Study: Human interaction with foals a 'stessor'
 

Interesting French study about the handling of foals in earliest postnatal period... Will bring this up with Dr. Allday on ATR today and am anxious for Pais' take...

FULL PIECE:
http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle....&WT.mc_id=news

Human interaction with foals at a critical early developmental age appears to be a stressor, whereas positive human interaction with the dam creates a strong model for the observing foal, according to a series of ongoing research projects at the University of Rennes in northwestern France.

The team's new findings are raising questions about the 15-year-old desensitization technique of imprinting and the common practice of guided suckling...

I personally have found that imprinting of very young foals has made them a lot more bratty and disrespectful in general. I now leave the mare and foal to bond in peace for a few days and start handling the foal at day 3 when they get turned out with the dam, I find them easier to handle with a more respectful opinion of people. I have 2 mares now that were imprinted at birth, they are both pushy, crabby and think they are on an even par with me, the other mares were not imprinted and much kinder to handle.

These are just my observations with my horses/foals. I no longer imprint. ;)

I have long been against the idea of "imprinting" foals---primarily becasue most people who attempt it are backyard morons and don't know what they are doing and eventually do more harm than good, what they are really doing is interfering with the important period of bonding that needs to take place between mare and foal....but I am also VERY skeptical about the 'observation' powers of a minutes or hours old foal....they just aren't so aware that they can make some determination of humans based on how the mother is treated....the whole thing sounds preposterous. And to go furthur....foals have to have a certain amount of handling in the first hours of their life to ensure health (treating the umbilicus, giving an enema etc.) these are not very pleasant for the foal but you know what?....they get over it.

I for one am more interested in what our resident expert has to say on the matter.

My wife told me the same thing about my kids.....stay away until they are about 3 yrs old cause I was a Stressor

I agree with you. I have found that to be the same way. I think it is detrimental to the foal's overall behavior to handle them too much too early. My trainers don't imprint either. It is really useless to imprint as shown in multiple studies. The foals don't remember it, and I think too much human/foal interaction at an early age tends to make them more pushy and spoiled, so that you have to address these issues later on...which is not fun when they get much bigger! Plus, I love my animals and don't want any necessary stress brought on in their lives. So, I just basically took up a whole lot of space saying the exact same thing you did:)

Here is an interesting study conducted about imprinting if you haven't seen it. I also think that I read a similar study to the one we're talking about a while ago. It seems useless to do studies on these sorts of things, because the horsemen already know it to be true from experience. I think that everyone who has ever trained a horse from a baby up to saddling and riding would say that human interaction stresses them out sometimes. My horses let me know when they run away from me when I try to catch them...haha.

Of course, I say this and trainers/vets still pin-fire in this country... The Americans are way behind the Euros in some things.

This study reminds me of a similar one conducted by a group of veterinarians about what horses do when something far away from them that they may be afraid of. In the Horse Industry Handbook (yes, 'the book'...sorry, fond memories) says that horses will LOWER THEIR HEAD when viewing something that is farther than 4 feet away from them. I have never seen a horse do that. They always lift their head way up and use their binocular vision when they are looking at something intently that is a bit of a distance away. But, you knew this.

I think this is it...
http://www3.vet.upenn.edu/labs/equin...igurjon(1).htm

Low and behold....

and they say you can't always get what you want....

If only horses were birds...

And I thank you.
-Dr. Skeptical

how would jockeys ever make weight?!