| We work at making our foals unafraid of as much stuff as we can, so that you can enjoy a spook-proof horse and still have fun at the same time! |
| From the day our foals hit the ground, we put toys out for them to play with. |
| We have "flying feedsacks of death" which are feedsacks that hang off the lot brace and swing in the wind. We go out and find the mares and foals standing under the sacks just hanging out! |
| We have the "ring of death" -- there's more than one way to use a hay ring! We put the hay ring on its side and block it up so it will not roll and lead the foals through it. We ride though it on the older horses. Later on, we tie the "flying feedsacks of death" to the ring and work out horses that way. |
| We have the "black hole" -- we put tarps down so the horses can walk over them. We go out and the foals will have the corner of the tarps in their mouths chasing their buddies! We also tie the tarps to the gates so they flap in the wind and we tie them to the "ring of death" so the horses have to walk under the tarps. |
| We have the "blue barrel jump." We have more fun with the barrels. We lay the barrels on their sides and our horses will jump over them! We get them to walk half way over the barrels and then side step off the barrels. We even have foals play with the barrels by knocking them over and pushing them around with their noses! |
| We have "killer cones" -- cones aren't just for traffic anymore! We set up cones with strips of sheets tied to PVC pipe that we stick in the top of the cones so the sheet strips fly in the wind. We find our foals standing next to the cones with the sheets flying in the breeze and the foals use the sheets to keep the flies off them! We even have foals that pick up the cones with their mouths and chase each other! |
| We have the "trailer ride." We set our small stock trailer out in the pasture so the foals can play in it! It's fun to come home from a hard days work and see the foals race each other to see who can get in the trailer first! When the horses can load in the small stock trailer, we move on to the big six-slant trailer, where they get to go for rides around town. |
| We start teaching our foals how to saddle with a saddle pad and a soft lead rope at 1 month. At 2 months, we start putting a light weight saddle on their backs. At 4-5 months, we start to girth up the saddle, and start doing more groundwork. Then, at 2 and 3 years old, we start to ride them. We start groundwork with our foals from day one by imprinting them. By the end of their first day, they are haltered and starting to lead. We are always adding something new for our horses to "play with." |
| Proud to be Lifetime Members of APHA |
| Proud to be Lifetime Members of AQHA |
| Website Design by Tonya Spence: tecrider@yahoo.com |
| Here at the Running T Ranch Horses we work with our foals in many different ways to help them get desensitized to as much as we can. Here are just a few photos of our foals in training. |
| Running T Ranch Horses |