A Baby Boomer Dreams of Arabian Horses - The Third Foal Crop Part 3

Part One of the Baby Boomer Series

The Third Foal Crop Part 1

It wasn't until it came time to put the Arabian horse and her new foal out for the first time, that I even realized that I had a problem. The mare wanted to run, glad to finally be outside. The colt, following his instinct wanted to run right at the mare's hip. Aana didn't know what to think of that thing running next to her and the mare began kicking at her colt.

Fortunately, the horse was easy to catch and we were able to put a stop to the behavior before the colt was hurt. But it was clear, the mare had perceived the colt as a predator and had tried to defend herself from her own baby. This was a big problem.

Talking to my vet, his idea was to sedate her. He wasn't going to be in the area anytime soon so I decided to ask the vet who was coming to my work for drugs. In the meantime the mare and foal would have to stay inside the stall where the foal was safe.

The old Indian vet (I can say that, it is how he refers to himself!!) didn't think that drugs were the answer. The problem was the sedation would not last long. Once it wore off the foal would again be vulnerable to attacks by the mare. This vet is quite a hand with natural horsemanship. He thought I should hobble the mare. It was his prediction that hobbling the mare would result in the mare bonding with the foal and ending the problem.

So the next step was getting hobbles. Eric Krichten (my boss) asked the OIV if hock hobbles would do the job. The response was any kind of hobbles would do. So Eric borrowed a set of hock hobbles for me to try on the mare.

If you never seen hock hobbles, they're a rather interesting device designed to help the horse get underneath itself better, or so they say. I think they cause a horse to move mechanically and I think they can be dangerous if not used correctly. They aren't in my training bag of tricks.

Hock hobbles consist of two leather devices with straps that enclose around the hock. The straps fasten above and below the hocks in the back. Each has a ring attached at the front of the hock. Then there is a cord with snaps at both ends that runs from the ring at one hock, up and through the bottom ring on a sircingle and back to the ring on the other hock. The length of that cord can be adjusted.

I put the surcingle on Aana and the hock hobbles at first by themselves and I walked her around at bit for her to get used to the feel. Then I attached the cord leaving it long so it didn't restrict her movement at all. Once she was used to that I shortened up the cord in increments so that the mare could gradually get used to being confined. The final degree of tightness allowed the mare to move, even run but she was unable to kick. If she tried to kick, the cord would put pressure on the other hock forcing her to move forward instead of kick.

Once it was all set up and I was sure that the mare could not kick at her foal, we turned the mare and foal loose. They ran off with the mare a bit stiff legged but there was no kicking.

Don't ask me why because I haven't a clue, but the mare thought the colt had something to do with her not being able to kick at him. By the time we brought them both in, she not only wasn't kicking him anymore, she had accepted him as part of her "herd."

I put the contraption on the mare again the next day just to be on the safe side. Even though the old Indian vet was convinced the mare would now be subservient to the foal, I wasn't taking any chances. But that was it for me, two days of turnout with the hock hobbles and Aana's first foal was now safe and Aana was figuring out what it was like to be a mother.

The only problem was that this colt had the first few days of his life without motherly reassurance. His first reaction to new scary things has always been that "Blahhhhhhhhhh!" climbing the wall reaction. Once he is reassured, he settles down immediately but I can't help but wonder had his mother bonded with him in the beginning if he wouldn't have turned out just as confident as the other Leg's babies.

To be continued.........

Sorry I didn't take any pictures of this. And sadly, I didn't take many pictures of these foals. With my loss of Image, my head really wasn't into babies. This is the one an only year I took few baby pictures.

The Third Foal Crop - Part 4


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