The Journey Begins......

So many people have asked my how I train weanling foals  that I've decided to blog about this year's project filly. She's a good one for that purpose because she has been raised like a wild horse. She has always been on huge pastures with a herd of mares and foals. She's had no handling, so the whole process will be included.
This filly is a bay roan quarter horse, almost 8 months old. I shop diligently for my weanling projects. I look for good breeding, conformation and an exceptional mind. I've found several ways to get a feel for the mind of a weanling, even if I can't get my hands on the horse. I don't breed, for several reasons and that's another blog, but the advantage is I can get exactly what I want--no risk! To get this filly to my place, she followed her mother into a trailer and when they arrived, she followed her out and into a 12 by 36 pen, with a 12 by 12 three sided shed on the end. And then her whole life changed. After twenty minutes or so, Mom was loaded back in the trailer and gone. The filly, Abbey, had never been in a pen, never eaten hay, only seen people at a distance, and had always had Mom or a sister and a band of mares and foals. I put my yearling filly in a pen next to her, so she wouldn't feel quite so abandoned and to help ease the stress she was sure to experience. I would like to have had her a couple of months earlier, as things would have been a bit easier with better weather (record cold and snow) and a smaller youngster.  And I'd like to have had another weanling because they seem to comfort each other, but I couldn't find another that met all  my criteria.
I won't use a round pen with her, as  I really don't like running youngsters in small circles and, in my experience, they can get running and scare themselves into more running with no corners to slow them down. But the use of a pen with corners requires other considerations and the most important is the "feel" and sensitivity of the trainer. If the foal is feeling too scared or pressured, they will try to go over the pen. Knowing the signs and recognizing when the foal is being pushed too hard are key.
Abbey gets the first few hours to just get used to the feel or the panels, the shed, the hay and her new herd. My gelding is an excellent baby sitter and stands outside her pen trying to convince her she won't die. She takes more comfort from him than the yearling and for the next several days, one of the two will be penned next to her all the time. The pony is too defensive to be comforting!   Normally, my current "herd" of one gelding, a yearling filly and a pony mare are only separated at feeding time. They are either together in a dry lot or in the pasture.  Every day will bring new changes and challenges for Abbey.  She has much to learn, and she will have much to teach me!