training foal

Question
I have a few more questions about our new foal. Her mother is a 3yr old palomino mare that we an accidental breeding. As in gate that somehow came open and exposed her to our 2yr old paint stallion. My question is this. Moms growth was stunted do to pregnancy therefor she is only about 14.5 hands high will our baby be short also? The stallion is about 15.5 hands high. Neither the daddy or the mama has a very good temperment so how will this affect the filly? Will her temperment grow on its own or will they affect her. How soon is it ok to let her out into the feild with the other mare with a foal?  
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Followup To

Question -
I am looking for some advice on how to get started on a foal that is still with mother.  Mother is not very nice when it comes to you making her baby uncomfortable.  But they have to be kept together because of the amount of space that we have on the property as well as the other horses on the land. We were able to get to her and pet her often when she was first born(around easter) and worked with her some we have been able to get a halter on her but other than that we are at a loss as to where to go from here.  This is our first filly and we are unsure what to do at what stages.

Answer -
Hi Candace;

Leave the filly until she's weaned.  You can't possibly work correctly with a mare that interfers or a foal that's paying attention to mom and not you.  That's just going to be pure frustration for everyone involved.  Go ahead and pet the foal and brush it, but other than that, forget about it.

There is no 'timetable'.  Each foal is an individual and some are best left alone to mature and others are best worked with earlier on.  You have to play it by ear.  Just remember that the attention span of a youngster is zero, just like it is for a human child.  So work in small increments of time, multiple times a day, rather than a large block of time, once a day.

Basic things will be teaching the foal to stand to be groomed.  Picking up it's feet and standing for the farrier.  And leading.

I think Cherry Hill might have a book on working with youngsters, but I can't remember.  I'm sure if you do a search on Amazon.com for 'training foals' or something along those lines you'll be able to find a book or two on it to guide you along.

Good luck!

Sincerely,

Lana Reinhardt

Answer
Candace;

You may find the mare will start to grow again once the foal is weaned and she no longer has to feed her and then her energy can go to growing.  Or the mare may never have had the genetics to be tall.

The foal's growth will depend on genetics and environment such as nutrition.

Temperment is both inherent AND environmental.  Only time will tell what sort of temperment the filly will acquire.  She will learn from her mother, from other horses and from you.  The odds are not in your favor though that she'll be a 'sweetheart', but genetics is a funny thing, so you never know.

When she's old enough to be able to get away from the other horses then you can try them out together.  If you find though that she's being chased a lot, then you'll have to wait until she's bigger and stronger.  

Lana