Much Ado About Foaling

by Allen Pogue

Is there one foal on the way this spring at your barn or perhaps a dozen?

A new foal presents an opportunity to begin using 21 st century training methods to create a well balanced and dependable companion horse.

Not long ago the consensus of opinion was that to properly raise a foal it should have as little contact as possible with humans. Limited human contact was thought to insure the foal would learn to be a horse and grow up to be a well-adjusted adult.

This method still serves the needs of big ranches and large breeding operations whose goal is mass production. These horses are usually passed along to the new owners unbroken. The multitudes of foals raised in this way, is exactly why there are so many trainers and clinicians who specialize in starting colts. There is absolutely nothing wrong with these foals or the methods of raising them. We advocate however that the learning potential of a horse is strongest in the formative first year and can be easily maximized.

Imagine A Horse training methods, especially Enhanced Foal Training offers an alternative: raise colts in an enriched environment that provides adequate social interaction with similarly aged horses (if possible) and the opportunity to learn the skills necessary to cope in a domestic environment with humans.

Here's a short story told to us within minutes of arriving at the Equine Affaire in California last February. We had scarcely begun to check into the barn office when a woman overheard my name and came up to introduce herself. Here is her story:

Susan Haag writes:

“ When Dania was born I religiously followed Allen's Enhanced FoalTraining video. She was taught to sit, lay down, and to stay there, even when someone was leaning over her. My son loved to have her lay down and stay. That to him was the best part of the training. When she was about three months old, I came down to take her out to have her feet done. I found her laying down on her back with her back left leg, wrapped around the bar of the panel. I put her on a 'down-stay' cue, and called my neighbors to come and help get her out of the fence. We ended up having to cut the panel apart to get her out of it. During that whole time, about 45 minutes, she lay there on her back, and never once offered to move. I know that she would never have done that, had she not been trained using Allen's methods. As I told Allen, I know that he saved her life, and I would like to tell him once more, THANKS Allen."

Enhanced Foal Training includes teaching barn manners, ground manners, respect for humans and correct ways to interact that are fun and interesting for the foal. Developing a foal's learning potential and its respect for humans will yield a trustworthy horse that is most of all, safer for us humans.

Most injuries by horses to humans are sustained not from horses trying to hurt a human but because they react with fear and the human happens to get in the way of their escape attempts. If we as responsible trainers and handlers take the time to teach a horse to face his fears and deal rationally with them we are actually creating a safety insurance policy for the future.

It is important to achieve submissiveness in the foal while maintaining his inquisitive and bold attitude in meeting new situations on its own. We usually describe this as a 'can do' attitude. It is often difficult for foal owners/handlers to think of and incorporate age appropriate exercises into the foal's daily regime. It is important to understand that foals are capable of learning shortly after birth.

When education is begun early in a foal's life, he will typically not develop strong resistance to new ideas when he matures. When physically mature enough to begin under saddle training, it is a matter of transferring ground lessons already learned and confirmed to under saddle.

Let us clarify that early education of a foal that starts shortly after his birth does NOT take the place of proper socialization with other foals. It is also advisable for the handler to educate his/her self in handling and training methods for foals, as they are somewhat different than with an adult horse.

Thanks to Dr. Robert Miller and his groundbreaking book Imprint Training the Newborn Foal modern horsemen and women now understand that the horse is a precocial species. This means, 'characterized by unusually early development or maturity, especially in mental development'. As a master of survival, very young equines have the inborn ability to learn, and at a very accelerated rate in comparison to later in life.

Enhanced Foal Training gives progressive horse owners new methods to help them tap into this early learning ability.

Susan Haag mentioned using the down-stay cue when it proved expedient to keep her foal quiet when it was trapped in the fence panel.

We begin to teach the 'down and stay' during imprinting by holding the wiggly foal in our lap while sitting on an oversize beanbag. This can be done while sitting on the floor but the beanbag is much more comfortable and helps to create a useful association that we can incorporate in further training.

Horses seem to learn lessons faster and more reliably if objects (props) are incorporated which they can associate with the lesson. The basic goal in holding the foal in our lap is to obtain submission and teach the horse to remain motionless and yet aware of his surroundings.

When horses are caused (taught) to lay prone and flat out they tend to tune out the rest of their environment. We help the foal be aware AND comfortable by letting him assume an upright position while remaining on a particular spot and kept motionless.

Another valuable lesson is to teach a foal to remain standing on a particular spot, similar to a 'stay' command for a canine student. Initially we teach the 'stay' or 'stand' by incorporating a low platform in the corner of a stall using the walls and our arms and hands to guide the foal up and onto the platform. Within several weeks this lesson is transformed into a much more meaningful activity for the foal. We replace the platform with three bales of hay that are jammed tightly together and against the wall of the mare's stall in the aisle of the barn.

The bales are topped with a rubber mat and then a couple layers of soft carpet. All young hoofed animals enjoy the chance to play 'king of the mountain' so we capitalize on the instinctive behavior.

The other instinct that we use is the desire for the foal to touch his dam's nose, which to him, is the next best thing to nursing. At this point, the foal will have already learned to step up on the wooden platform so we then urge it to hop up onto the bale platform. The only way the foal can fulfill its desire to touch mama's nose is to reach over the stall wall from on top of the bale platform.

After the foal reliably hops on the bales it is usually easy to get him to remain still for incrementally longer periods of time. While he is on the bale platform, the handler walks toward the gate to mama's stall and opens it.

If the foal impulsively hops off the platform and heads for the milk before he is 'released' the handler closes the gate and guides the foal back onto the mountain.

This is a simple lesson to teach a foal but is of monumental value because it teaches the foal to control his strongest instinct and to absolutely pay attention to the handler.

Dr. Robert M Miller maintains that horses are the smartest of all domestic animals because of their rapid learning and long term memory. It just make sense to give baby a head start with an early educational base. For more information on Enhanced Foal Training techniques visit www.imagineahorse.com