01/03/2026
I say this every year, but I really love my babies. They are so smart and so easy to train. I train my foals slowly, like the old saying you have to go slow to go fast, it works so well with cob babies. They get used to being patted from birth and I teach them moving away from pressure on chest, shoulders and rump in the paddock. Between 3-4 months they are more confident away from mum and I‘ve found this the best age to start actual training. I’ve tried training young foals and find they go backwards after the initial training and it’s just as easy to start later. I’ve started 1 or 2 after 6 months due to time constraints and I don’t like doing it so late, I prefer to have their basics instilled before 6 months with leading, tying, trims, baths, brushing etc. My training sessions consist of 15-20min sessions. DJ is brave and confident, he can be patted all over and picks up his feet already so his first sessions were a quick pat all over, start getting used to brushing manes and tails and feather then had ropes over his body. The ropes is usually 2-3 sessions, learning to have ropes over their body and neck to start, and walking around with it, I swing the ropes a bit while it hangs off them, then it’s putting ropes over the head and off the head, we do this a lot until they are happy to stand when a rope goes over the head without startling. I use the rope around their neck with a little pressure to start the leading process by stepping towards pressure. DJ did all this with flying colours, I then put the halter on the nose and off the nose without actually doing it up at first. First time halter was done up behind the ears then over the nose as he wasn’t sure about being ‘held’ so this avoided too much pressure on him. Took it off a couple minutes later and then put it on over the nose and did it up properly and he was quite happy with it. Did this 3 times perfectly and that was a session. Today was the next session, he stood perfectly, away from mum while I put his halter on, such a good boy. He gets lots of pats and praise for each step, he loves pats. I put the lead rope on the halter today and let him get used to it, swung it around, let it drag on the ground, added a little pressure looking for that one step towards me, to help him understand what I was asking I put the rope around his neck and used the neck rope with the lead rope with a click and he immediately stepped towards me ❤️ They just make it easy to enjoy working with them. Pipsqueak is nearly a month younger and not as confident with patting all over yet or being away from mum so he has only just started with touching all over, getting used to having his legs touched all over. Today he had his first ropes session and wasn’t bothered at all. Nice 😊 when I finish my training sessions my babies always follow me to the gate looking for more. A good way to end a session 🥰
