Training 2 young foals and need help with kicking?

i have 2 young foals...a 2 month old dutch warmblood colt and a 3 month old quarter/arab X filly. i have them stalled together for now, just to ease their transition. the colt will lead (as long as the lead is around him) and follow me and turn right/left. the filly will only go so far. when i do this i put one in the barn while i'm working with the other. they call each other and fuse so badly that i have to close the top stall door b/c they try to jump the bottom door. this i can handle...but it's the kicking and biting i get from the filly. when in the stall i try and get them used to me so i'm not sure if this is a fearful thing from me being their or a bossing around kind of issue. whenever i touch her below the shoulder she starts acting up. once this is started i can just be in the stall and go to get the colt and she turns her butt to me and threatens to kick and will hop around at me. she has also bitten and pinned her ears at me. the biting isn't bad yet....but i need advice.

Training 2 young foals and need help with kicking?
I'm curious...where are the mommas??





These are herd animals...and you are separating their 'herd' when you work with one and lock the other away. It's just going to happen and you need to keep working with the separating every day.





At 3 months...the filly is working on being your boss! If it turned it's butt to me...I would use a soft cotton lead rope and lightly 'pop' that rear and get her to turn around and face me. That's VERY disrespectful behavior...and it needs to be nipped in the bud...ASAP.





For the biting...at this age...I would shove her away...and 'growl' at the same time. Her mother would bite her back! I don't recommend that. I would probably pinch her shoulder or her neck skin...right in front of her shoulder. That would be my 'bite' back. You need to NOT allow her to put her mouth on you. Baby nibbles and lipping SEEMS cute...but leads to a horse biting. And that is NOT cute. It hurts!





If she pins and threatens you...step forward into her space...and make her back off.





I'd get that halter on her and not let her 'escape' until she is standing calmly. Now, this is a baby...so if they stand for a few seconds...that is good. Always end your lessons on a good note. And don't get angry...they are babies. They have the attention span of a gnat! Takes alot of patience on your part.





I'd also have that halter on and work on petting her EVERYWHERE! She is liable to throw a fit...that's what they do. You just have to keep after it...day after day. And if you run into a problem area...like below her shoulder...then you make sure you touch and pet and stroke that area...every single day until she accepts it.
Reply:Why are they weaned at two months of age???





At this age, you have no long time attention span what so ever. I would advise not to work past 10 minutes tops each session. If they were 6 months old I would seperate them but they are so young that they really need each other right now. Don';t get so excited about putting alot of training into them. At this point, I would lead them together. If you can, have another person with you. Lead them twice a day, in and out of teh field to the stall, no exceptions. Never let them follow one day and not the other. You must be consistent. I don't expect a two month old to stand quietly getting there feet trimmed right now either. Filly's are alot more tempermental than colts so thats why shes resisting without her boyfriend. You can fight all you want with her, but shes not going to learn anything when shes that upset. You must work with her when shes at ease and if thats in the stall with her buddy than thats the way it needs to be right now.
Reply:If i were you i would keep working with them, but now start to separte them more often.


1) during feeding


2) during outside pasture/ paddock time


3) working with them





Im not saying to just rip them apart from each other. but i'd let them be able to be separated and not act up.





if kicking is a habit. teach your foals to disengage(making their hind quarters to move away from you). I would also pet them and spend as much time with them as possible. The more they trust you the less likely they are likely to kick or bite. Eventually they will stop kicking and they will think of you as the herd leader or domintant horse(person) in the little herd.


After this happens you should find these foals to be very easy to train!





Tips for Trustworthy horses


1) Make sure to have a lot of treats around


2) Pet, Pet, Pet, Pet and Pet them!


3) Work with them as much as possible


4) do whatever you can with them to make them like you.
Reply:Anna gives really solid advice. The natural horsemanship method of training today says that if u can get a horse to 'give u his feet' let u hold his hooves and also move his feet to where u want him to put them then u have his total respect. Teaching them to 'yield' hindquarters and then forequarters (also called giving two eyes or disengagment) is a HUGE step in moving their feet. Even babies can learn this though it takes some extra patience and a lil more skill to get them to learn it can be an excellent step towards willing and safe leading. Clinton Anderson has a foals or babies series out i think, i'm sure someone on here could walk u through the steps to yeild or u could find some things on u tube. But ur right to fix this now while they are still young, if u tolerate it or don't start correcting it and saying that's not acceptable ur going to have a huge problem. I have the meaniest things on four legs because i didn't fix it as a baby. Luckily it's a 400 lb shelthland so i can cope but if they have that strong personality as a foal and nothing is done u can have one heck of a problem by the time they are yearlings. I would say a basic rule of thumb is never leave when she's being nasty and if at all possible go 'into' her. The more she is nasty the more u go into her. I know it's hard to do but when u take a step back when they turn their butt u reward the behavior and it gets stronger because their action made u move ur feet. U make her move her feet first when she's being nasty, if it means haltering her and letting her have a short lead that u can grab when u go in so she can't turn her butt to u then do it. Do NOT let her behavior move ur feet and if she does manage to because u have to react for safety then u go back and make her yeild or move lots. I think u should work on short seperations with them too like everyone said, they are going to have to deal with it sometime. As for popping with a lead rope i don't conde force on the babies because it can make them fearful. U'll hear some old horse people tell u to just 'bite' them or 'kick' them back, that the mares would do this. The mare does it as another horse and as a bigger dominant horse. I've seen a lot of these bossy horses that the owners used this method with become a lot worse for some reason. Instead of stopping the behavior it became a dominance war between them and people and yes in that case the horse is eventually going to win. As for the bitting does she typically nip at one place? Find something that taste extremely bad like as bad as they hate dewormer and put that were she bites and let her figure out on her own that people taste reallllllllly bad! ;)
Reply:It sounds like you really need to bond, but if you already did keep working on the leading, sounds good! When you go in the stall have some one hold her while you are working w/ her. This might sound brootal but i had the same problem.Emfisize praisings make them know and sure they did and excellent job, always make them feel like things are going much better than they really are! Also Emfisize the punishment, if the reminders are little nagging like things the foal will get annoyed like all other children would. Example.. the filly kicks you or attempts to while a person is holding her, kick her back in the butt or the stomach. If she bites you smack her and tell her firmly NO Mare!! They seem to respond to Mare!! or Male!! better. It getts their attenchen. My mare tryed to kick me once and I kicked her back in the stomach and she has never tryed to even get angry while I am around her rear ever again. Make the slap or kick hard. Horses get kick by each other all of the time and I'm sure a horse hoof hurts much much more than a wee kick by a human. Dont be afriad of them I have worked w/ many foals and my methods always correct these problems. I have a 1.5 year old colt and the same kicking thing happened, I punished him and he never did it again to this day. Oh and the pinning the ears thing, that means that she thinking of misbehaving so slap her on the neck and another NO MARE!! Remember Patients! But if the foal is too small to correct in this method, just slap her where ever she kicked you, she kicked you in the thigh slap her in the thigh to put her back in her place! GOO LUCK!!

mint