Bringing up Baby

[Wendy Milner <wendy@wendy.cnd.hp.com>]

I have brought up a few babies from the day they were born.

Ponying the foals is great.  A couple of things though.
First, the youngster must know how to lead, and lead very
well.  Make sure they understand to move with pressure.
They understand that the whip is an aid to tell them where
to be.  Second, make sure that the horse you are riding is
willing to pony the youngster, knows that a rope under the
tail is OK, and is very cooperatives.  

Then take your youngster out on the trails.  I've found it interesting
to watch when the big mosters come out.  There is a horrible yellow
beast on the road (road equipment).  Pharalina (17 years old) gives it 
one look and ignores it.  Drake (3 months) goes "Oh my it's going to 
eat me."  He dances a bit, looks at Mom, finds she isn't concerned, 
and he settles down.  On the way back, he just looks at it and walks 
by.  The babies learn a lot from the way the rest of the herd, particularly 
their mom, behaves. When Drake went for training, the trainer had him out 
in the field and saw some trucks coming.  Being a trainer that is always
looking for things to train with, he walked Drake along the fence
line.  Big truck comes, Drake glances at it and keeps on walking.
No training opportunity here.

And you can keep ponying the youngsters.  For the person with the 4 year
old.  Yes, take it out and pony it with your older horse.  You will
not get exactly the same conditioning of the ponied horse as with
the ridden horse, but you'll get some.  At an organized ride, you
won't see ponied horses. I don't know if there is a rule about it or
not.   You will see some younger horses that are left at the trailer.
This is also good for the youngsters, as long as they are attended to.
There should always be a competent horse person with the young horse.
Don't leave them alone as you never know what they will get into.

My personal view is to wait till the Arab youngster is a minimum of
3 years old before putting weight on their backs.  In general, I wait
till they are 3.5 years old.  Then it is only light work, and they
get a couple months off in winter.  At 4 years old, I'll start giving
them a bit more work.

--
Wendy

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  Wendy Milner                     HPDesk:   wendy_milner@hp4000
  Hewlett-Packard Company          e-mail:   wendy@fc.hp.com
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