CLARE Manning of Boherguy Stud had great success at the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale this week, having consigned two of the top three lots. She shared some of her top tips for preparing foals for the sales at last week’s ITBA foal sales preparation webinar.

In order to have her foals well-behaved and showing to their full potential, Manning starts prep four to five weeks before the sales, although she says the prep really starts from the day the foal is born, being handled from day one is a huge advantage when it comes to sales prep.

The daily routine with Clare’s foals is to take them in and feed them, then they get to relax in their stable for a while before grooming and hand walking.

“Grooming is very important, it allows you to build up trust with the foal and improves their behaviour, their manners and also helps them relax,” Manning said.

When grooming, Manning notes the importance of checking over the foals’ legs, eyes, and all over their body to see if there is any evidence of swelling or bruising that needs to be treated.

Manning uses rubber bits when hand-walking foals. They are exercised in a sand fibre arena which is not too hard to avoid causing any harm to the foals’ joints or hooves. The first few days the foals will start off hand-walking for five to 10 minutes and as soon as a foal begins to get tired they will get a break. She tries to build this up to 30-40 minutes hand-walking by the time the sales come around. Manning doesn’t put foals on the walker as she finds it is too hard on their limbs.

The most important element of foal prep, Manning finds, is getting the foal to walk on well – “if a foal is nice and relaxed, it will be able to use its hind-end when walking and look the best it can when it comes to the sales” – a foal that needs to be dragged around when walking will not show to its full potential.

After hand-walking, foals will be turned out together in small nursery paddocks in groups of three or four for a few hours in the afternoon. If it is wet and windy, Manning will turn them out in the sand or lunge arena.

Feed

Foals are fed morning and evening and are given two supplements, Calphormin for skeletal development and Hoof Maker for their hoof condition.

The farrier comes in every four to five weeks to work on the foals’ hooves.

Before going to the sales, Manning will have some of the foals scoped and x-rayed.

Travelling

If selling in Ireland, Manning tends to take the foals to the sales complex the day before they are due to show. “We generally load up two or three foals together in the same stall, usually they travel quite well like this,” she said.

Travelling foals to sales in England is quite different, Manning will give any foals travelling to England a flu vaccine as there is a higher risk of them catching something along the way than the foals going to sales in Ireland.

Manning tends to take foals to England four or five days before they are showing.

“We always use Ballinroe [International Horse Transport] and I leave how they travel up to the experts in Ballinroe, in the sense of how many they want to put in a stall. The lads are doing it for many years and are much more qualified in that area than I would be,” she said.

The foals will generally then go to an out farm for four or five days to settle in before showing starts.

Manning gives foals electrolytes before travelling to England to make sure they stay hydrated, as it is easy for a foal to become dehydrated and sickly. The foals also have their temperature checked in the days leading up to the sales and again when they arrive in England. Upon arrival in England, the foals will get more electrolytes as well as IronXcell which is an iron and vitamin B supplement. Regular temperature checking is vital once the foals arrive in England to detect any illness as early as possible.

Upon arriving at the sales complex, they will be checked by a member of staff and a vet to make sure they are in good condition for the sales.

“Then we bring them to the stables and let them settle in for an hour or two, it can be a little bit stressful for them at this point, they are out of their normal routine and are somewhere very different,” Manning said.

The new noises and smells of the sales complex can be very overwhelming for the foals.

Once the foals are relaxed Manning and her team will take them out for a hand-walk to get used to their surroundings and where they will be showing.

Showing

Showing can go on for three or four days which can be extremely tough and tiring on the foals; this is why the fitness work at home is so important.

Manning also stressed the importance of having good staff at the sales that are able to recognise the signs of a sick foal early on – “the horse’s health is paramount at the end of the day, you can’t take any horse through the sales ring that is sick.”

The sales complex is a very new and stressful experience for foals and it is hard to replicate this at home. Manning suggests mixing the foals around at home so they get used to being around different foals and don’t rely on their “buddy” to be relaxed.

Manning believes routine is the key to success – “horses are very routine animals and if you keep a set routine it helps keep everything settled and relaxed to allow horses to reach their full potential.”