Where do we begin?

I have three foals. I am not sure it has fully sunk in yet. I look in to the stall every morning and there are three adorable, eager, and intelligent faces staring at me. This is a dream that I have been dreaming for 15 years, and I made it come true. But...Now what?

Spartan (left), Dakota (center), Bonfire (right)

I am training the foals using a modified straight use of the Clinton Anderson Foal Training Kit. I say modified because even his non-imprinted colt that he shows is only 1 month old. Bonfire, at 5 months, is significantly stronger and larger than his colt. Even Spartan, at maybe 150lbs soaking wet, is 3 months older than his colt and has 3 more months or brain development! 

So, where to begin. Unlike normal, younger foals, I have to start with halter breaking due to not being able to hold on to them without one! The rescue that we got the foals from was very careful to not do anything with the foals. I actually really appreciate this as the foals are raw and do not have any bad habits or spoiled tendencies or rottenness yet! So, for the first day, I worked to get the halter on them and to teach them to lead by neck and butt rope. 

With this method, you pull lightly on the rope around the neck, and follow it with pressure on the butt rope. This teaches them that pressure on the neck rope means come forward. After they learned that pressure on the neck moves forward, we did the same exercise with pressure on the halter and pressure on the butt. Within an hour all three of the foals were leading! I have never had a horse that learns this fast. This is going to be a huge adjustment. They learn so quickly! 

7 minutes in to the leading exercise