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The safest and most secure method to hold a foal in order to handle it is to place one arm around the chest below the foals neck and one hand on the underside of the base of the tail as close to the foals body as you can place it. Gently lifting the tail upward and restraining him with your other arm you should be able to gentle secure the foal.

For the first few times it may help to enlist the time of a friend, then while one of you holds the foal the other person can gently touch the foal, using soft strokes working from the ears to his feet but remember a little bit each handling don’t try and do everything on the one day. Most foals will love a scratch and rub so this handling business is not that hard as long as the foal has confidence in its handler.

Your aim is that you will have your foal happy to stand calmly and allow you to touch, run your hand down the legs to the hoof and to be able to pick up each foot one at a time and pat the bottom of the foot. We are great believers in introducing our young foals to the farrier at a very early age, so this handling goes a long way towards the foals’ attitude to farriers.

Remember to handle, touch, groom, stoke the foal on both sides of their bodies, everything you do on one side should be done on the other. We all get into bad habits of doing everything one-way! but at this young age of development again the aim is to finish off a confident foal, a happy foal now means a happier horse in years to come.

Introducing the halter, we prefer to do this in a large stable, just simply slip the halter and allow junior to spend some time getting used to it. Some people leave halters on their foals, we prefer not to take the chance that any horse especially a small foal will get hung up by the halter so no equine wears them out in a paddock or unsupervised. If you do decide to leave a halter on, always use a lightweight leather halter that will break if the horse snags it on something or gets a foot through it, never use a strong nylon halter or PVC one.

The easiest way to teach your foal to lead is to use a long lead rope, have a friend lead the mare, allowing the foal to follow. Walk alongside just holding the lead, the foal is following the mare so you are not pulling it along. Once the foal will follow the mare, gradually move to the usual leading position alongside his front shoulder.

Don't get in a tug of war with any foal, if your foal wants to plant his feet and not move, using your long lead gently placed around the rump and above the hocks bringing it back up to over the withers, then as you ask gently with the lead from the halter apply some pressure on the bum rope so he knows to move forward, at the first try ‘lots of praising’. Then ask again and keep pressure on the bum rope until you get forward motion, rewarding each time before asking again.

Training has to be consistent and always follow through, if you’re running late or haven’t got the time to spare don’t start something new! always make sure you finish whatever you start and let the foal go on a good note. We like to always start our session with something they know, then will introduce anything new and then finish again with something we know they will do correctly.

Young foals are like young pups and children, they like to nibble, nip, chew and put everything in their mouths. Don’t allow the foal to bite, push the foals mouth away and with a very sternly ‘no!’. If necessary, swat him loudly on the shoulder.

While we are discussing bad behaviour, rearing! … young foals just seem to love to rear, needless to say this can be dangerous [okay maybe cute while he is the size of a pea but your little pea is going to grow into a 600kg horse] If your foal tries to rear and you are beside him, a good open handed swat on the shoulder and again that magic word ‘no’ ..are you starting to understand those mothers in the supermarkets with a small tribe following? That word ‘no’ seems to be a universal thing.

Few foals will kick, however we have rarely had a foal that will kick as such at us, if they do a slap across the hind legs sharply and again say ‘no!’ All of these bad habits can be prevented with immediate discipline, which is usually only needed once or twice. The longer a horse gets away with anything, the harder it is to break it of bad habits so act promptly to curtail any misbehaviour. If you are not sure about discipline take some time out and sit somewhere you can view the foal and mare but they cant see you and watch ‘mum’ dish it out, she will very calmly and swiftly bring a boisterous junior back to sense, even if it is just a flash of ears been pinned back and a glare that just says ‘buddy you are pushing it’

So hopefully this may be of help to readers, remember it is most important little by little to build your youngster, at the end of the day he/she is going to be a horse and if you want them to go on and have a good life then by establishing manners now you are helping to assure their usefulness in life.