Adult new or returning riders part 2

[theferry]

I thought I’d start a new thread seeing as the existing one is full.

I’m due to ride tomorrow. Maybe I’ll jump. I’ll see.

Oh look at all that leg!

He’s so lovely, worth the wait!!

Any tips on getting near him? Mum is being very protective, and just takes off running with him in hot pursuit. She’ll tolerate me being close by if I bring food (typical cob!) but I don’t want it to become too much of a thing. I want to get him used to being handled early if possible.

What a handsome fellow, and an absolute carbon copy of his mother.

I don’t have any tips from experience, but this seems like a very sensible article :) cdn.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/4273095/AEC-SOP-6.20-Routine-handling-of-foals-and-weanlings-during-teaching-and-associated-management-processes-SOP115.pdf

Congratulations @LunaNorth what a beauty and so similar in colouring too.

Hope all goes well with getting them to love you!

I don't have much direct experience myself and if you don't already have someone I'd definitely look for a person experienced in handling foals and youngstock to come in and help you but from my secondhand knowledge... It's very common especially for maiden mares to be 'foal proud' and protective of baby for the first few days but it normally passes quite quickly and if she is well handled and friendly likelihood is foal will be too just learning from her. Are they stabled at all or living out 24/7? It's much easier to do early handling work in a stable than a field. Even if you just bring them in for a few hours to eat and chill you can then hang out quietly in their vicinity and let him come to you for scratches etc while she's distracted. That will get him used to the routine of being brought in and out from the field and being stabled too which is important. But the most important thing is that he sees his mum being handled regularly and calmly and learns to lead and stand for the vet etc alongside her, but you will need help, when we've had foals on the yard previously it's a 3 man job moving them, one to lead mum, one to have arms around/contain baby and one to open gates and doors and clear the way of hazards and admirers! Will you be halter breaking him? I think it's usually considered easier to do this sooner rather than later but you have to know what you're doing as otherwise foal can get hurt...

Hi all! Thanks for advice, much appreciated. The vet and I managed to catch them both and do all necessary checks etc on Monday, and mum was a star.

Today, I distracted mum with food and managed to get a field safe head collar on her…and little Merl hung around for bum scritches! So we’re getting there.

I’m getting a lot of support from the yard, thank goodness, but so far so good.

He had a little nibble of hay today, which surprised me. This is today’s favourite photo. I promise I’ll stop spamming the thread soon 😂

That is a very sweet photo. Spam away. I must say, no clues to his paternity from his looks! It’s all Mum :)

I think Dad was a big ol’ randy cob 😀

He utterly lovely @LunaNorth, never stop spamming us with photos!

lol at his dad’s genes not even trying!

Is he getting more and more friendly every day?

He is! He loves a good scritch scratch, and takes a great interest in his mum’s dinner. She is endlessly patient. Just the best mum. It’s fascinating to watch them.

I love this pic because Clover looks so over it 😂

Sorry, pic fail. MN is telling me my pics are too big!

Oh, it’s worked now!

Love this pic.
How are Mum and foal doing?

How’s everyone doing? I’m aching this morning - I had a lesson in the morning which consisted of lots of no stirrups followed by a lesson on a simulator in the afternoon. My inner thighs are definitely feeling it today …

@Pleasedontdothat how is your daughters horse doing now ?

@tinyspiny rather worryingly she’s still not sound. The vets are cautiously optimistic but ideally she’d be further down the route to recovery now. She’s mostly behaving herself - she’s now out in the day in a small paddock but she’s lost her spark and my daughter’s very stressed about it all, as am I …

@Pleasedontdothat that is disappointing , 🤞🏻that she turns a corner soon .

@LunaNorth any new Merlin pics? :)

@Gremlinsateit thousands!

He’s a month old now, and is growing into the cheekiest, most inquisitive, most-loved boy ever.

When you walk into the paddock, he immediately trots over and presents you with his bottom for a scratch. When you stop scratching, he turns around to check you’re still there, then backs up and wiggles his bum until you start again 😀

He’s started joining in with mum’s teatime, and doing a bit of grazing practice. He has a bit of trouble getting his head close enough to the floor, given his long legs, but he’s working on it 😀

He’s just adorable. One month in and I’m struggling to remember life without him!

Sounds lovely @LunaNorth, we were in the country yesterday at a party and there was a couple with horses and foals but I didn't get to see them although we did swim in their river which was lovely. Hope you eventually get to ride the mother!

Am a bit sad as my wrist is still knackered from falling in January and now I have a frozen shoulder on the other side so restarting riding in September is going to be tricky :-(

Hope everyone else is getting some nice saddle time in!

Is your plan to keep him long term @LunaNorth ? Any idea how big he will get ?

In the medium term he’ll be going to live at a friend’s place, where I also work two days a week, so I’ll be in his life at least for the first two years. After that, we’ll see.

I hope everyone’s had a good summer. Mine’s been decidedly mixed… After months of trying to get her right we had to say goodbye to dd’s gorgeous eventer two weeks ago. And now there’s something badly wrong with Timmy but we don’t know what. He’s normally very laidback, what our farrier calls an ‘energy conserver’. He’s polite and responsive but his usual spooks are half a step to the side or if he’s really bothered by something then he’ll scoot forwards for a couple of strides before remembering he’s not supposed to do that and stopping - all fine and well within my comfort zone. However, recently we’ve had a few occasions of him suddenly taking off and running blind - he’s done it with me a couple of times out hacking and he’s also done it to dd in the arena. It comes out of nowhere - he’ll be happily walking or trotting and then in a millisecond he’s charging off at breakneck speed. There’s no obvious trigger, it’s intermittent and there’s no warning signs. Dd says she doesn’t feel safe riding him and she’s happy riding sharp competition horses over enormous fixed fences. We had the vet out last week who essentially gave him a second vetting (he’d flown through a 5 stage in December) - our vet said he could see why he’d passed and he’d have passed him too .. we did back x-rays on the off chance he had kissing spines but they’re perfectly clean as were his leg X-rays from the original vetting. I’m going to get him scoped next week to rule out ulcers but am at a loss as to where we go from here. 99% of the time he’s the cheerful, steady horse I bought but 1% of the time he’s frankly dangerous - more so because you’re not expecting it. I can’t sell him on as it wouldn’t be ethical - any ideas as to what else might be causing this - and even if we find out can we treat it??

@Pleasedontdothat we’ve had this type of behaviour with 2 of ours in the past , the easiest one to get to the bottom of was my thoroughbred who after years of being great on the road suddenly decided she couldn’t cope at all and it was likely due to the fact that when I started doing my nurse training I could only ride 3/4 times a week and she had always been a very strict 6 day ridden . We retired her as frankly she was dangerous . The other was my sisters IDX who quite a few times just bolted off , we never found out why and he was basically a table with legs so it didn’t feel as unsafe . Hope you get to the bottom of it otherwise I suppose you’ve got an expensive field ornament .

So sorry to hear, you really don't deserve this, you and DD have been through so much. It obviously sounds pain related or physical in some way, but tracking down what exactly is the difficult thing. You've tried the obvious ones, definitely worth getting him scoped although normally with ulcers you'd expect a somewhat more general/overall change in behaviours rather than 99% fine 1% blind bolting? I take it you haven't identified any particular triggers? There have been a couple of horses I can think of who have had somewhat similar issues, one my own mare who was increasingly unpredictable and would have these 'fits' of apparent panic, with her it was hocks (not obviously lame to palpate or on trot up) but she was a very different personality, very sensitive and stress at the best of times so my working theory was she was in low level pain a lot of the time as default but then either a small twinge or something else in her environment making her anxious just tipped her over the edge . Or a warmblood on the yard a few years ago started bolting, with him it sadly turned out to be neurological. Have you any concerns about his eyesight?

Might it be worth a bute trial if everything else comes back negative (although if the bolting only happens while ridden I guess that requires someone willing to be crash test dummy) or if all else fails a long holiday and some Dr Grass?