As with most types of animals, training and correction is essential from a very early point with a foal in order to ensure that he or she does not develop any serious or difficult to break behavioral issues later in life. Here are some great tips on how to prevent bad habits with your new foal in order to prevent undesired behavioral issues.

Always remember that things that seem cute when your horse is young won't be cute later. Do not let him or her shoe on rope or nibble at the brush or even on you. When he or she is not tied to not let him or her wander around as you work with him or her. Your new foal must learn to stand quietly in one place as you groom him and handle his feet. If you wait until later in your horse's life all of these things could develop a serious behavioral issue which will require quite a bit of work to correct. A gentle tap on the chest followed by issuing of the command 'whoa' whenever here or she starts to move forward we usually cure the wandering issue.

Another thing that you should do with your new foal is to talk to him or her regularly. You do not want your foal to grow up to be a timid or fearful horse; this can lead to huge problems further down the road. Horses like to hear you talk; a constant stream of soothing tones or humming will help keep them relaxed and focused on you. Talking softly and funding can also call him a nervous or anxious horse; a loud or threatening voice or tone will simply make matters worse. Always remember that your tone of voice is very important when you're training your new foal. Your boy should be soft, soothing and reassuring. A good basic Word and command to use is 'easy'. This is a great command to encourage him or her to relax and should be used in a soft and mellow fashion. Later on in life this command will come in extremely handy when a situation arises in which you will need to calm your horse.

Keep these few very simple tips in mind when training your new foal and you'll be sure to avoid some of the most common bad habits that horses tend to develop as they grow. These tips will also help a great deal and laying some basic groundwork to expand upon with initial horse training.

Jonathan Pitts

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