04.18.07
Training Foal by Ponying
Ponying means leading beside another horse. As we did with our first colt Gilford (see other posts,) I started ponying Glendale beside his mom at about 2 weeks of age.
As soon as he was taught to lead from the ground (first week of life) and stand tied without fussing much, he was ready to learn. By taking him out with us on short trail rides in the pastures, and soon into the woods and on the streets, he was given lots of exposure to new things which horses have to learn.
Pictured here is Glendale at 2 weeks old starting his first ponied excursion, young Gilford and Abby looking on over the fence. The breastplate on Willow’s Bask is one I made for her of macrame, using instructions from Macrame Horse Tack by Carol Peterson.
My belief is that early experience like this is key to easier training later in life and to a less flighty horse in general. When the foal is by his dam he feels safe; it is a simple matter to coax him to follow beside; it is a great opportunity to start his understanding of voice commands of walk, whoa, trot, etc. which will be essential to a driving horse particularly; and all the while he is learning to lead better and yield to pressure of the halter and lead rope.
Glendale has been exposed to traffic, seen many neighborhood things, gone through a covered bridge a few times, been trailered several times, and jumped logs and forded small streams in the woods. His big brother Gilford was in two parades in town, his first at two months old and again as a yearling. Gil’s first exposure to the Meadowbrook driving cart (which he now pulls) was while being ponied, and at two he was ponied behind the cart.
A 2003 trail ride with black bay Gilford being ponied by hubby astride Abby, our previous Morgan/Percheron mare. (That’s me on Gilford’s mom Willow’s Bask at left.)
Take my word for it, exposure to a lot of environments and situations at a really early age, so long as practiced with safety considerations foremost and beside a calm experienced mother mare, is the easiest way to train a horse!
