toughts,ideas,suggestions,or is this just normal..

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Deanna

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I have a 1 month old foal who I have handled from birth imprinted him and loved on him in ears everything but when he is just out in the pasture he is standoffish but if you squat he might come over and when he does come over he will walk very quickly with a purpose....to bite, kick or rear up on me (or whoever is in the pasture)all in play but trying to not allow this without not makeing him more skittish is proving to be a problem I push him away he just comes back thinking I am playing so I pop him on the chest and then he will not come back to me but I dont want him to think this behavior is ok......thoughts here.......also when I try to walk up to him in the pasture he will just run away toss his head and kick his mother just stnads there as we play ring around momma when I touch him he will kick up at me or just run off.....BUT if you are 3' he will run over too you to knock you down and bite you? What shoudl I do will he out grow this ......here is another kicker once on halter he is FINE easy learner stood perfectly still his first clipping....fine on his feet and petting ties still great gentleman can rub all over him ears and even lead almost instantly so why does he act a fool off the lead? we do spend time just sitting out in the lawn chairs with him. We do not have a lot of foals a year so our basis for foal behavior at this age is relativity small I would love to think he will our grow this but all want to know others experiences.

Thank you
 
The pasture is his little domain. I would suggest bringing him and his mom inside and then interact with him.
 
I had a colt like this (my first foal), and thought it was cute....BIG MISTAKE. Don't let him get away with it. They may be tiny, but they can still do damage when they are full grown. My 1 month filly is just starting to be a little less timid about people in the field with her....but I wouldn't let her come up to me like that either. He needs to know the rules, and he will eventually learn that if he comes up to you nicely he will be rewarded...but if he comes up to you and is macho, he gets punished. Doesn't mean you have to be mean to him, just make sure he understands he isn't allowed to act like that to people.

The colt that I had like that was fairly aggressive. As a 2 year old, I couldn't walk through the pasture without a whip, or he would charge me. I couldn't let other people walk through the pasture, or he would walk up to them all nice, then rear at them. And when I tried lunging him one day, he stopped, turned, and ran me down....like I said, they may be small, but they can still do damage.

~kathryn
 
Oh I dont think it is cute cause I know it will not be cute when he is older like you said I need some ideas as to politely let him know that it is unacceptable. I tried pushing him away and he thought that was a game and came on stronger I tried popping him on his chest not hard but enough to say that is not nice and I said no loud and firm when I did pop him but this has made him leery of us so I dont really know how to handle this...will try the stall thing but that too is him basically confined and once he realizes he can not get loose he is fine....just not sure how to handle thsi boy and not mess him up mentally lol I defantely dont want a 2 year old charging someone!
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It is time to get a halter and a lead rope on him to teach him that you can have some say about what he can do.. Primarily he needs to know you are in control. Short sessions that are just for the purpose of letting him be restrained from this type of behavior. If he is like this now and you wait much longer, he will be a bigger handful as he gets older. Try to make these sessions as pleasent as possible but still be firm on not letting him rear and come at you in an aggressive way. Maybe just restrain him at first and as he gets use to that. Then start taking little steps and when he comes along, praise him and pet him. Thy know when you are pleased with them...Their ears go up...
 
But as i said above when he is on lead he is a great horse it is when he is off lead
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so I am not sure I will get the same results
 
Oh sorry Deanna, I did have one that reared and bit at me at around the same age. I do believe he was playing with me, as he would another foal...I just started bumping him when he did this, (enough to make him loose his balance, but not enough to hurt him) and after a few of those "timely" lessons he stopped the undesirable behavior.
 
Instead of pushing him away, try holding him close to you. If he tries to rear, keep him close and lower him -- or even lift him off the ground, what ever works at the time. If he tries to nip, keep a hold of him in some way and rub his nose with the palm of your hand. Rub, rub, rub in circular motion until you can see it's irritating him If he tries nipping more, just rub his nose again.

It's at this age you can show gentle dominance with being bigger and stronger without too much strict discipline. Take advantage of that while you can! Eventually, he'll be too strong to do this with, but by then he won't realize that and will continue thinking of you as that big hugging dominant human.

MA
 
Well I have one with the potential for that and he's going to be gelded next week. If he's like this now no , he will not outgrow it, and he will make a lousy stallion. Gelding a young foal drops the hormones almost immediately. My colt NEVER tried any of that rubbish with me- just the once I had laid back ears and Boy did he ever find out he'd picked the wrong person!! Back up as a cross mare would do, squealing and yelling and generally "reading the riot act". My colt will chase certain, tolerant, mares in the field, but there are quite a few he steers right clear of.!!! Now, I am haltering him daily and we are re-establishing out relationship on a different basis- ie, "You don't do that to me, I don't do it to you!!"
 
My colt tries to "play" with me, too. A firm "NO" immediately following works. And when he nips , I react with quickly grabbing a chin hair and when he pulls away, it hurts. This works ,of course, only if you're down at his level. Otherwise, a firm NO works great. Good behavior gets rewards. They love to get scratches. These foals want to please you
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They just need to know the rules
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I will try pulling his wiskers to see how that works. thanks guys just did not know how to make him understand this behavior was not acceptable but yet not make him scared of me in the process. hopefully this will work wiht this little man
 
This MAY help!

I am no expert with horses but this works great with dogs, and has worked with my horses and foals. I was taught with a dog I owned that would jump all over people, very annoying, to wlk into them basically and not allow them take over your space. It worked wonders with the dog and the behaviour stopped almost immediately!

I have done this with a pushy foal and it worked too. He was very sweet but very pushy and always trying to 'invade my space' I would just walk into him gently but it let him know that he couldn't do it. It was a gentle but firm way to show him the rules! He was very young at the time. He left here at 4 months a very SWEET well behaved little guy, HOWEVER, he is now a very pushy, dominant yearling and IMO should be gelded. He seems to have very strong hormones and would attempt to mount his mother from very soon after birth!! I think you can work with it but it is a personality trait too!!! This has been my experience so i thought I would share it with you, your colt sounds similar!

Good Luck!
 

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