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Re: [RC] Early handling - Sisu West Ranch"...decided to do the minimum we needed to do early so we could handle her - but otherwise let Mom and Aunt Rosey teach here to be a horse..." You will never get an argument from me that this is about the best way to do it. The operative idea here, if I may paraphrase is that two things happened. 1. The foal learned how to be a horse and how to live in a herd. 2. Enough training was done that the foal decided that humans were higher in the pecking order than it was. I am assuming that you or someone taught the foal not to kick, bite, or run over humans. Since the foal was also in confined environment it probably also learned how to be caught and behave for shots and basic foot care. When I have studied Miller's instructions and worked with my neighbor imprinting our foals, I have definitely received the impression that the young horse is being taught to respect people. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I think I am hearing that some who, misunderstand the methods, accidentally teach the young horse that people are just playmates and not to be respected. I don't feel that this is a fault of the method, it just means that these people would need one on one instruction from a very good teacher to be able to apply the methods. Personally, we do not expect a whole lot of the foal, but they must quickly learn a number of things to fit in with our herd. They must stand to be caught before weaning. They must lead. They must not bite or strike at humans. They must stand tied while being fed supplements. During the first few years they must learn to stand while their feet are trimmed. They also must be taught by the rest of the herd how to be a polite horse. The way our ranch is set up, if all the horses did not know these things, we could not enjoy having them around. Ed Ed & Wendy Hauser 2994 Mittower Road Victor, MT 59875 (406) 642-9640 ranch(at)sisuwest(dot)us =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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