Foal Care Course Still Going On
The second season of the foal course is still in action! It’s on Monday and Tuesday, each week. Not as many people come to this class like in the first season, but it’s still fun. The feisty quarter horse foal is quite fun to train with; He has been renamed Kix because of his kicking action, which he probably gets from his mommy, Elan. When we first started on him he kicked back like a wild horse, but he has improved a lot over the week.
The students practiced grooming the gentle mini, Princess, before they started on Kix. Princess was cleaned, had her mane and tail brushed, and got her hooves cleaned out. The kids, and mothers, were taught about the different parts of the hoof. Princess was patient through the process of little kids touching her everywhere. That is why she belongs to 3-year old Naomi.
It looks like Kix wasn’t influenced by Princess. When his leg was being lifted, he tried to kick out of the hand’s grasp, but he sullenly admitted to defeat after he made no prgress. Once the other side of the hooves were started on (what you do on one side of the horse, you have to do on the other!) he acted like he just forgot everything. And of course we did the usual work with him, like backing up, and using a plastic bag on him. Like always, he raced around searching for Mom, while she completely ignored him, munching on the hay with the goat kids throwing the bales down.
Kix is growing fast like all baby animals do. He is playing with Twitch, trying to dominate him. He gets that from Elan, too. It’s going to be a lot of fun watching all the foals grow up. So many animals are being born this Spring-horses, kittens, goats, and probably coyotes, too.
