Imprinting A Foal...I'm Not A Fan

Of course, I'll tell you why!! :-) I even bought a book that 'splains it very well, tried it on a few foals and watched some folks that swore by it. All in all, I didn't like how the foal turned out.

To me, God put the mare and foal together to let them figure out how to do things. I'm to be on the sidelines with help, if needed, but overall, staying the hell outta the way for the time being. Mommy horse needs to bond with her foal and the foal needs to sort his legs out to get up and moving about. Now, to my mind, why do I have to get right in there and start rubbing??

I once watched a lady put a mule foal to sleep while she was rubbing the upper gums in his mouth. Okay, looks impressive but why do you need to do this??

To me, foals end up too much a 'pocket pony', which I don't like. I like horses, mules, hinnys and zebras to keep their distance from me as I am the Queen of their world and they need to look up to me for their daily sustenance. I had one foal who would rub back on me and then one day when I wasn't looking, the foal reared up at me like I was another teeny-bopper that wanted to play horsie.

My favorite version of foal training is to leave mare and foal alone for the first three days or so to get to know one another. Let the mama horse do her thing. By the way, I'm not even in favor of foaling in a stall, put them in a safely fenced pasture and stand back! I'm there to dunk the stump in iodine and make sure that the gooey birth sack (that is just THE grossest thing!!) and placenta are out of the mare and then I'm outta there for the time being.

I realize some, only SOME, horses are so valuable that they must be monitored but for the general horse population, there isn't a need. It's a human thing to try to control what happens, that's basically it. For a laugh, just think of trying to control Mother Nature...oh, yeah...

To me, the foals that are left to Nature's way come out of it with a 'respect' that an imprinted bratty foal doesn't have. Imprinted foals are left with this idea that they are on a level playing field with me and we're equal. Oh, hell no! They seem to be pushier and swishier tailed than the foal who is left alone.

The non-imprinted foal gets to bond with his dam and she shows him a thing or two on her own. On or about the third day, I may hang a foal halter on the foal just to show him that I AM around but don't leave it. I've seen people hang a halter on a newborn and a lead to drag! Don't do this! Older horses will learn and if they get into trouble, they may pull something but a newborn is more likely to kill themselves.

I don't try teaching all sorts of things at once, like leading and picking up hoofs. Even if I wait till the foal is closer to a month old, I have never had big problems teaching them to do these things. They may be a little stand-offish but they aren't hanging on you like an imprinted foal. I want my horses to be naturally a bit standoffish and to ALWAYS keep an eyeball on me. If he's a little goosier than an imprinted foal, great, so be it. This standoffishness (is that a word?) will translate to later in life when you have a 2 or 3 year old ready to be started and is watching you, gauging you and will be infinitely easier to deal with because he sees you/me as Queen of the Universe again.

An imprinted foal is more likely to think THEY are the Queens/Kings of the joint. So, I guess if you've made it this far in my post, I'm against imprinting a foal.

Now, go hug your horse!! :-)