Foals are intelligent, expressive, and receptive from birth, building an almost instant connection with their mothers, followed quickly by their first steps shortly after. The rate at which a healthy foal achieves their first milestones is incredibly fast and very impressive, with their first day of life being their most critical learning period. This is only possible due to the fact that foals are capable of absorbing a large amount of information, and learn quickly from their early experiences.
As soon as the foal hits the ground it begins to build a picture of its world and surroundings, and many breeders and trainers like to take advantage of this time to introduce themselves through a process called imprinting. Imprinting is a process where an individual begins an intense and often specific handling routine immediately after the foal has been born. This practice stems from a belief that early contact will lead to a human-friendly, less reactive, manageable, and tolerant horse who will be accepting of handling as they grow and develop.
How a breeder imprints will vary, but most like to start before the foal is even standing and will continue the process throughout the foal’s first few hours. More often than not, this training session will include touching the foal from hoof to ear, nose, mouth, etc. The more extreme imprinters will also attempt to achieve their foals’ first grooming, haltering, leading, a lubricated rectal exam, and introduce them to various gadgets and objects all in the first few hours of the foal’s life.
This is all done in the hope that they will overcome a foal’s natural survival instinct to suspect and be wary. However the success of these measures is questionable at best. To date there has been no formal study to show that imprinting training makes a notable difference in the long-term behaviour or development of a horse.
Imprinting greatly disrupts the natural process by adding an obstacle to the foal bonding with the mare, which can be detrimental to all involved. The unnecessary stress and disruption of early imprinting can lead to accident, injury, missed milestones, and potentially even lead to a mare rejecting their foal.
Rather than taking such risks, there are alternative approaches to imprinting. Short but frequent sessions of exposure and exploration over the foals’ early months provide a good alternative. These sessions usually start days, sometimes weeks after birth, allowing the foal the time to bond with their mare, gain their strength, and begin to form their individual personalities. This collection of short sessions over weeks, months, and years will not only achieve the same successes as imprinting, but will likely produce a foal that has a superior temperament and understanding than that of an imprinted foal.