Foaling season is always exciting, but what can you do with your newborn foals? Well, the answer is, not much. They need time to grow and mature before they can be trained, take on a job, go to a show, or be bred. This guide will detail everything you need to know.
Foals will be automatically weaned when they reach 6 months old. Until then, they will need to stay with their mother, and cannot be sold by themselves (though they will sell with the dam if you sell her), and they will move into whichever barn or pasture you put the mare in. Once they are weaned, then you can sell them or move them wherever you want.
Newborn foals are of course born without knowing anything, so you must teach them. The first thing you will need to do is ‘Desensitize’ them, basically, get them used to human handling, then you can train them to accept a halter, lead, and stand tied.
But that's it. The next step would be to tack them up, but, like in real life, they need to grow and get stronger before they can safely do this! To make things easier for you though, in the game you simply won't be able to start tacking them up or doing any other training or exercising until they are 2 years old. We know, it's a long wait, but it's a part of life.
One last thing, auto-trainers and auto-exercisers refuse to handle horses less than 2 years old. So, you will be responsible for their basic training, unless you want to wait until they are 2 to begin any training.
You won't be able to show youngstock either, even in InHand conformation shows. The judges strictly look at adult horses 2 years and older.
If we are talking about breeding, mares will be breedable starting at 3 years old, while stallions start at 2 years old. That being said, colts can be safely kept at pasture up until they are 1 year 11 months old. After that, they will start fighting any other stallions that are in pasture with them, and will try to breed mares with them too.
If we are talking about training and showing, you can start to train your horse undersaddle/at the hitch once they reach 2 years old. However, many breeds, especially the Drafts, don't fully mature physically until they are 6 years old. So, training younger horses does carry a slightly higher injury risk than say, a 10 year old horse.
As soon as a horse reaches 2 years of age, you may begin teaching them to accept tack or start driving them. Just keep in mind that they aren't fully mature yet, and will be slightly more prone to injury than an adult horse doing the same training. When they reach full maturity depends on their body type, with larger body types taking longer to fully mature. Here is the breakdown of full maturity:
| Body Type | Age at Physical Maturity |
| Draft | 5 Years |
| Cob or Baroque | 4 Years |
| All other Types | 3 Years |