Every horse breeder, whether he breeds one time his own future riding horse or whether he breeds commercially to sell the foals, has a big responsibility. He is the one to raise the babies and give them their first handling and training. This should not be underestimated as it is the basis of the future riding horse and determines a lot how the foal will develop in future. One can say, the handling of the foal is the foundation of the horse it will grow into. Mess it up and you might end up with a horse which is difficult, disrespectful and lacks trust in people.
So, the job of the breeder is to teach a foal the basics and instil in him the trust in human beings. Convey him that people are fun to hang out with.
Of course, the baby will learn a lot from its mom and soon mimic her behaviour towards people. Does she love to go to a person to get a good scratch or a nice treat? The baby will also come along and learn. Or does she shy away from a person, always shielding her baby and keeping him away from people, because she has had bad experiences with them. Too bad, her foal will learn and the breeder will need to take extra care and time to teach the baby that Mom’s opinion about human beings is wrong.
Start Early
So, the first and foremost thing to do when your foal is born, is to spend a lot of time with him. Start directly at the time of the birth if possible. Don’t interfere with the bonding between mare and foal, but be there as well and handle the baby as early as possible. I try to be present at the birth and will assist mare and foal directly after the birth. My mares know me very well and are relaxed with me being around. I would not want to startle them or make them nervous, but if I feel, they are okay with me being there, I usually towel the newborn foal and help him in his first attempts of getting up. Like this he gets to know people right from the beginning as part of his world and does not even start being afraid of them.
After a mammal is born, a time called the imprinting period starts. This greatly varies from species to species. Prey species imprint during the first hours and days after birth, much earlier than dogs or cats whose imprinting period only starts when they are three to four weeks old. Foals are thus more precocious during their first hours of life than humans or other predators. Their senses are fully developed, they can follow their mother and flee from danger.
Their most critical learning period takes place during their first days of life. They are not yet fearful or suspicious but open to any new input which happens around them. During this window foals can be taught to trust human beings and not to be scared of things they will encounter in their lives. If you give them a good experience around people during this time, they will never forget it.
Imprint Training
The American veterinary Dr Robert Miller developed a method of imprint training during the 1960s which has been successfully applied around the world by horse breeders.
It basically suggests that you should handle a young foal directly after birth and get him used to the human smell, touch and appearance. If his first experiences around human beings are positive, it will make a lasting impression he will always remember.
Miller also suggests using stimuli the horse will experience in later life such as a clipping machine, the invasion of the body openings (any vet will know why!), the handling of the foal’s hooves (to mimic the farrier) and to generally maximise contact with the new born foal. This method stood in direct opposition to the common way of doing things at that time which was to leave mare and foal be and interfere with them as little as possible.
Miller accidentally discovered this method when he had to treat some foals which as a consequence had to be handled intensively. Weeks later, he realised that these foals were unafraid of him and more docile and trusting around people than the unhandled foals. Having read the works of the Austrian scientist Konrad Lorenz on imprinting geese, he suspected a similar phenomenon and further experimented with his own horses in this direction to finally develope his method.
This type of imprint training or early learning as Dr. Miller preferred to call it, has been around for a long time and has been practiced by different people in different places. But he has been the first one to properly describe this practice and give it a name.
So how is it done? Once the foal is born, touch him everywhere, on the head, the ears, the neck, the legs, poll, anywhere. Rub the foal all over with a towel, tap the soles of his feet to mimic the farrier and so on. If possible, start with this just after birth, before the baby even gets on his feet.
Do that again and again during his first days of his life. Use your hands, be gentle and never rough. Touch him inside his mouth, nostrils and anus. Get him used to a syringe in his mouth to mimic the process of deworming.
When the foal is a bit older, you can teach him to accept a halter, to yield his head and neck and to lead.
The earlier the training begins in the life of a horse, the more effective it will be, if done properly. But beware, if you instill fear during this time, the harm might be lasting!
It is important, whatever you do, the foal should relax and accept it. Don’t quit too soon but also make sure, the foal is comfortable with what you do all the time.
If you feel up to it, you can teach your foal to follow you around by using a rope behind his bum. You can also teach him to stand still while you restrain him. This however can be tricky and should only be attempted if you know what you are doing. Sometimes the foals struggle and manage to break free. This teaches them that they can resist humans and that if pressure is applied, they can successfully struggle against it. I teach standing still and leading later, when the foundation of trust is strong and their natural curiosity makes them enjoy learning new things.
For me in the beginning, I focus on touching the foal all over his body, touch his legs and soles of his feet and rub or scratch him. I want him to happily come to me for a scratch. I want him to learn that people are great to hang out with. If the foal gets too naughty, some colts might try to bite you or strike out with their front legs as part of the game, I will scold them or even give them a little tap. This should be done directly and never overly aggressive so that the foal learns to fear a person. Young foals will rarely do this, they usually start when they are around two or three weeks old and become more assertive.
Never play rough with a foal! This will only encourage him to see you as his playmate and equal, not as a person of authority. It might be cute in the beginning if your foal rears up or bumps into you, but he will grow up quickly and what started as a cute game will turn dangerous.
So foals should learn to trust us but also to respect us. Pretty much like they respect their mother or other grown up horses around. If a foals meets with another horse, he will start moving his mouth and mimic a chewing motion. This is a gesture of submission. The foal basically tells the other horse “I am a baby, please don’t hurt me.”
What you can definitely teach our foals gently in the first couple of days is yielding to pressure. Push the front end and hind end of the foal GENTLY away from you until the foal moves on his own. Take away the pressure IMMEDIATELY and give him a nice scratch. Foals tend to lean into pressure and need to learn the concept of yielding to it.
I also give our foals foal starters with a syringe, so they learn to accept getting something pushed into their mouths.
What is the downside?
Dr. Robert Miller has described his method in the book Imprint Training of the New Born Foal in detail. He uses a very extensive and lengthy process, involving up to thirty and more session which include retraining the foal, touching it all over, getting him used to aversive stimuli such as clippers, plastic tarps, music, flapping pieces of clothes, sprayers and other things.
While many of this is certainly helpful and justified, I personally believe some of it is just too much and not necessary if the foundation of trust is successfully laid.
Young foals should never be separated from their mothers and restraining them has a high risk of injury as foals tend to struggle at any kind of restrain out of instinct and even a young foal can develop a surprisingly strong resistance. Other things such as sprayers or tarps can also be introduced much later and usually don’t pose a problem if the foal has learned to trust people. Invasive techniques can induce trauma and I would strongly advise proceed carefully always with the foal’s best interest in mind.
Some parts of Dr. Miller’s method are extremely beneficial and can have a very good influence on horse. But in my opinion, there is no need to rush and hurry and introduce a foal to every possible aspect of life in his first days of life. If you can build a good relationship and instill trust in your foal, this is more than sufficient. The rest will come naturally!
Even Dr. Miller realised that the term and method got a lot of opposition and in his book Natural Horsemanship Explained, he calls his method Early Learning rather than Imprint Training and he addresses some of the most common opposing arguments which had been directed against it. He still strongly drives home his point that his method is beneficial to the breeder as well as to the foal.
Whatever we do, we should always make sure that we do not interfere with the bonding of the mare and the foal which is essential for the foal’s development. If we stress the mare, she might not be able to produce milk for her baby or even reject it completely. That is the reason why a good breeder bonds with his mare before the birth of the baby. It is important that the mares trust us and that they are comfortable and relaxed around us. This is the prerequisite of all imprint training or handling the foal. With some mares this is extremely easy but with others it means hard work.
I had mares who did not trust people at all. Here, I had to work for months to gain their trust and to make them comfortable around me. And this is something which can take a lot of time and effort. But ultimately if you want to breed with them, it will help you a lot with the foal.
So while I definitely endorse the general idea of early learning or imprint training, I would always advise to go about it gradually and carefully and never overdo it. Even if you miss the time after birth, handling the young foal is always beneficial and if we spend quality time with our foals when they are already older, it will have a similar result, just might take a little more time perhaps.
What can you achieve with imprint training?
Imprint training, if done correctly builds a foundation of trust in humans. The foal learns that a human being naturally belongs to the order of being and that they are nice to be around. They also learn to enjoy the human touch and don’t fret away from things touching their legs or ears or poll. Points which are naturally more sensitive in horses.
And by the end of the day, being able to touch the foal everywhere and have him come to you is not only something nice to have. It can quickly become important if the foal gets sick or injured and you need to treat it or take it to the hospital.
Imprint training also makes it easier for the breeder to teach haltering, leading and grooming and it can even help with them getting shoed, vaccinated or dewormed later. In the end, we also help the foal as it will grow up into a horse confident and trusting in people. A horse which people like to own and have. It is not a guarantee, but it is a first step on the way to a well-trained riding horse.
Interview with Dr. Robert Miller about Imprint training or Early Learning: