Weanlings to full grown... the diary of Kira and Stormy!!

[Native Lover]

We bought my foals early in spring 2009 we went to see them at the stud in the Peak District fields full of mares and foals grazing,playing and sunbathing It was a warm day and we had a look at all the horses and foals even the little section A's and C's but it was a D section we went to see.

We had originally gone to see a 3 day old chestnut filly i had seen advertised on the internet but when we got there i was very taken with a colt, he was gorgeous a rich chestnut colour with a star running into a stripe and 4 white socks being 3 weeks older than the filly he was a fair size bigger.I talked my partner into doing a deal with the breeder and putting a deposit on both till they were weaned in Oct, luckily for me he agreed i did say it would be easier to wean two foals together.

In the past i have bred two foals (i had to rehome them when my previous relationship broke down) so i do have some experience and know it will be hard work but i like the idea that they are untouched and i want to do bring up these foals myself, from first steps to first shows,to preparing to back though i will get some help with that as and when i need help.

I have always had mares myself i know they can be marish when in season but its my preference, though the two i bred where both colts one of who i kept entire till he was rehomed at 3 yrs old i was going to try have him liesenced with his breed society because he had done very well in his showing and a few local breeders thought he was good enough but thats the past now.

They were delivered about 11 days ago to our yard in a big horse box straight into the stable together, it was dark when they arrived as my yard has no electric or lights. We had to wait till they next morning to get a proper look at them I had only seen them once more since we had made our initial visit to the stud.

I had worried all day about them being delivered then worried all night about them being ok in the stable at my yard,esp since the colt had a habit of trying to jump the stable door and my stables have no top door

We woke early next day and went to see what would greet us when we got to the yard, and two like faces were just peering over the stable door, the filly whinneyed as we walked towards them, she is the most vocal of the two shouting across the field to my other two mares, (who had in all the disturbance trashed the fencing during the night )My Oh prefers the colt, he says he is stunning and thinks he will do best in the show ring but time will tell.

The filly was much braver than the colt and came up to the door to be stroked , while he shot to the back of the stable or hide behind her.They have both been wormed now and go out every morning after their breakfast for a run about in a small turnout paddock while i do the yards chores. She has had some handling and is happy to have her halter on and off lead, be brushed and i am now working on her tying up and picking her feet out on a daily basis and commands in the stable like back up, move over etc she doing really well

The colt (Stormy) came with his halter on but was very timid and nervous of us, hiding behind her and turning his bum on us when we went into the stable in the 11 days we have had him he is now starting to come up to the front of the stable and letting us slowly handle his face and neck but he is still nervous so will take time.A few times he has lost his lead rope and head collar and my OH has managed to get them back on with time and patience.He is a fiesty little thing though in the feild so curious about everything.

I decided after they were wormed to put them into there own stable so we could handle them individually but they still go in the paddock together everyday for about 5 or 6 hours and this week they have been learning about electric fencing and now think they have realised touching the white tape shocks !! its so funny to watch there antics and play fighting. Kera the filly stands up for herself and double barrels him at times.The turnout paddock is right next a busy country road so they are now getting used to all the traffic going past and get less spooked by it. In the paddock he comes up to me when i am poo picking or refilling water buckets he is slowly getting braver but all in his own time theres no rush.He comes up to play with me too and i have to send him away with a rope sometimes when he spins and kicks at me in the paddock.They both come in for tea on a night time i prefer my horses to have a fairly natural lifestyle but this winter they will be in on the evenings till spring time as its there first winter.

This week i am planning fencing off a winter paddock for my mares with access to the shelter so they will meet each other over the fence for the first time.I am hoping the electric fencing will hold and that the foals wont jump the small posts to be with the mares or i think it will be like WW2 lol.But so far i am really enjoying my time with these two and cannot wait to see what the future brings

 

[Native Lover]

Nov 09

Kira is comming on brilliantly and now learning to tie up and working everyday with her handling,she is picking her feet up and being lead around at regular intervals,happy to have her head collar on and off and comming to call from the field.I am hoping soon to have her ready for the farrier for her feet trim.

Stormy we are working on approach and retreat and using a hand stick to touch him (+tive and -tive reward) at regular intervals he is visible relaxing during these short handling sessions.He has accepted being touched with the hand stick on his withers ,back and rump we are gradually systematically de-sensitizing him ready for his first touching with hands. We are following the techniques in my new book No Fear No Force-Sarah Weston (natural horsemanship for foals) and in no rush it can be at his own time. But we were both pleased with him and how he has accepted it.

They are both getting plenty of time out in the field to play and now they have met my mares over the fence for the first time too.They are in two paddocks opposite each other for the winter.My plan is once Stormy is leading and haltered to turn them all into one paddock for the rest of winter with the two foals comming into there own stables each evening. My OH is also doing the handling and NH with Stormy too, I am pleased how there relationship is developing too, it really nice that he wants to learn with these foals.

I am intending to do picture guide to Stormy,s training as it progresses

 

[Native Lover]

Nov 09

All week G has been doing small sessions with Stormy 10 -20 mins max 3-4 times a day using the hand stick.He gets braver each day we cannot believe the change in him in 4 days since we first started introducing him to the hand stick.He is now comming over to be rubbed and G has even stroked him with his hands.
G is very proud he is now Stormies new Mummy He has worked been touching him all over starting at his withers going to his rump,withers down to the front of his chest, and his front legs.Slow rubbing movements taking the stick away every so often to give Stormy confidence that it won't hurt him.Just the back legs to desensitise now we decided it would be best to leave this till last has he can be quite kicky around his back end.

Anyway he some pictures of his progress this week..... with the hand stick appologies for the poor photos there done on my mobile...

 

[Native Lover]

Recap so far....Day off they earned it..

Week 1, time together in the stable and field, worming five days with panacur then novomectin on the 6 th day.Just time for us to get the fencing organised and for our foals to get to know us and chill out in there new stable and paddock.Minimal handling so even the worming was put in with there feed so as not to end up in a battle with them.They are getting used to us in the stable and doing chores in the paddock but Stormy is very weary of us. Kira was a lot braver.They are both wearing a head collar and lead rope when out in the paddock this way they get used to treading on the lead rope and get there first taste of pressure and release naturally ( Stormies head collar keeps comming off so we are leaving it off till we do the section on halter training,I have bought him a new headcollar with a buckle on the nose and neck so it will be easier to introduce it in the next section of his handling). Only Kira is leadable so she goes into her stable first then we have to slowly and carefully drive and encourage Stormy into his stable.We are establishing there feeding weaned slowly onto a stud cube with balancer.By the end of there first week they are really eating well both hard feed and hay adlib.

Week 2..Stormy is getting a lot less nervous now so we decided to start his handling with a hand on a stick this is made very simply with a glove stuffed with sponge and a long bamboo cane and some sticky tape to hold it securely in place. The glove had previously been rubbed all over Kira and in her stable bedding so it smelled of horse not human.
With stormy being a little nervous we first introduced him to the stick from over the stable door to see how he would re act.We put the hand stick towards his head and waited till he looked at it, then we took it away. and repeated this several times. It is important when doing this to have an eyes down not looking directly at the foal as eye contact is preditorial to horses.Then we held the stick nr his head till he looked at it and had a sniff to see it was safe.Again this was repeated several times and taken away several times though wary he was getting braver by the minute .Next step was to touch is withers for a few seconds then remove this handstick.repeating this several times then starting to slowly rub the handstick backwards and forwards on his withers (he really enjoyed this) We then started gently moving the handstick nr and nr to his rump all the time rubbing backwards and forwards in an ironing motion if at any time he was upset we went back to where he felt safe his withers starting at a count of 5 building slowly upto a count of 20.We always ended the session on a good note.
By the end of day 2 he was comming upto G to be touched with the stick really close to him with his head down relaxed.He can now be handled all over his body and head and face except his back legs so in about 12 10-20 min sessions he has gone from being virtually unhandled to happy to be touched almost allover

When doing the touching its important to avert your eyes but also when you remove the stick to turn your head and body away from his to release the pressure on him. Also keep the sessions short, foals have a short attention span and always end on a good note. Refresh what hes already done then do something new like a new area if hes anxious take the stick away or go back to somewhere hes comfortable with like his withers. Stormy get two handling sessions morning and evening.

I would like to add that we have no previous NH experience but it is really working, when i had horses in the past they were all fairly well behaved with manners ( except my young homebred colts they could at times push there luck a little) so a breeze really.I am terrible for wanting to look at my horses in the eye this is the hardest habit to break for me,i love looking at them and watching them....The riding equivilant is me constantly getting told off for looking down at the floor when i am having a lesson

Heres some piccies of the last two weeks starting with the day they arrived to how they were on their day off today.Tommorrow we are planning to start handling his back legs till he accepts this over the next few days.

 

[Native Lover]

G's reward

Two weeks ago these pics would not have been possible, this was G's reward and i think it shows in his face (pic3) Ten minutes of mutual grooming out in the field entirely Stormy's choice. Stormy and his human mummy ;-)

 

[Native Lover]

Stormy has really settled to his daily handling and this week we started on his hind legs Here was me expecting this stage to go with the bang because so far its all been going to plan. Anyway we got him nice and relaxed again with the handstick working our way towards his rump.This time moving slowly towards his hock then back up to his rump in the familar ironing motion. He took it all in his stride so we moved down from his hock to his fetlock bless him, not one kick out in protest...I really love this little guy. We worked on his hind leg for two sessions and both times he was completeely trusting ,happy and relaxed.Even going up the inside of his hind leg because he can now be handled all over with the hand stick we have moved on to the next stage using a fluffy feather duster,again with this we went back to basics letting him look towards it then taking away,letting him sniff it then taking away till we were finally replacing the touches and rubs with the feather duster not the hand stick,this is allowing us to be a lot closer to him when handling him and hes really taken to it.We are going to continue though to work on his legs in much closer quarters ready for hands on legs and picking his feet up, i think we should not really skimp on this stage of his education.

Also this week we are preparing him for the next stage which is headcollaring so at the end of every session G now uses the headcollar letting him get used to it jangling near is face and grooming his face and neck with it till he relaxes.Then he goes out into the paddock to play with Kira for the morning his handling is then repeated on an afternoon when he comes in for tea. I would never have thought we would be this far on when we got them 3 weeks ago.Even though we could probably have skipped a few of the steps because this is our first time using these techniques we are working through it at a pace Stormy seems settled and happy with and allowing him plenty of time out to chill.

It maybe seems a slow way to go about things but in all he has really only hand these handling sessions for about 8 days now, and we have the whole winter to get him gradually used to things,i am not in a rush with him after all i want him to grow up into a trusting well mannered horse.

Once he his headcollared and leading my plan is to get his feet trimmed as he has some cracks developing and to have the vet out to microchip him and start there vaccinations. But we both handle him so he used to others and hopefully when he meets the Farrier and the Vet he will be able to take it all in his stride. What he has learned so far has in no way stressed him out. I am really happy with his progress so far he grows more trusting and confident each day,he now is waiting at the front of his stable every morning we we arrive and being in the stable with him he is much more relaxed around us doing chores like tying the haynets up and skipping him out his previous nervous spooky manner is disappearing.He no longer runs to his comfort corner overlooking Kira in the other stable.He rarely presents his rump to us now when we enter the stable but instead greets us head on

More pics to follow as soon as i sort them out...

 

[Native Lover]

Desentitizing Legs

Stormy has now had plenty of handling on his legs with the hand stick,featherduster and body brush he accepted it very well much better than i was expecting We are now able to get much closer to him and groom him with hands followed by a body brush....Heres some of the pics..

 

[Native Lover]

Headcollar training

We went to the stables as usual but this time we kept them both in on hay G was determined to get a headcollar back on Stormy so he is ready for his next stage of training. He used approach and retreat with the headcollar and Stormy was soon happy to be groomed with it. But he was not having it on his face
G tied a piece of bailer twine to the headstrap he was rubbing him gently all around his neck head and face in preparation. handle him for 20 mins then leave him alone for 45 mins .
Eventually we managed to get the headstrap fastened so we left him to get used to it and an hour later he managed to fasten the nose strap so now stormy is wearing his head collar only took 41/2 hours lol but hes loads happier having his whole body handled now.He can be groomed now gently with a body brush allover and even up and down his front and back legs so progress so far really good

G has such patience with this little colt and it really is paying dividends, now both of them have head collars and the next stage is leading,Standing and picking up feet back soon for the next update.....

 

[Native Lover]

He did it !!

For the last few days G has been working on getting closer to Stormy by grooming him all over with a body brush as i would have expected Stormy loves this, we have been working on brushing up and down his legs both front and back.Today G stroked his legs with his hands up and down getting further each time till he was touching his fetlock with no protest from Stormy who was happily munching on his hay.I was watching this from Kira's stable he seem to be very relaxed about it so i urged him to pick up his front foot while he was busy with the hay just for a second with the word 'up' and the little fella did it

He did this a few times and i said while hes occupied move to his back foot on the same side stroke his leg all the way down and lift his back leg, well again he did it with no protest he just kept munching his hay so today we have achieved him happily accepting picking 2 of his feet up more work needed but we did it

And the plus side is i can now try take pictures of Stormy on his clean well groomed shiny side he really is such a deep rich chestnut colour.

Kira being a sensible girlie has already been doing this for weeks

 

[Native Lover]

Foalies Playing

Took these this evening while the foals were having a mad half hour,I could watch these two for hours when they are playing

 

[Native Lover]

Stormy now picks two feet up regular but not so keen on is less handled side,but we are working on it regularly.Hoping this week to start training him to lead and stand.The weather has been so miserable this last couple of weeks it has hindered a bit but the paddock being fairly free draining is not to bad......considering.They come in each night to call and loose walk into there stables but i intend to do more leading work with Kira this week.With work we have been doing the chores quickly but hope to spend a bit more time with them this next few weeks.They still have to be Microchipped for passporting.Some evenings we let them have a good gallop about in the big field to burn off some energy.When Faye has her hind shoes off in the next few weeks we are thinking of letting them all go in together for the rest of the winter, but thought it was safer to have her hind shoes removed as they will no doubt squable for a few days till they sort the pecking order out but Faye being the dominant mare will soon show them some manners

This is them this week with there new big hay bale its bigger than them lol

 

[Native Lover]

Halter Training and Leading....

This morning after all had been fed G decided to see what Stormy's reaction to being led would be so armed with a 12 ft parrelli rope,he stood at the stable door with Stormy and proceeded to put the lead rope on and off his headcollar,he took this in his stride so i opened the stable and Stormy trotted out got to the end of his lead rope and had a little half hearted pull and went to eat off there big bale of hay

G slightly increased the pressure on the rope till stormy took a step forwards towards G,he did this several times.Stormy was held loosely at the end of the rope. Within 2 mins he was following G round the paddock on the end of a loose rope. Here was me expecting to see G being dragged off down the field with Stormy in full pelt gallop but no.... the little fella took it all in his stride after about 10 mins of walking around G unclipped the rope and let him go back to his bale to eat. We let Kira out of the stable to join him, that was his first time being lead and was fairly uneventful and i forgot to take pics as i was so surprised lol....

Went back up this afternoon to find them all milling around the stables waiting to be fed. G again put the rope on and off Stormy while he was loose in the field and then started leading him up and down and around the field this time with the other 3 following again the little fella just followed. I really cannot believe it was that easy to get Stormy to accept pressure and release but this time i got a few pics so here they are about 20 mins leading in one day

In the last pic G is telling faye off for following the colt with her ears back

 

[Native Lover]

Foal whisperer

Maybe G could have a new carreer as a foal whisperer i keep teasing him about that but to be honest he has got so much patience with our horses but a quiet kind way with the foals.And works slowly with them.

 

[Native Lover]

Jan 2010

Well the latter part of Dec and early January was pretty much a no go as for doing much more than the basics with Kira and Stormy, we could not do much leading work with them because of the snow and ice, but we have kept up with handling them.

They are now yearlings!!! Both are growing well. Stormy is still the boisterous one when he comes up in the field to us. Kira is much gentler in her approach,she will often come up behind you and gently nudge at you.

We were watching some NH videos on you tube and one of them was sacking out with a paper feed bag which G has now started with Stormy,I think Stormy thinks its a game a little scared at first of the sack but he now has it for between 10 and 15 mins a day and is getting relaxed about it. G does it in the stables but is hoping to start soon outside. So heres a couple of pics of sacking out of Stormy and one of him rolling in the field plus my snowy winter herd.

Sorry about poor pics, blame my mobile phone

 

[Native Lover]

Some snowy winter foals/ponies from Dec 09 - Jan 2010

 

[skyenfaye]

pfft shakira is sooo greedy look at the 1st pic of stormy and the bag she saying 'give me some pleeeeeasse'
lol i love her soooo much

 

[Native Lover]

Long weekend in the Peak District (29/1/10)

Both my yearlings Kira and Stormy went back to there stud for a long weekend to be microchipped and vaccinated due to my vet being totally useless with them

They were picked up thursday and loaded very easily in the horsebox.Saw the vet friday and were successfully chipped and vaccinated, they were both well behaved so i am told. So they can now be registered with the WPCS at last and get their Passports

They have both been walked out in traffic for the first time while there with there sire showing them the ropes,so they have seen the big scarey world outside our field.......bless. Apparently they were scared of the quarrying lorries at first but soon settled when they saw there dad wasn't bothered

They are comming back home to us first thing monday morning cannot wait to have them both back....though the lie ins have been very nice this weekend.

Will post some new pics monday night

 

[Libbylou]

They are both gorgeous and you sound as if your doing a fab job. I wish my OH would show more interest !

 

[Native Lover]

They are both gorgeous and you sound as if your doing a fab job. I wish my OH would show more interest !

G has took to the horses well considering he had never been near one till he met me.Stormy is his work in progress and he done a wonderful job with him.They have both bonded well with each other.I explain what needs doing he gets on with it

 

[Native Lover]

Turned out for the spring/summer....

Not updated for awhile.....
The 'yearlings' are going to be turned out full time from tonight with the mares.It been mild this week here so they will hopefully be ok now the worst of winter is over.My babies will be out of the cot into the bed!!!

They will be brought into the stable daily for feed and handling but live out as a herd now.I have 3 more round bales of hay left after that they will go back into the summer paddocks, so here hoping the grass starts growing soon

They are now 10 months old can be groomed,caught,head collared,pick there feet up,lead.Need to work on tying up! and are growing nicely i would say Stormy is between 12.2 and 13 hh now and Kira about 12 - 12.2 which is quiet a bit bigger than when they came in Nov 09.

They will still be regularly handled through the spring and summer getting there first bath as soon as the weather warms up( now that will be fun).I want to introduce them to the idea of rugs before next winter too as they will be living out next winter and the plan is to get them to some shows this year, but a little more work needed yet.Not bothered about them being placed it will get them socailised and used to the atmostphere and lots of sights and sounds.

No more mucking out yippee

Just months of poo picking the paddocks