Training Tip: Dominant Foals

Q: Denny is very used to humans and not frightened at all. He was imprinted and we are working our way through the Fundamentals. It seems he’s pretty dominant already at 4 weeks old. He loves to be near me, but a few times he has tried to jump on me or mount me. I first noticed it when I tried to bend down to get his attention in the pen to come up to me. When he came up to me, he tried to jump on me. I was not expecting it at all. Any time I get lower than him, he rears up, trying to mount me. Are there any exercises to fix this and nip it in the bud?

A: At some point, most young horses get pushy. You are right to want to nip your foal’s behavior in the bud now. Although him jumping on you is fairly harmless when he’s 4 weeks old and small, once he gets older, he can seriously injure you. You need to teach him to respect you and how to safely interact with you. You’ll do that through a series of groundwork exercises.

I’ve laid out the exact steps to do that in the Foal Training Series. You’ll learn how to safely interact with your foal and teach him important skills such as haltering and leading. The series also introduces groundwork exercises covered in the Fundamentals Series but modified for foals.

One of the biggest differences in training a foal compared to an older horse is the use of steady pressure rather than driving pressure. Whenever you cue your horse to do something, you use either steady pressure or driving pressure. Steady pressure is just that, a steady, consistent pressure. Driving pressure has a beat or rhythm to it—”one, two, three, four.”

I prefer to teach foals to move off steady pressure first because it’s less intimidating to them. It’s easy to scare a foal or become overbearing with driving pressure. However, if you’re working with a yearling or older horse, chances are you won’t be able to make him feel uncomfortable enough with steady pressure to look for the right answer. This is especially true if the horse has been taught to ignore humans and is lazy and heavy.

I’d study the Foal Training Series and work your way through the exercises. If you’re consistent about working with your foal, you’ll notice that he’ll respect your space and stop trying to jump on you.

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