Growing Our Farm - A Question Regarding Foals

[Tess]

Hi Everyone!

It has been a while since I last was on here. Anyway, I had a question regarding foals. So, we have the land, and are considering making our little "farm" a bit bigger (adding more animals). We want to get a few sheep eventually, and more minis. A friend, who is downsizing her herd, has offered to sell us some of her minis. If there happened to be a mare and foal pair, my questions are these: Would a filly be hard to deal with? Would there be a lot of training involved? And how would we go about taking care of a filly?

Thanks!

P.S. We are not considering breeding, just to let you all know.

 

[Ryan Johnson]

Hi Tess , 

to answer your questions "yes" . If you are considering taking the mare and foal together , your first thing would be to wean the foal when time . This would mean having separate yards / stalls etc to be able to do this . 

Then would come the training ...... Some young horses can be quite a handful to deal with . The fact you know the people your thinking of buying them from will help you when you have questions and need a hand . 

Your vet will be able to tell you the dietary requirements she will need , vaccinations , worming etc 

on a personal note , I've always wated until foals become yearlings before serious training . They are given some training then turned out to grow and develop some more . As long as your interacting with the foal on a regular basis when young it will certainly help with everything else that comes . 

and you can ask as many questions here as you like , happy to help ?

 

[Miniv]

A FILLY??? Colts are more of a problem! LOL. But either way, you need a separate paddock for the mare and offspring for weaning purposes.

The first step in training is getting the filly used to wearing a halter. Second step is teaching her to lead.  We tend to do both BEFORE weaning by tying the lead short from baby's halter to her mom's halter and taking the mare for a walk. It's much easier.

 

[Tess]

Thanks for the tips! We will definitely talk about it with the seller, if we choose to do this. Thanks!