All 3 of the babies were introduced to a foal size (tiny! – custom made) paracord tie halter from Cat’s Tack.
First they wore it by itself for a few moments, then a lead rope fed thru the halter, between the foal’s front legs and around their girths. This allowed them to be handled and led with out pulling directly on their heads or necks. The rope is then long enough to add a butt or rump loop and/or a chest neck loop.
Here is “Koal” –
Vicki is working with him here. Vicki has purchased “Koal” and he will go home to her between 4 & 6 months of age. The girls (our granddaughters, Grace & Gwen) help a bit, too.
Gwen holds “Koal” while he learns that he can, indeed, get a drink while wearing his new equipment. “KoKo” still gets tied up while we are working with “Koal”.
Vicki is using her body here to move him to the right.
“Koal” is learning that he can’t pull back for long with a belly rope on.
Here Vicki is using a body rope around the front of his chest, too. I can’t get this to work right, but for Vicki and “Koal” it worked a treat and she soon had him leading…
Here is “Chylly” –
Vicki is holding her here while Grace (our 5 yr old granddaughter) pets her forehead –
Gwen (our 4 yr old granddaughter) “helps” Vicki with leading Chylly.
This pic shows me working with Chylly in a slightly different way. I’m using two hands – one for the rump loop and one for the neck loop. I’m keeping them loose EXCEPT when I’m asking her to move forwards (rump) or change directions (neck) AND making sure the rope loosens as soon as she moves in the desired direction.
and “Jynx” didn’t get any actual leading shots. Her head shot at the beginning shows the halter. And here she is in my lap.
This is after “Jynx’s” session and I’m undoing the equipment from her.
and she calmly walks off to visit her dam, “Kechi”. Forgot to say that her dam stayed in the 16 x 16 pen and “Jynx” came out of it to lead a bit. “Kechi” went just short of ballistic. Rearing, pawing, hollering, slamming her body into the panels and then she savagely attacked her water bucket – destroying it. To bring “Jynx” back into their pen, I had to shoo “Kechi” away and she wasn’t very happy about it. Guess she’s finally figured out (at 3 days of age) that “Jynx” is hers and she needs to take care of her.