Foal halter breaking

[seahorse]

If you are a one man show it is still easier to teach them from day one to lead. Long soft cotton rope on mare, halter on foal from day one. Hold the foal's halter with your left hand and have the rope around the foals butt with the end and the middle of lead in your right hand on the foals back, mare will be next to the foal. Guide with your left hand and drive forward with your right, mare on right will help steer him straight, and if the foal does get loose no rope to tangle around his legs.

[clh]

I usually always was the only one leading mares and babies out at our farm as well. We always haltered babies day two or three and take them off and on during the day and everyone's halter is off during the night. The babies have to get used to getting the halter put on and off so if they are extremely headshy the halter will stay on for few days without coming off until they are used to having their heads touched. We do things very similar to seahorse and/or use a loose lead on the baby to following mom that way they are used to the weight of the rope. Trying to teach a large weanling to lead can be disasterous I'm sure (YIKES). Most of the time I never let a baby just follow mom to the paddock on her own. Our farm is set up so that no one can get out if they get loose, but still ...... and we've had some really scary and funny things happen over the years.

[Derring]

I know how it can be when there's only one person--you. Sometimes you just have to be a little creative as long as you put safety first. I put the halter on my foal for the first time when he was asleep in the pasture. Everytime I went out to the pasture, nothing got done until he accepted his halter. The same with leading. He didn't fight it much. He was more interested in human interaction and seemed to want to be led. I guess it depends on the temperment as well.