll become a real pain in the arse and it'll be real a problem to manange. Any ideas of how to deter him from doing this? None of the others do it, they're terrific. It's just this fella. Chilli paste on a stick perhaps? :p
Hi TripleV123,
The chilli paste on a stick might work, if he is biting your stick. How about after the chilli paste is on the stick you then proceed to rub
it on yourself, or where ever he is biting.
Another option would be to load up with a hard left hook. One will do just fine, then ignore him for he is a colt and best left to be a colt:)
That's funny justdoit but it's not particularly helpful. :rolleyes:
A friend told me to give him slap him on the nose when he tries to bite so he learns that it is not the thing to do. You're right about colts being left to be colts. Further to that I am not a great fan of gelding horses because too often it's about ease of management for the trainer rather than what's best for the horse.
I get told this often "stop playing with the foals and leave them alone".
Hopefully when you wean him and throw him in with another couple of colts he might come back to size. There's always one that bite's but when he gets a kick up the guts by another they normally come back a bit.
Not sure about the chili paste or slapping don't want to make him head shy already but the other points are valid, leave him alone put them down the back paddock, not a fan of gelding either (it is the covenant way out and no guarantee) and when he is weaned through him in with couple of calmer older horses they will sort him out.
G'day Nat,
We should have seen it coming really. I was thinking about it last night & he started pushing his mother around in a similar fashion from about 2 weeks of age, kept on walking up and kind of bulldozing her about his shoulder or nipping at her flanks, legs and so on and she has pretty much put up with him ever since. Probably not all that surprisingly he thinks he can do the same to people. I think he's become a bit of a Bully because the old girl has never pulled him up on it.
For what it worth triple, I think it's not a bad sign. I like colts and moreso mares that are bullys. On the track I think they exude a sense of arrogance that only helps. As for slapping his head...............DON"T.
dont slap them unless they get savage, otherwise they will just pester you by spooking every time you put your hand under their head
just leave him as best as you can, colts are always going to be nipping, gelding imo is just a safety thing - colts are dangerous to themselves when out in the paddock when they are fit and feeling good and its not nice to have to lock them up all the time
i have a filly foal thats a bit bitchy, lays the ears back and bites and gets up and strikes her mother across the back..but i would prefer her to think shes pretty good then be a sook
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. :p:p:p:p
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. :p
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.