28 Training the Foal 



have roughed it from birth to maturity, having come 

 to know their strength and having their instinct of 

 independence strongly developed, are proportion- 

 ately more difficult to teach to obey. 



CATCHING AND HANDLING THE FOAL 



It is of much importance the first time the foal is 

 caught that he be held in such a manner as not to 

 cause him fright. The common practice is to catch 

 the youngster around the neck, which usually 

 frightens him, and as he has never been fast before 

 he runs backward and either frees himself or falls, 

 with the result that he is more difficult to approach 

 the next time. To avoid this, the trainer should 

 make a careful study of the factors governing the 

 movements of the animal. For example, if we touch 

 his hindquarters, he moves forward, and as we have 

 just seen, if we touch his forequarters, he moves 

 backward. If a horse gets his front foot over an 

 obstruction of any kind and feels the pressure on the 

 foot or leg, he goes backward until he frees himself, 

 even though he seriously injures himself in doing so, 

 whereas he could very easily step over the obstruc- 

 tion by a forward movement. If the hind foot is 

 fast, he goes forward in much the same way. Thus 

 we see that pressure in front stimulates a backward 

 movement, while pressure behind stimulates a for- 

 ward movement. This is a very important obser- 



