About health care

One of the most important things with youngster is health care. So ever since we bred standardbred trotters I have had a certain system with foals to youngsters, this is the period you make the adult horse you will be working with maybe 20 years so better do it properly! So as a breeder ones responsibility is to give the horse a good start. Shortly what I do:

1. All summerfoals pasture is always a clean one - with that I mean that there has not been horses the year before, it is a renewed field. If you just have one pasture and cannot do this, clean the pasture as often as you can to minimize the pressure of parasites from other/adult horses

2. Give the foals enough and often enough medicine against worms, that is by Finnish recommendations every 2 months from the age of 2 months until they are yearlings and even after this more often than adults until they are 3-4 yrs. Specifik information you get from your vet. If they are full of parasites it takes really it tall on the growth and developmend, start at 2 months by 4 months they are already full of them...

3. Check your hay with analyzis so that you know what you give and can plan how much, only the best quality food for foals (and mares) to ensure they get good protein, add proteins if your hay is of poor quality. Give minerals.

4. Take care of the hoofs at least once a month, foals hoofs grow fast, quite often good to check them even more often, like every 3 week in the beginning. This also ensures a healhty growth of their whole leg and straighten the legs. Often just a few strokes with a rasp is enough but it counts.

5. Vaccinate from the age of 6 month, in Finland that is agains horse influensa and tetanus. Vaccinate every horse against tetanus, it is a painful disease for a horse and almost always leads to death! We vaccinate all ponies by the FEI rules.

6. Keep your eyes open! I have always tried to teach equine students that "it is not enough to look at the horse, you have to see". If you see that the horse doesn't look good, for example doesn't fell wintercoat in time, looks as it doesn't quite have muscles and roundness (NOT fat) but looks dry and muscleless, is too fat etc. -> do something! If it doesn't look right, something is wrong and there is always something you can do to better the situation! But don't overdo! Very often one hear for example that the wintercoat doesn't fall off Shetlands, then you have to think why: check teeth, wormning and minerals and give good quality hay/pasture and I'm sure the coat will fall before midsummer, seen it and tried to do something to it and always been successful. Especially something to notice with foals (for example after their first winter), they really should get rid of the coat easy by midsummer, if not, check worms and minerals! Healthy Shetlands start to loose their wintercoat in January gradually, first the longer coat leaving a shorter but still thicker coat for the spring until April-May. and by end of June it should be gone.

This is a standardbred trotter we bred, Undying Lands at 4 months. If my foals doesn't look like this (well Shetlands might not, but you still see my standard) I'm not happy with my part of the job. I really think horses look sparkling and healthy if you take care of their feeding and health and do your best, simple as that, with no tricks. Accept nothing but your best effort in the caretaking of your horses!

 

It is the same with Shetland ponies in winter, their coat should be shiny and fluffy, then you know the feeding is correct. Long, tacky and dry coat is not normal, check minerals and especially if it is a foal, worms.

7. When starting to work with bits with youngsters, always check their teeth! We have now long-reined our now 3 yr old colts and Dunedain has been a bit annoyed of the bit so one can already guess he had wolfteeth. So yesterday we drove to a Equine clinic and had the wolfteeth removed both from Dunedain and Thorin. Thorin had also three milkteeth loose which the vet removed also.

 

Thorin still happily unaware of medication to come at the Equine Clinic at Nikula trotting racetrack in Kaustinen :)

 

Dunedain mediacated to be calm in the operation which is done here already 

 

Thorins teeth being fixed, he is also calmed done with medicines to make it safe for everyone, something vets always do when wolfteeth are taken

Now when we drive the first times with a carriage I'm sure at least that the bits and reins won't hurt them because of bad teeth and that makes it much more safe! And that may happen if there comes sudden moves when driving and you end up taking harder on the reins, then the youngster might be scared of the hurt in the mouth when the bit would hit the wolfteeth and run away and as you now got the carriage it can again lead to the youngster to be even more scared of the carriage also especially the first times. It is so unecessary to give bad experience of first drives if you haven't taken care of the mouth before. I would never drive a horse young or old the first times with a carriage before I knew the teeth are okey! Sadly quite often one hear that people don't care about Shetlands teeth and I've seen teeth with much problems because of that. I even know ponies with malformation in their proper teeth as milktooth had not fell off properly in time and no one had  ever checked the mouth. So with 2-4 year old ponies have the vet to check the teeth 1-2 times a year to make sure everything is okey as they change their teeth in that same age as you start to work with them and at least once a year adult ponies. And of course everytime you see that the pony is not eating properly or for example start to spit clumps of hay, that often indicates to peaks/spikes in teeth just as well as that the pony constantly starts being/hanging on one rein.

So always do your part of the cooperation with the pony as good as you can and you will get a happily working pony in return :) That was the basics we do and it has always been the same when we buy a new pony, worming, teeth, vaccination and hoofs checked.

From foal to driving pony part 1.

So there was discussion of breaking a Shetland to harness a time a go in Shetland Pony Driving group in Fb so lets see how I and probably most of Finns do it.

Foal to yearling

The best way to get a driving pony suitable for yourself is to breed one! :D This is something I've noticed through the years, then you have the trust all the way and you know who the pony is - unless you spoil the trust with your actions. Here comes the advantage of having experience, then you know when to push more and especially - when to leave it. I don't use goodies or special technics like natural horsemanship, I just build the trust with the pony from the start and always try not to loose it, I think it is called common sense ;) It is always, in my opinion, so much easier to start doing things with a foal than have an adult pony who is not used to work with people and tend to already have its own opinions of doing or not doing things you ask for, so we start "working" with ponies in a normal calm pace to reach a driving pony who can basics in 3-3,5 years. Then to talk about training a pony forwards from that, is another story.

Our two year old colt Thorin Ax showing off for mares and foals. Your ponies moves a lot naturally if you pay attention to how you draw your fences, here safely colts and a gelding besides mares as there is a dtich between but you still get the effect of  ponies moving in stead of just eating all day long, you know how Thelwell's these are...

So the summerfoal Shetlands have a few hectars pasture and lives in a herd or mares and youngsters, that makes them move and play all day long - never forget that a horse is born to move, so as we live on a farm, tiny paddocks is not an option, our ponies have lots of space. Summerfoals have their collars when their hooves are done and they get their medicines for worms from the age of 7 weeks and vaccines from the age of 6 months. I walk around in the pasture in summer (or I should say all year long) just to make a good connection with the foals and the best way to do it is to scratch them a lot, they love it and thinks only positively of you from the start! When they come to the stables in the summer for different reasons (their dam being washed, hooves etc...) we start leading them at the same time, following the dam makes it natural for them.

Jenniefer (the broodmare), Elenya Ax and Mithrim Ax happy of getting a new friend to play with.

First time their hooves are done we have them in the box with their dam but then often on the stable corridor with the dam waiting in the box, I keep the foal and Marko works and I give them a lot of scratching all the time which they enjoy. Here they learn to stand in the corridor and it is just as natural as being free, it just is a thing you do as a pony and the don't question it as it is okey to be there and be scratched ;) Often you hear questions when to learn a horse to stand on the corridor for example, well we don't learn them in a certain point, it is just something that follows in the process and you just know when you can for example start to have them attached from the collar, usually I don't do it before they are yearlings and always first attached from just one side and keeping the rope yourself from the other side. You don't want to frighten them by attached them at once, they must first learn safely that if they move there comes a pressure and then they just have to move back to loosen, usually they do learn quickly when you can add a bit of flexibility keeping the other side to yourself at the beginning and as they are used to the same logic when being lead! It is so important to learn horses to adjust to pressure from they are foals, if you don't they will get the panic the first time it happens and if they are adult, it is much more dangerous! Two weeks ago our three summerfoals were microchipped and the registrator did not stop wondering how well beahaved our three foals were when chipped and taken blood tests to verify their parents, though it snaps them a bit, they trust you.

Being in a horse transport comes naturally if we take them to breed shows with their dam as summerfoals, if not, then they usually do it with a friend or and older pony when they are yearlings and we have never had a problem with them loading or when driving the trailer, they just trust it is okey as it is you who present the new thing and they have a friend with them. Usually we taken a short drive or two the days before the trip to show them it is okey. They don't usually question walking to the trailer either as ponies are curious if you let them be - and again - they trust you. Let them look at the trailer and smell the floor and take their time and soon enought they walk in.

Foals are naturally curious and  open-minded, just as kids...

When they become yearling in the spring/summer we put the bits on when we take them on a walk around the farm and they get used to have something in the mouth. At the same time they get used to follow the human away from the herd, which they also have to do at the shows. It's usually no problem. Then we also teach them to trot and here I might have Marko behind the pony also asking the pony with voice commands to trot along if they don't start trotting with just me besides them. It is much easier if you be consist and in a friendly manner, demand them to do what you want (and I DON'T mean hitting!), because after a few tries they'll do it naturally the rest of their lives. Just be determind and still friendly and remember to praise them A LOT!

 

Colt Dunedain Ax at official breeding evaluation for foals as yearling

Well that's about what we do till they turn 1 year :) I would never ever recommend someone to just leave the ponies until they are five, it is not fair to start demanding them then, if you don't have shown any interest before. You must give their minds and bodies time to adjust to work gradually as they grow and not take for granted that they will serve you perfectly at once when they are "grown up".  You also very much must take their personalities in consideration, if one pony learns quickly it doesn't mean every one does. The most irritateing thing to do is not doing the basics properly and for examle hitch the to the carrige before they can handle it, so make it a fair experience for the pony, do your homework and make a connection with the ponies from the start, life is so much more simple after that!