Imprint Training

[SpiritWind]

I just found the most fantastic bit about "imprint training" a foal. Basically things you start right after birth which can have a dramatic and lasting effect on the horse's personality.

The article was Dr Miller and Imprint Training Of the Newborn Foal

I will not link because he doesn't go in depth, as he wants you to purchase his stuff. So I'll quote the benefits he listed. After that, I think most people can easily run with what they've read. If you have experience training horses to begin with, you'll easily find the sense and know how to implement such a thing.

You can simply google the article to find it if you are interested in purchasing his product.

Imprint training can help ease handling, enhance later training efforts and reduce injuries. It shapes behavior in the following ways:

1) Bonding with the imprint trainer. Immediately postpartum, the foal bonds simultaneously with its dam and with one or more persons handling it. Such foals see humans, not as predators, but as fellow horses.
2) Submission, but not fear. During imprint training, the foal cannot escape (its natural method of survival) exposure to frightening stimuli. As a result, it becomes dependent and submissive in its attitude. The foal sees the trainer as a dominant horse or herd leader. Psychologically, this is the ideal relationship between horse and human. We must have submissiveness in a horse if he is to work for us. But, the submissiveness should be created not by fear (a predatory role) but by dependence (a dominant leader role).
3) Desensitization to most sensory stimuli (visual, auditory, tactile, and olfactory). Most parts of the body, including all body openings, are desensitized. Rapid, repetitious stimuli (flooding) are used until the foal is habituated, i.e. permanently non responsive to those stimuli. Loud noises, fluttering objects or being touched anywhere on the body will thereafter be calmly tolerated.
4) Sensitizing to performance related stimuli. Specifically, the foal can be taught to respond (rather than habituated) to head and flank pressure. The responsiveness allows control over the fore and hind quarters. The foal will lead where directed, and will move its hind end laterally in response to the touch of a finger in the flank region. This is best taught on the day after birth, after the foal is on its feet.

Some believe that early bonding between the foal and humans will produce a "pet" foal. They believe that early foal-human bonding will produce a spoiled horse, indifferent to stimuli, which will lack the flightiness "necessary" to race or perform well. This is nonsense. Imprint training, properly performed, will enhance a horse's relationship with humans. It will teach it "good manners" and increase its responsiveness to stimuli that will later improve its performance.

[dcrivers]

I have to admit some of that went right over my head, but most of it made very good sense. I fully understand the benefits of getting the horse to tolerate touching, that can only make certain medical issues much easier to handle in later years. And getting the horse used to loud noises and fluttering objects will help make many situations easier through out it's entire life.


Sounds like a good idea to me.

[QuarterHorses]

This is a subject that stirs lots of controversy. I have seen people go the extreme with this and mess with foals. The problem is, most people don't know how to do it properly and create many new problems. The best horses I have seen and been around are the ones who are born and left out on the range for two years. They have a sound mind and haven't been "trained" at an early age.

On the other side, the bad horses I have seen where messed with at an early age. Because of the small size of a foal, people cuddled with them and hand feed them. This taught them to run over people and to bite. It is very hard to un-train this behavior from a horse.

[SpiritWind]

Originally Posted by QuarterHorses

On the other side, the bad horses I have seen where messed with at an early age. Because of the small size of a foal, people cuddled with them and hand feed them. This taught them to run over people and to bite. It is very hard to un-train this behavior from a horse.

I think cuddling and hand feeding the foal is a classic example of what NOT to do. The point is to establish your dominance. Hand feeding might work during behavioral training. But if you're cuddling them, you're defeating the purpose. That is bad tactics for ANY animal. I wouldn't use that as an example of whats wrong with imprint training, I'd use it as an example of what's wrong with the "common sense" of the trainer.

[hummingbird42256]

My daughter is a perfect example of that method. She bonds with her horses at a very young age. It does work very well for her. I worry about her working with horses because there have been serious injuries from horses getting spooked and kicking and one death also that I heard of.

[Remark]

I used my own version of "imprinting" with all my foals with great success. I think it can be harmful if not done correctly and consistently and should only be done with foals that will be under the care of humans for most of their early life. Attempts at imprinting, when not done by someone with experience, can be very dangerous. A frightened foal tends to jump towards its mother or handler not away. I would never recommend a novice try this on their own.

And PS.....Never...ever...feed a foal by hand!