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thats alright
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my mare is normally very easy to catch as well, even with her previous two foals i never had trouble. Maybe it was because this one was nearly white and the other two were brown/black lol

Anyway good luck
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and more pictures when you get the chance pretty please
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I would bring the younger mare in and let mum and baby out in the big pasture for an hour where they have plenty of space. You have to be careful with fences as babies don't know they need to respect them so they can get hurt. Give them as much space as possible to learn to use his legs. After I would put them in the smaller dry pen for the rest of the day.
 
We never handle our foals here. It is a foal's built in instinct to try to 'escape' from being approached or 'trapped' by any dangerous situation (handling by scarey humans!), so we keep well out of their way. As I have a 'thing' about keeping my stables free from any droppings, we spend quite a lot of time quietly entering the stables to collect the dropping while the mares and foals are in. Mostly this is done on our hands and knees with a small collection bucket, which means that we are 'down' at foal level and not standing up looming over them! Some babies will hide behind their Mommas, some will want to investigate to see who we are, but we still ignore them all, keeping our movements slow and quiet so as not to cause any 'fear'.

Foals are naturally inquisitive and within a couple of weeks they will all approach us to say hello when out in the fields. Within a month they are all leaving their Mommas when we go out to visit and following us around the pasture, and if we stop and sit down we are immediately mobbed, climbed on, sat on and generally 'abused' as they all vie for scratches and attention! We pick up feet as part of this 'game time' and when necessary trim them too, in fact ours dont even see a headcollar until after they are weaned, which never seems to cause a problem as it is just 'one of the games these funny human folk seem to play'!!

Your little lad will be fine, just spend some time sitting in your small paddock with him and his Momma and he will soon come over to investigate and you can then quietly start giving 'scratches' - all babies love scratches!! I do realise that you have had to 'handle' him to get him rugged, but apart from when you have to do his rugs, I would back off a little and give him the chance to approach you in his own time. One word of warning, when 'holding' a foal make sure you have your arm around his chest and not half way up his neck - it is very easy to put pressure on a foal's windpipe and to cut off his breathing!

Receiving cuddles at a couple of weeks/just sitting with them/assembling for foot trimming at a couple of months.

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Yes I do things much the same here. One of my mares always has very friendly foals that will be easily touched from day one but I fight the desire to cuddle them ( which is very hard as they are so darn cute) most of the other babies are shy and will just watch me from behind mum.

Anna those pics are just adorable and explain perfectly how curious they get
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Awesome pictures Anna!
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We took baby and mama out into the small pen. The breeder had told us not to let us use his legs much as the joints aren't fused and so it could hurt his legs? But he's running in his stall, so getting him not to use his legs would be an exercise in futility. We took him out and he said he wanted to be a Thoroughbred race horse when he grows up! LOL He was running and bucking and rearing up and prancing and just having a blast. Mama couldn't really run in there, but it let her trot and roll and buck a bit. We have storms moving in, so I only left them out there maybe an hour. We'll take them out to the big pasture next week. It's supposed to get really sunny and warm, so if it's ok on his legs, we'll let them run out there for awhile. I'm sure mama would like to stretch her legs.

Here's a few pictures of the outing today.
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He looks like a pretty upright little guy, so I can't imagine excercise being bad for him. Very cute. congrats
 
Yep his legs look just great to me too. He is just stunning and has that "I'm gorgeous" look that shows he knows it
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He would do great in the show ring.
 
Ditto to all that Diane says - exercise is the very best thing to help babies strengthen up those wobbly legs!!

It sounds as though he had a great time during his first outing - thanks for the pics, he is just such a cute little fella, good looking too!
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Thank you. I am really hoping to get to show him.
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I'll tell you that we are VERY new to mini's. I used to show POA's, but that was years and years ago. I am honestly a little scared to get into it, but it's something I've wanted to do for a long time now. I mostly wanted to get into driving mini's. The mama's sire was a driving horse and mama has that fancy action to her and I am hoping this colt goes that way too, though honestly, I haven't the faintest idea what I'm doing. LOL We had an offer on him, but kids and husband agree that we're going to hang on to him and see how it goes.
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We can always let him go later on if we wish, but he has the tiny muzzle and the tippy ears and the dished Arab'y face that I was after and so I'm excited to see how he turns out. I just have to work up the nerve to show him. LOL I wanted to train mama to drive too and try and show her. Normally she is very calm and laid back and easy to handle and I think she would be a good cart horse.

Unfortunately the two are stalled up again as we have thunderstorms rolling in, so they won't get to go out again till next week. He really enjoyed being outside.
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I too am extremely new to minis and intend to show my baby, but I'm nervous as all get out about it too... Do get up the courage to do it! I showed Labrador Retrievers successfully as a teen through AKC, but minis aren't dogs, and I hate getting out of my comfort zone. I don't know anyone around me that shows, so I have no one to "hold my hand" through it. I so hope that we BOTH can get beyond our nervousness!
 
He is such a ham, adorable lil guy, soon he'll be running circles around all of them...if mom allows..... Once again congrats..
 

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