# Manners for young foals - rearing



## oh vair oh (Mar 27, 2012)

Usually if they don't come up to you respectfully, I would just flap my arms, maybe make a loud noise with my voice, and make them run away. They don't really lose their curiosity, but come back to you more cautiously. It's the same thing mommy would do. Although my filly's mommy let her rear and push all over her without so much as a nip so I had to be more assertive.


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## MsLady (Apr 18, 2013)

We are raising our first foals also, we have 2 colts that are 8 months (Cowboy) and 3 months (Chance) old. 

Cowboy had a problem with jumping on us when he was younger. He was really just playing with us like he did his mom and another filly we had. As you know this is unacceptable and you have to teach them early. What we did was as soon as he jumped on us or reared we would shout NO and smack his rear end with our hat (we usually wear baseball caps to feed in) and wave our arms to back him off. It only took 2-3 times and he has never jumped on us again.
Are you feeding him any treats by hand? When Cowboy was first born we made the mistake of hand feeding him treats, he would run us over trying to get a treat. We now know he can not be hand fed anything 😜😜!
Good Luck with your foal and have fun.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## quinn (Nov 8, 2013)

I agree with the flapping of the arms and a lound "No."

I won't smack a horse on the nose because I have seen too many horses become head shy from that. Instead, if a smack is warranted, I do it on the shoulder or butt depending on where I am when the "event" happens and what it was. It's where they would be kicked or nipped by other horses, and it's also where I give rewarding rubs...I've never had a problem with this method.


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## scubadreams (May 5, 2012)

Subbing......I also have a colt soon to gelded that is disrespectful when being led and rears up. So I am trying to find out what to do to correct it.


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## boots (Jan 16, 2012)

I got a dandy little colt very cheap once because his owner didn't correct this and he ended up hurting her.

I know he caught you off guard this time, it happens. Now that you're watching for it and more tuned in to his manners you'll notice when he's crowding your space or acting like it's okay to play with you.

I stop young horses well away from me by voice and spreading my arms out. The young ones always stop, and being curious, mostly look at me. Occasionally, they'll spin and run being silly, but that doesn't hurt anything. They'll approach again and it's never made one afraid of me. But, they do pay attention.


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## Palomine (Oct 30, 2010)

Take a lash whip and come across their brisket, or front legs as hard as you can. But you need to stop this ASAP, and would imagine this one is showing other signs too of disrespect that you have missed.

And that can be something as subtle too from a foal as their eyes getting a mean/distant look in them, which I also correct. I want to see soft eyes, or else I am going to do something to get it.


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## Ktibb (Mar 24, 2010)

with out filly started that phase any quick attention getting reaction worked. We just threw our arms up and shhhhhed her away. she knew we were serious and we only had to do it a couple of times. We had our hands on her the day after she was born, so she had little to no fear of us and had to be pretty convincing. The only time we made physical contact to correct a behavior was either when she turned her hind end to us or when she got mouthy. One good correction the first time is worth more than many half hearted attempts.

good luck


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## mlcamp (Jan 20, 2014)

Thanks for all of the advice - he hasn't reared at me again, but I have been keeping him away via hands/voice/dressage whip the couple of times he has since acted boisterious in the field and headed my way. Palomine, can you tell me how you correct something as subtle as a mean/distant look in the eyes in the case of a foal?


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## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

My last colt did this, came up wanting to play but that's not an allowable way to play with a human. All I did was run straight at him, flap my arms and snatched my hat off and flapped that at his butt as he ran away. I chased him enough to be sure he knew I wasn't kidding. He hasn't ever tried it again and is now a happy, gelding, yearling.


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## Thunderspark (Oct 17, 2012)

*when he rears up....*

while leading, turn and make him back up very aggressively, flapping arms, yell NO, make him know it's not acceptable to do that to you or any human....



scubadreams said:


> Subbing......I also have a colt soon to gelded that is disrespectful when being led and rears up. So I am trying to find out what to do to correct it.


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