Hand reared ponies

[lil_legs]

Can anyone tell me how it affects ponies in later life? Whether they have the capacity to be "normal" horses lol. Any information would he greatly appreciated.

[Anni~Bell]

Eeeeeek

[lil_legs]

Not helping Anni, I'm trying to have sensible head on.

[BEX101]

Dancers mum died when she was a week old. She wasnt any different to other horses really. If anything she could be quite aloof with people and only showed much affection to me.
The only thing that was odd, was that she was perfectly happy having people round her when she was foaling. There were at least a dozen people there for her 1st foal and for her 2nd i had actually fallen asleep and she opened the bolt on her door (1st and last time she ever did that) and came and woke me up when she started in labour.

However, you do hear of horses with issues because they havent learnt about boundaries etc.

[fairyfeet]

I've had to hand-rear foals and they do tend to have far less fear of humans than normal foals. They can treat you as an equal and be quite rough.
However i've found that if you can introduce them to other normal foals asap that does subside.
What happens to a foal in the first few days after birth is imprinted on their brains far more than anything that happens after that time, so although hard,you do need to be firm with them from the start.
A lot of their behaviour is because we have allowed it, felt sorry for them so have cuddled them etc and they then think this is normal and allowed. We destroy their normal barriers and boundaries yet complain later when the bolshy 2 yo does not respect our space.
Playing with a foal is a dangerous way to behave, the foal does not realise when its bigger how much force it is using, how frightening half ton of horse racing towards you with no intention on stopping is.
never ever play chase with a foal it might seem fine at the time but a few months down the line, you will have a hard job changing that imprint.

[Grey Haven]

Sasca would be a good one to ask - she practically hand reared Echo was he was in such a bad state when she got him!

[lil_legs]

Ahh how did I miss that point Sharon?

The horse in question is now 4 yrs old, definitely will not have been over babied or allowed to push boundaries, the owner is wuite the opposite to that.

Sharon, your experience would be good here as Echo is just a little bit younger, do you find it has affected him negatively at all?

[eeek]

Some people I knew had a foal who was orphaned at a week old. They hand-reared her with the help of a goat (who used to stand on a packing case for milking so that the foal could reach - so sweet!). She did turn out to be rather a difficult youngster and they sold her at about 3.