In the land of the Cerne Abbas Giant, I was somewhat dwarfed today by three Warmblood mares AND their foals. All six months old, they are all very tall with plenty of bone. They have the joy of living out full time with the dams on eight acres of green pasture with plenty of shelter, and when needed, rugs.
They came in en masse...
The biggest one is Theo, a Hanoverian colt, by Woodlander Supertramp, out of Trenda.
and then there was Savannah, by Soliman de Hus, out of Hanoverian mare, Anna. All of the foals had headcollars on briefly as very young foals but owing to circumstances haven't had them on since. During the intervening time they have become less inclined to have a headcollar on but happily they are all fine with being touched everywhere else. Not only that they have kind temperaments and there wasn't a hint of a kick or escalating their behaviour at all.
It's not always easy to work with an older foal that is still with it's Mum. They can calmly evade attention just be moving around and tucking in behind them. It's also important to allow them to feed when they want to and to engage in important social activities such as mutual grooming. We worked first of all with Bella, half sister to Savannah.
No horse is too posh for the soft scarf which we used to reintroduce touch around the face. She wasn't convinced at first and hid behind Mum just because that was the easiest thing to do but soon she was accepting it around her neck and wrapped around her face.
Theo was pretty confident and as a colt liked to take hold of the scarf. It wasn't long before he too was having his face wrapped up in a figure of eight...
...and then accepting his headcollar when put on using the No Force, No Fear approach, i.e. from the back rather than up over the nose.
Savannah didn't like the scarf on her face at all, finding it far too tickly, but accepted a flat hand and then the noseband - an important reminder that no two horses are the same no matter how closely related.
Back to Bella and she accepted the scarf and...
then the headcollar in quick succession.
Having put these three back in the field, it was time to find some more!
Holly, aged three months and Archie, four months, were keen to come in with their dams...Holly is a Danish Warmblood cross Thoroughbred by Monaco and extremely cute. Archie is full Danish Warmblood by Monaco.
Archie was a sweetheart and between bites of hay he had a scarf on and then his headcollar pretty quickly.
Holly is a little more nervous and in the time we had left we concentrated on getting her happy to have the scarf on.
When she chose to go for a walk, I walked alongside her just holding the end of the scarf - it's a good way of establishing the concept of leading just by gently mirroring her.
A kiss for Beccy her owner. Hopefully the scarf and the NFNF technique for putting the headcollar on will prove to be useful.
Four of these foals are for sale. They are all beautifully bred and being raised in an ideal and healthy set up. They should all be well rounded mentally and physically as a result.
