Having only been a horse owner for 10 months, to suddenly find
myself with a foal to care for was quite a shock.
My horse is a traditional coloured cob, prone to be a bit on the
large side anyway, so she hid the foal very well. So well in
fact that it was not until we found her early one morning with a
foal at her side that we realised!
A call to the vet advised me that as long as the foal was
suckling and the mare was calm, everything was ok, but to keep
an eye on them both for the first few hours.
Try stopping me ! Still in the clothes I had grabbed and thrown
on at 7am I spent the whole day gazing in awe at my new and
unexpected arrival and her clever mum.
I gave my mare a good feed with plenty of supplements to make
sure that she started to produce the milk she would need and she
allowed me to have a close look at her foal, who at only a
couple of hours old was very sturdy.
My next thought was "what do I do now - how do I make sure that
this little foal gets a good start in her life with people. " I
knew that I would not be able to keep the foal as I could not
afford 2 horses in livery, but I wanted to make sure that when
she left me, she was happy that people were her friends.
I spoke to a natural horsemanship expert, who advised me to
introduce the foal to as many different things as possible, and
get her used to being handled as early as possible. Fortunately
my horse had no problem with this and was happy for all the kids
from the yard to come and adore her foal. The foal was happy to
have her feet picked up once she had trusted me to support her
until she found her balance on 3 legs. She loved being groomed
and once we had a foal slip on, soon learnt to walk quietly with
me on a lead rope, by being patient and letting her own
curiosity encourage her to walk towards me.
This was particularly useful when I needed to bring mum and foal
into the yard and pop her into a stable if the blacksmith or vet
was coming.
As the foal got bigger I had to work on teaching her about "my
space" as a boisterous foal at shoulder height could easily have
knocked me over and she had to learn not to bump into me.
We had a lot of fun for the months that the foal was with me and
although it broke my heart when I had to part with her, it gave
me great pleasure when she trustingly trotted into the trailer
to go back to the farm that my mare had come from. I am sure
that the foal will take to all the other things she has to learn
over the next couple of years with equal confidence and trust
and be as kind and gentle as my horse is.
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