Mini foal tips?

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Stripe13

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Well, I have some good news! I sold Rebel a little while ago, but with that I decided to buy another mini :)

I looked around and decided on a sweet filly named Melody! She’s a bay Tobiano (possibly Overo as well) and I’ll be picking her up from her breeder soon. With that being said, it’s been around 6 years since I trained a foal (Rebel was my last). So I was wondering if you guys had any tips for me?

She is currently being weaned, and her breeder is working on halter breaking her soon. I know with foals you can’t teach them a ton until they’re older, but what about the basics? I’ll probably be having very short training sessions on tying, picking up feet, basic handling, standing, halter training etc.. what do you choose to work on with your foals and at what age do you start “serious” training with them? I know I’ll eventually be using her for all around events like showmanship, halter, in hand trail, jumping, and driving, but I know she can’t start working on jumping or driving until she’s a couple of years old at least. At what ages do you start working with them on events like the ones I mentioned?

I have been considering possibly bringing her to a few shows sometime while she’s still young. Would this be worth it for the experience? I’d either just bring her for a halter class, or maybe another simple class, nothing too big. I may not even show her, but just have her there so she can experience everything. What has your experiences been like taking foals to shows?

Any help would be great! :)

And of course here are some pics of her!
E17F671D-AF87-4230-936F-C8F7A20FE17B.jpeg24DC16ED-3032-4AC0-9D5F-1AB21C67E7E3.jpeg1BFA8FD5-993F-4A6F-95D3-914933EE678B.jpeg
and here’s a pic of her gorgeous dad,
Abrias Signature Buckeroo
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I don't know, but she is a gorgeous little girl!!

I will probably be in the same boat with you when we get Squirt though, I think she is ok with a halter but that's it.
 
Congratulations! Abrias always bred some VERY wonderful minis, IMO. Back when we were showing at the national level, I would drool over their sales videos. She looks like you'll do very well with her! I think you've covered all the basics with the training she needs. Remember that foals attention spans are very short.....Give her about 10 minutes max at this point and always end with a positive note..... even if it's a tiny positive. LOL. When training her for showing in halter, try to teach her how to set up without you needing to handle her legs too much. At first you obviously will have to, but eventually she'll figure it out and you will be able walk her into a set-up stance just by her paying attention to your body language. The other step is teaching her how to stand in place for longer periods of time WITHOUT creeping forward! (That was always a tough one for me.)

Good luck with her.........She looks like she already has a natural stance of "squaring up", so you just may be in like flynn!
 
Congrats! I am in the same boat, except this is my first foal. Our new pinto filly will come home at the end of August after weaning. I checked out John Lyon's Bringing up Baby just to see what he has to say - I don't subscribe to any celeb methods, but will pick what makes sense. I also am checking out Connection Training, as I think they may have a section on foals. The library is your friend! Luckily my Chaos is a very good boy, so hopefully she will learn some good manners from him too.
 

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