This visit to Last Chance Corral planted a seed. The seed that it planted grew into me adopting Presto in 2016. I’m so happy I did and I look forward to giving you even more updates!
Update: Presto is now two and a half years old. Below, in the comments, Marcia mentioned her teenaged nurse mare foal sucking her tongue. The first time I heard Presto doing this I couldn’t figure out where the noise was coming from! It was echoing around the barn a bit but, sure enough, it was him sucking his tongue. I had never seen or heard of this before but it was pretty obvious that Presto was always looking to nurse, to satisfy that desire, long after he was past a normal weaning age. At two years old he was still sucking his tongue at random times. Not times of stress but instead while sleeping in the sun or almost napping.
Presto is turned out with other horses a lot and I haven’t noticed the tongue sucking in the past few months. With the weather turning bad here in Ohio he will spend more time inside the indoor arena. I’ll pay attention to see if the tongue sucking has gone away or if it is still there.
9 Comments
Leave a Comment
FREE PDF DOWNLOAD
WHY IS MY HORSE...?
100% Private - 0% Spam
No one taught you the skills you need to work through these things.
Riders often encounter self-doubt, fear, anxiety, frustration, and other challenging emotions at the barn. The emotions coursing through your body can add clarity, or can make your cues indistinguishable for your horse.
Learning these skills and begin communicating clearly with your horse.
Click here to learn more.
Haven’t been on FB for some time until recently. Glad to see the babies taken care of. It broke my heart to hear about Baby Doll. I love seeing your videos. The last I remember you were starting a horse named Jax. How did he turn out?
Welcome back! The good news is that you can watch all of the episode of Jac’s training here on Youtube! https://youtu.be/TO6nyP_28QA
He turned out nice! He now lives in Florida (lucky guy) and is owned by a lady who loves him:)
My Belgian/Thoroughbred mare was a nurse mare foal, born on a Kentucky Thoroughbred farm. She was sold to a family in Arizona at 18 months old. I bought her from them when she was 6 years old. She is now 16, almost 17, and is a wonderful mare. She is more people oriented than horse oriented for sure. She still soothes herself by sucking her tongue. I take every opportunity to educate people about the cruel nurse mare foal practice. I have found that a lot of horse people know nothing about it!
Marcia! Thank you for mentioning the tongue sucking. Presto did that for the first two years. I had never seen it before. I haven’t seen him do it for the last few months but it could be because he has been in the pasture where I happened not to see/hear him. Presto’s goal (with my help) is to educate more people about nurse mare foals:)
These fouls are amazing! Really love your blog- thank you so much for sharing
I am glad you adopted Presto. You are doing what I can only wish that I could be able to work with horses. My parents raised horses when I was young. I will always have a special place in my heart always and that desire to have a horse again some day. Thank you for all you do with horses Stacy.
Stacy, I love all the info, videos, and what you do to help horses and encourage others to do the same. You exemplify all things good. Thank you!!
OMG, crying my eyes out! What wonderful people to help these babies (and I’m happy that they help mule babies, too)!
Such an amazing place to visit!