All Videos Tagged Bravo (Barnmice Equestrian Social Community) - Barnmice Equestrian Social Community

Foal training; Preparing for a halter with clicker training

2009-10-20T22:03:15.096Z

The training of the foal Bravo continues. Bravo is three weeks old and today he got his first own bucket. We are now starting using food rewards with the clicker training, and teaching him to be handled on the head and the feet. Next step will be to put a halter on.

Foals first training session continues

2009-10-08T17:09:29.164Z

The training session continues a little later the same day. This clip is filmed a little closer, so it’s easier to see what I am doing.

Bravo is at a very mouthy stage, and I don’t «correct» that. It’s clear that this mainly is something he does when I touch him in places he is not comfortable (an trying to correct him wouldn’t make him feel any better about it!). In stead I stand where he can’t reach me with his mouth.

Stallion helping with training foal in sacking out

2009-10-03T23:55:37.823Z

In this clip I am jumping a bit ahead in time. I still want to show the clips of his first leading lessons, but after the comments I got on some of the other clips of this foal and his upbringing with both parents, I wanted to show this clip that shows what a big part the stallion was when it came to training the little guy.

The plan in this clip was to do some leading training with the foal and teaching him not to be afraid of things like a tarp, but when Fabuloso got excited about it I changed my plan on how to do this...

When daddy shows that something is OK and cool; the foal gets convinced easily and the training happens in the most natural way; mimicking his parents.

I didn't go any further with this than what is shown in this clip, and didn't try it again until almost 6 months later. I pulled out the tarp to see what Bravo would do, and I couldn't even get it out in the field before the colt was standing on top of it; happily banging away at it with a very self satisfied look on his face.
Horses are so great!

Foals first training session

2009-10-01T20:33:01.141Z

Two days have passed since Bravo first approached humans. He is getting very comfortable and adores getting scratched around his withers. Under the disguise of petting him, we carefully start to handle him a little; getting him used to being touched in new areas, as well as restraining him a little.

With his parents casually grazing nearby and soft music playing in the garden, he really doesn’t even know that he is being trained!

Our movements are quick so that he doesn’t have a chance to pull away from the feel of our hands in new places. We move from scratching his favorite spots, and then quickly run our hands over his legs, under the belly and over his neck. The head is more difficult for him, so we hold off on that area for now.

We prevent him from moving forwards by holding an arm in front of his chest to get him used to being restrained. At this age it’s a lot easier for a foal to be held back like this, than to be held by a halter. As soon as he relaxed we release him.

The session is kept short, and we often check to see if he wants to leave. Keeping him away from his mother if he wants to go to her would only make this a negative experience, and the most important thing here is to make him feel good about the handling.

Foals first real meeting with humans

2009-09-29T18:02:22.503Z

Bravo is now two weeks old and this happened the day after the previous clip. Gunnar Martinsen, my husband, is trying to get up close to the foal.

He has a «secret weapon»: scratching is something most foals enjoys, and Bravo is no exception. This is all it took, after this the foal was loving the idea of humans…