Homeschooled for minis!

[KGminiaturehorses]

Thank you for all the welcoming wishes and advice!

I definitley agree with what you all have been posting about the shows. Im very lucky to only be about three miles from two barns that we will be showing at! The shows are just open breed schooling, which I have only planned to do two classes in each, english halter type as they call it there, and showmanship. My filly won't be in the trailer for more than about ten minutes, which is a real blessing! I actually live in "Horse County USA" here in Texas, so there are many opportunities to get out and show!

As of right now I have been working with my filly twice a day, for only about 20 minutes. She was not halter broke when I bought her, but now she is staying at my shoulder, and stopping right on whoa. I just don't want to push her too much, being so young still.

She is quite the pampered little one! Getting stall cleanings 2x daily, and her grain split into 3x daily feeding, with her coastal 2x a day. I just love being able to spoil her! She just had a brand new stall built, and absolutely loves it! (We just need to finish the stall front)

I hope to meet lots of miniature horse people on here, and learn as much as I can from you!

 

[Eohippus]

Books and DVDs are a great help when training your filly. If you can I recommend getting a trainer too. Not to completely train your filly but to be there and help you when you get stuck, offer advice, and make sure you're going in the right direction with out over doing it. Young ones can be difficult to train as they can't handle all that an adult can. When my stallion was a yearling we did several 10 maybe 15 minutes training sessions through out the day. It was nice because the 10 minute sessions were short enough to keep his attenion focused but long enough to allow him to grasp a concept, especially because he got to repeat it a few times here and there. I know he enjoyed the breaks too. Dont forget to give her lots of pasture time, if possible. Growing babies need space to play and run on their own, to develop their muscles and bones. Thats one thing I've read in any book, article, etc that talks about raising foals: give them space to run and "be a horse".

You sound like you're both headed in the right direction though! Just remember to take it slow. How you train and raise your little girl now affects her entire life, a good start makes for a great future. Just don't over do it