Last year I was spoiled rotten with our foal. From birth Izzy was calm, cool headed and willing to tolerate pretty much anything. It took very little effort and patience on my part to get results. For example check out this video of a bandage change I was doing daily.
Our 2011 filly unfortunately is the exact opposite personality. From birth she has been full of herself and is constantly testing the boundaries. For the first 2 weeks of her life she was at a foaling farm just as Izzy had been. One of my favorite comments from the manager of the farm was… Ellie is crazy. We take her out last because when I look in the stall she’s running in circles and kicking the walls. Since I was not the one having to do the chores I thought it was kind of funny.
Well, this week she came home and now all that energy and attitude is MY problem. Since I know I have my work cut out for me I’ve decided to document the training of this little filly. My goal is to do a weekly post but I don’t have a set week day that I’ll be posting. If you’re planning on following along, look for or search for “Foal Training Diary.”
2 Weeks Old
This video was taken on her 2 week old birthday.
You can see the attitude that I’m referring to. Current training includes work in the stall only. 2x a day for 10-15 minutes I’m rubbing her down. Scratching and rubbing every square inch of her, head, ears, belly, legs, leaning over her side scratching the other side. Right now this is a big deal and she is very squirmy. I’ll try to get video as I go along.
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Video taken on 4/21/11
This is 3 days into working with Ellie. In this video was the first time I asked her to yield hind, fore, and back.