Young Horses: Let's Help Instead of Hinder

Dartmoor foal Tiger and his mother

This blog is companion to my 6/13/23 chat with Jec Aristotle Ballou on this topic.
Young Horses; Are We Helping or Hindering?
The early stages of a horse's life have a lifelong impact on his adult behavior, because they influence his emotional, social, and physical development. How he is handled determines whether he is likely to become:
- A confident, reliable horse with good social skills and learning ability; a partner in achieving your goals
OR
- A fearful adult prone to spookiness, separation anxiety, and pasture fights; one who has you researching calming supplements and desensitizing programs. Raising reliable, resilient adults requires meeting foals' emotional and social needs. This means providing positive experiences that promote positive Core Emotions: CARE (nurturing), SEEKING (curiosity), and PLAY. Staying tuned in to the youngster's emotions is essential. Many common practices provoke the negative emotions of FEAR, PANIC, and GRIEF. Too much exposure to these emotions alters brain chemistry forever, creating a horse who lives defensively, always alert for danger, unable to trust. We want instead to raise a horse who assumes the world is a great place for the next adventure, and people can be trusted to be the source of good things. Providing these 5 things creates happier, more reliable adults.
1. Opportunities for PLAY: alone, with other horses, and with safe objects.
2. Older well-socialized companions
3. Encourage curiosity (SEEKING)
4. Teach basic life skills and manners using modeling (Social Learning) and Positive Reinforcement.
5. Wean on mother's schedule. This might be the single most important of all! If you don't have a compatible herd to help socialize a single foal, even one older companion can make a difference. In a pinch, any companion is probably better than none, even if it's a goat, cow, cat, dog, or some other species.

Friends and room to romp

PLAY is not a frivolous activity. It actually changes the brain for the better. Spotted Saddle Horse foals Rambler and Shae have each other to play with and a large pasture to accommodate lots of physical activity. While they are having fun (and everyone has fun watching them), they are building healthy bodies, developing their balance and agility, and learning the subtle social skills required to get along with others.

Tiger and his extended family

Older well-socialized horses of both genders provide additional nurturing and reassurance, giving a foal companions with whom he can confidently venture further and further from mama. Older horses also teach the subtle Social Skills needed to form bonds, and avoid aggression. They are crucial for teaching youngsters about Personal Space (ask permission and be polite). It is not the mother's job to teach her foal about Personal Space; in case of danger, a foal is SUPPOSED to stay in his mother's space where she can protect him. Tiger's extended family includes 2 "aunties" (neither of whom has a foal of her own) and 3 "uncles". In a wild band colts (more than fillies) gravitate to the band stallion and older brothers to play, suggesting older male role models are particularly important for colts' social development. Tiger and his mother were pastured alone when he was born. Each new horses was moved to their pasture as the mother indicated (by allowing over the fence visiting) that she was ready. Rambler's and Shae's mothers were already pastured together along with the third mare (see previous photo) when the foals were born. The 3 mares were already friends.

Curiosity at work

Investigative Behavior helps horses learn about the world so fewer things are frightening. It is associated with the emotion SEEKING, a powerful positive emotion. Inspection can involve anything around them that is safe and indestructible: rakes and pitchforks, grooming kits, stuffed toys (particularly intriguing when they have "faces"), dog toys, an old saddle. Your imagination is the limit. Leadline walks also promote curiosity since horses can also observe new things and activities. Investigative Behavior is an important learning process, most effective when horses are free to investigate without human interference. If a horse needs to be on lead, the lead should be loose and the handler standing by just enjoying the process. Typical "despooking", desensitizing, or sacking out programs, in contrast, are meant to control horses' behavior through repetitive exposure. Instead of being an active participant in his own learning, the horse is expected to allow things to be done TO him. This is a recipe for confusion, anxiety, and FEAR, thus setting the horse up to be a fearful adult. This is a particular danger during a foal's Sensitive Period, ages 1 -3 months. If "desensitizing" is carried too far, it can cause a horse to shut down emotionally into a state of learned helplessness. Such horses can be hard to train because they survive by tuning the world out. They can also be dangerous because they do not give the normal warning signs of anxiety, and can explode unexpectedly if overwhelmed.

Trailer passes inspection

Confidence growing, Tiger's curiosity has led him to leave his family and check out the trailer. Having "taught himself to load", he was ready to follow his mama onto the trailer for his first outing: a stress-free adventure to my farm to play with agility equipment.

Scratches feel good!

Teach basic life skills using demonstration and Positive Reinforcement. Rambler is used to getting "feel good" scratches from people so when Nicole puts her arms around him, Rambler anticipates good things with no fear of feeling trapped. Leadline manners can be taught with minimal pressure by inviting the foal to synchronize with your body language. (Directions in my book Chapter 10 Friendly Body Language).

Learning by observing

Horses learn by watching others, especially those they know and trust. This is Social Learning. Rambler's mother models that being ridden is a normal part of life. Older horses can also model calm behavior for health care practitioners like vet, farrier, dentist, etc. People can follow up by role-playing the activities of different practitioners, slowly and gently making a game of it with lots of scratches for Positive Reinforcement. Barring emergencies, all of this can be done without the restraint, pressure, or force that promote FEAR instead of learning.

Sleeping Tiger

Allowing maternal nurturing until the mare chooses to wean might be the single most important step of all. By choice, mares rarely wean before 8 months. Meanwhile the foal is having lots of positive experiences as he strays ever further from mama, playing with his friends and exploring. Leaving and returning by choice helps the foal learn to self-regulate emotions, and develops his independence and confidence. He can also be led increasing distances away from his mother provided he is returned before before either mama or baby show anxiety.

Tiger plays with the big boys

Here is the story of Tiger's uneventful weaning. When he was 8 months old, his mother made herself less and less available for nursing. Tiger spent less time with her, and more with the "big boys". When it appeared that mama felt she had finished her job raising him, their owner brought mama to me, with profuse apologies for the desperate screaming I would surely be hearing. Instead, mama marched off the trailer, settled in the stall she occupied last time she was here, and looked at me as if to say, "OK, so what are we doing today?" Not one scream. No sign of stress. Meanwhile, back at the farm, Tiger looked for mama. Not finding her, he went to one of his "aunties" and indicated he wanted to nurse. She obliged by allowing him access to her teats. Finding no milk, he went off to play with the other boys. End of weaning story. Tiger is now, at 6 years old, a reliable driving pony for an older couple, and riding pony for their grandchildren.

The wrong kind of exercise

Jec explains that exercise is important for horses during their 2 and 3 year old years. It helps build stronger muscles and ligaments so their bodies are better prepared for whatever is required of them in later training. However, it must be the right kind of exercise. This horse shows the effects of the wrong kind of exercise: inverted neck, low back, hind legs barely stepping forward. He is not ready to balance himself or carry a rider. The wrong kind of exercise includes:
- Working in small spaces, especially a round pen
- Circles, especially repetitive
- Any restrictive gear such as side reins Small circles are particularly detrimental because of the imbalances they create. It is worth noting that the round pen was invented strictly for human expediency in controlling horses, not horses' benefit. Its predecessor, the picadero, had straight sides. Correctly used, it helps horses develop balance and self-carriage. Another common pitfall is starting specialized training too soon. Young horses all need their basic training to focus on carrying themselves comfortably in balance, as in the photo below. That is the healthy foundation for any career they are headed for.

Huge Improvement!

This is the same horse after 4 weeks of the correct type of exercise with Jec. Note the raised back, relaxed head and neck posture, and the use of his hind end as his leg steps well under him. The right kind of exercise:
- Working in open spaces
- No circles
- Lots of walk
- Walking on uneven terrain. Yes, UNeven footing. Leadline walks outside an arena are excellent, as is ponying him from another horse. This type of exercise mimics what wild horses naturally do as they spend much of their time walking with occasional bursts of faster movement. This article by Jec explains in detail.
How to Safely Condition Young Horses
Published in Canadian Horse Journals Spring 2022

Time to adjust

Moving to a new facility and starting a training program is inevitably a big adjustment for any horse. One who has been raised in a positive environment, however, will naturally assume that new situations will be ok, and new people will be trustworthy. He has the resilience to make a smoother adjustment. When Jec gets a new horse for training, she gives him time to settle in and feel comfortable before starting formal training. This is the same grey horse relaxing with Jec's own horse as companion.

References:
How to Safely Condition Young Horses by Jec Aristotle Ballou
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