What is the best method of leading a young foal?

  • Foals easily learn to lead when they are young.
  • The basic process of following their mother helps a great deal in teaching foals to go forward with someone beside them.
  • After the foal is accustomed to a head collar, leading lessons can begin.
  • For young foals, only a soft cotton lead rope is necessary.
  • A chain lead should never be used in foals.
  • Initially, in the very beginning, a lead rope is not necessary. Simply hold the foal with one arm around the chest and the other around his rump and walk with the foal just behind the mother as she is being led.
  • The foal quickly becomes used to the idea of having someone being with it while walking forward and having someone guiding its movements.
  • It is best to begin this while the foal is one to two weeks old, i.e. before it gets too big.
  • When the foal is comfortable with someone “holding” it while walking, then a lead rope can be used.
  • ?A long rope can be used to create a large loop that goes over the foal’s rump.
  • The loop comes together at the foal’s withers, with enough slack being present from the withers to the halter so you do not pull on the foal’s head.
  • This loop is used not only to guide the foal’s movements, but also to begin the process of encouraging the foal to walk forward on its own, not just when following the mother.
  • This technique especially is useful when having to lead the foal away from the mother.
  • The technique as described above, is much more effective for teaching foals to lead than just pulling on them.
  • In many cases, when an untrained foal’s halter or lead is pulled by the handler, the foal does not know what it is required to do. So the natural response is to resist the pull - at first pulling back, then often by rearing. If one continues to pull while the foal is rearing, it may tend to fight even harder, with the dangerous result of flipping over backwards.
  • When a foal decides to rear, it is important to give the animal some slack on the lead rope, but it is equally as important not to let go of the lead rope and to stop the pulling to allow the foal to settle down on all fours.

    • What is the most commonly used method of restraint for loading a foal onto a trailer/horse box?